If we can, you can, Kanchanaburi and the river Kwai.

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Ok guys so as you know we arrived in Kanchanaburi yesterday. We have read that there is loads of stuff to do here so we hope to make the most of it. We have found ourselves to be enjoying Asia loads so far, the weather has been red hot, it never lets up. When we occasionally get an air con room, we find ourselves with the air con on full whack and us under the blankets to keep warm. Strange.

Today our intention was to see a few sights around town and maybe book on a tour for tomorrow.
We set off walking down to the JEATH museum. Now for the history lesson. JEATH stands for Japan, England, Australia, Thailand, Holland, all the people who were involved in the building of the bridge over the river Kwai and who died as POW's. They didn't want to call it the DEATH museum because it's just not nice, is it?

First we had a little wander around a monestary which was good, we saw a few monks and a few nice buildings and statues. We then went next door to the museum, which was based in a replica bamboo hut of one that the POWs used to sleep in, it was sad to see all the old paper cuttings and photos of some of the conditions that the prisoners had to endure whilst living on the camp.
We read that some were so hungry that had to resort to picking out the beans in the Japanese guards/soldiers poo poo, just to try and get some nutrition down them, after they had washed them first. It also said that if they weren't starving to death they were faced with just about every disease under the sun. All in all 115,000 soldiers died (hence the name of the railway line) building the death railway from Thailand to Burma to provide a link between these two countries for transporting men and supplies for the Japanese. There were also photocopies of postcards that a couple of parents had sent to their sons wishing for their safe return, one of these was from Woodbridge in Suffolk, very sad to read.

We also saw an unexploded bomb that America had dropped, to try and blow the bridge up so whilst the POWs were being forced to build the railway the Americans were trying to blow it up (things never change eh?) The Japanese also tried to stop them doing this by putting the POW's on the bridge whilst they were dropping the bombs!

After our very sad history lesson we went to a shopping mall, where Melissa had a bad case of running to and from the ladies room, so we got a sawngthaew back to our nice quite guesthouse where she was looked after by me, very well I think!!

When she had recouperated and was back on her feet we had a 20 minute walk up the road to the 'Bridge'. We had read that it's not that amazing to look at and it wasn't, but after reading about it, it was good to see even though it was very busy. There wasn't a train running at the time so we were able to walk over it. (never be allowed in UK) there was a narrow metal path running over the railway sleepers, a little freaky.

On the way back Andy went to see the sunset over the river Kwai (unfortunately I, mel, had had enough walking for the day) It was nice.

After quite a busy day we thought that a bit of R&R was in order so we opted for our first Thai body massage and picked a massage parlour, NOW WAIT ON GUYS, WE KNOW WE ARE IN THAILAND, BUT THERE ARE NOT ALL DODGEY, we think? It was cooooool, sometimes relaxing, sometimes painful, we were there for an hour and it cost us 150 Baht, quite cheap but I, Andy never even got asked for a 'happy ending' tut tut.

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Photos

Photo in the museum
It said not to use your camera in the museum, but we took one anyway

The new 'Bridge over the river Kwai'
Not that amazing is it? But has loads of history, eh?

One of our photos that Melissa has enhanced
Arty eh?

Bombs away!
Its not easy taking photos of famous things without getting any tourists in, but we try. This place was chocker with them pesky things.

Disco boat at sunset.
Not bad eh? Getting to see the sunset over the river Kwai