Day 15: Chapter 4 - Karaoke: Don't Invite the Devil To Your Disco.

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Last night a bunch of Thais showed up at our guesthouse for a karaoke party.

I've never heard anything like it.

When we lived in Clovelly, there was a mangy old cat that used to sit on the garage roof at night and call out 'Woooooooooowwww, wooooooooooowww, wwooooooooowww'. It nearly drove us to distraction. Even so, that cat was more tuneful than this bunch.

The aim seemed to be to sing louder and more balefully than your predecessor. I've seriously never heard anything so bad, and that includes the Adorable concert that I've still not forgiven Luke Barrett for taking me to.

This morning they're all sitting around playing acoustic guitar. Badly. After getting very little sleep, Stuart made the comment, 'The problem with guitars is that people feel the need to use them.'

Other than that, it's all been fantastic in Kanchanaburi. We wish we could stay longer.

The Tiger Temple was quite good in fact, and nobody got eaten. Although, Stuart did need to punch a Buffalo in the face in self defence.

The idea of the place is to save tigers from poachers, and there are loads of other animals there just roaming about that have been left by people who don't want them anymore, or saved from sommat. Had a good afternoon wandering about, although there was a weird set up with the tigers being taken out for exercise, and people being able to go and pose with them. We weren't sure about this, it just seemed odd somehow so we just wandered about.

Back to the night market that evening, where we ate most things on offer. There was one thing which can best be described as a cross between bubble and squeak and gyoza, which sounds ridiculus, but was very tasty. We snacked up a storm all for the equivalent of about a pound.

Afterwards, we needed something to wash it down with, so we went for a beer and I tried Papaya Salad. Which is made with green papaya's and has a spicy dressing. It's fantastic, we both agree. Can't wait to have more.

Yesterday was our big day trip, with lots of activities. We were escorted by Tik the guide, and Mr. Yuut (sp.?) the driver, who i think might have been a bounty hunter because he never spoke, had bryl creemed hair, a luxuriant moustache, dressed all in black, and had a cool walk.

We went up to Hellfire Pass first, which is a cutting section of the Death Railway. There's a good museum up there and a really interesting audio guide, with loads of old Diggers telling their experiences. It's very harsh stuff, but they're such a laconical lot, and always referred to someone elses suffering as worse than theirs. Weary Dunlop worked up here.

Then we went and met up with some others who were on another part of the tour, unfortunately, because the river was down a bit that day, they'd had to wait for us awhile. There was this one bloke jumping up and down like a bloody two year old, saying he wanted his money back, blah blah blah. What a tosser. It made lunch pretty uncomfortable though.

Anyway, they went off to a waterfall or something so we got rid of him. Then we went elephant riding again, and this time Stuart got to ride on the elephant's head. He was smiling, but kept listing to the side, so I think it was pretty hard work.

When we started out, the elephant driver started collecting leaves and bits of bougainvillea along the way, and the next thing you know, he was putting a crown of flowers on my head! I'll add the photos in later. I probably look pretty ridiculous, but it was pretty beautiful.

We also went on a really peaceful trip down the river on a bambbo raft, checking out the kids and their fishing catches on the way.

Then finally we went for a ride on the Death Railway, which runs through some really beautiful countryside. It's weird how these horrible things seem to always be done in beautiful places.

Then, knackered, we got back and had dinner at Apple's, which I'd heard had the best food in town. We weren't disappointed. Treeeeemendous.

Today, we get a bus to Ayutthaya.

Dad, why isn't the answering machine on at the garage? I can't get a bloody hold of anyone.

xxxxx

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