Man who walk through door sideways...

---

My travels in South East Asia have finally commenced. After touching down in Bangkok on Sunday night, and a couple of days on Khao San Road, I've spent the last few days in Kanchanaburi, a small, busy town spanning 5km along the northern bank of the River Kwai, about 150km west of Bangkok. The town is famous as the site of the base camp for Allied POW's in WWII working on the "Death Railway" linking Thailand to Burma, the main attraction being the bridge on the river Kwai, 5km north of town.

The town is now a major tourist centre, gateway to the national parks between here and the Burmese border, and a great spot to relax and sample the local brews for a few days! The bridge has now been shamelessly exploited by shops, restaurants, with day-tripping tourists from Bangkok riding loud boats up and down the river, but the rest of the town is a great mix of relaxing guesthouses on the river, and cheap restaurants and pubs. I'm staying in the "Jolly Frog Backpackers", which fronts the river, has a great garden/courtyard overlooking the water, and has some rooms built on rafts on the river itself.

The weather is exactly as I have gotten used to after a month in Innisfail: stinking, fucking hot days, but cool afternoons with fantastic sunsets.

In the centre of town, there is a very moving war cemetary for British, Dutch and Australian POWs who died working on the railway, and associated museum which were well worth checking out, but most of my time in town has been spent in the restaurants or bars, observing the inordinate number of hairdressing shops, or speedboats crusing the river. In my limited experience, it seems to be the Thai way that any good tourist/business ideas are copied shamelessly by everyone else! In Bangkok, every vendor would sell the same Pad Thai, or fresh pineapple, and here its hairdressing shops. Also, a crappy museum near the bridge has recently renamed itself the JEATH war museum, simply because there is another one in town by that name which is well-recommended by guidebooks! There is, of course, the totally unrelated "Jolly Good Massage" and "Jolly internet" just outside the Jolly Frog Backpackers.

About 60km from town are the Erawan waterfalls, a series of 7 falls down a hillside, which I visited on a day trip with a few others from the Jolly Frog. The recent dry weather unfortunately reduced the powerful cascades we had observed in pictures to fairly tame trickles, but it was fun nonetheless. To complete the trip, we returned to Kanchanaburi via the Death Railway. The countryside was dotted with sugar cane and papaw fields, and reminded me of home, although the number of Italian farmers was slightly diminished.

I've met a few interesting people here, NZers, Fins, Czechs, Canadians and Poms which probably has contributed to my general lack of drive to go anywhere else in Thailand in my short week here. A NZ father/son (Ian and Ian) have been the most interesting, having just arrived from Bangkok after I did, after an altercation with a Nigerian tourist/scammer which started with the Nigerian mugging Ian the father on his first night in Bangkok, and ended with Ian the son finding the guy in a restaurant, and putting him in hospital, amidst the congratulations of the local police and shop-owners! Needless to say, I was very nice to Ian, and laughed heartily at all of his jokes.

Its been a good week, and a nice slow start to travelling. I needed somewhere relaxing to get over the weirdness of being here so suddenly after an excellent month in Innisfail, and last two weeks in Sydney, and certainly found it here. I'm staying here until Sunday, when I will return to Bangkok and then fly on to Ho Chi Minh City to meet the Cops on tour when I guess my real travels will begin.

---

Photos

Khao San Rd
Yep, I got out of here as soon as possible...

Balcony View
Looking from my balcony onto the garden by the river

The River Kwai
Another view from my balcony at the river and the mountains

The Bridge on the River Kwai
See! It wasn't wood, and it wasn't blown up by three useless englishman.

Erawan Waterfall No. 7
Right up the top. I took this just before it was taken over by the rest of the group

Erawan Waterfall No. 3
About half-way up the mountain

Comments

[anonymous]

Great Photos!
Hi Warren! Great to read about your adventures so far. The photos are amazing. What a beautiful part of the world you have seen so far. Keep those photos and journals coming bro! - Meg

[anonymous]

what's in a name?
Hi Warren! How fantastic to read about your travels - I will definitely be checking in often. Funny you should mention the popular name game in Thailand. We found that in Vietnam also. In fact, in HCMC there were 2 restaurants beside each other by the same name - the first 'Bodhi Tree' was so popular, a competitor opened up a restaurant next door with the same name (but not nearly as good). If you get the chance, check it out when you're there - it's in the Pham Ngu Lau district (where most of the cheap backpacker hotels are). What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Therefore my Romeo would, Were he not Romeo called, Retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title... - Julia

[anonymous]

Compulsory
Got lucky yet, or are you just going to keep whingeing on about Poms ? Have a great Easter and have a lot of fun. The things that I kept noticing when overseas in a new place was how funny some of the differences were of how things are done by other people which are totally different to how we are used to them. Sometimes better, but usually bafflingly ridiculous ( but then these were former communist countries). Haven't seen a recommendation of the local ales and obviously looking forward to hearing of the first travelling enocounter in all its glory (copious amounts of alcohol being a good excuse for any impairment of judgement at the time). - Will Carling

[anonymous]

Wazza who?
I can't believe you paid for an airline ticket just so you could sit in internet cafes all around the world and write to us. You could have done that in Newtown. Or in Marrickville, if you wanted the taste of Asia. At least you don't get the footy scores reminding you how the broncos lost at home to the warriors. Looking forward to the next installment. - Long

[anonymous]

What a great idea this is. Stay safe and keep away from those bars! Keep in touch, will be fun following your adventures. Seeya xxxxx - lee

[na]

from thailand jolly good massage
Hey, Thanks for mentioning me in your review, but you do not have any pictures of my massage shop. when are you coming back to visit us. Please show our picture next time. thank you na