Day 16 - Bangkok

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Early start, up and out for 7. We had a 2 hour drive (which I slept through) to the floating markets, Damndens Aduak. These were really cool, all different things: food, crafts etc being sold from paddleboats, people were cooking meals on the boats to sell. It was very noisy and vibrant here, with all vendors calling you to buy what they are selling.

After this we took a longtail boat down the river through the village. This was eye opening seeing real Thai houses and seeing a man washing himself and his clothes in the canal.

After this we made our way to the river Kwai, which the "death railway" goes over, this railway was used in WW2 for transport between Thailand and Burma. We were able to walk along the bridge. So different to England, either side of the bridge was a drop, and there was nothing to stop you from falling. In England there is no way you would be able to walk along this with the possible fall either side.

Near to where the bus stopped there was a tiger and cheetah cub chained to a table and the owners were charging 100 BAHT (2 pounds) for people to feed them & take pictures. Pretty cruel.

We next made our way to the tiger temple. This was amazing. Here I stroked about 5-6 different tigers and then further round a tiger cub. Their coat is not at all soft, quite coarse and very thick. It was so amazing to be so close to tigers. The tiger temple is run by monks so there were also several of them around.

We got back to the hotel at 7 and after packing and showering went to dinner at the same stall (which we ate at the whole time in Bangkok) the food was really good and so cheap 50 Baht (1 pound) for dinner and a shake. At dinner we met a girl named Francion, and after dinner we all went for drinks on Khao San Road.

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