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Thailand
Bridge on the River Kwai The one hour flight to Frankfurt was half empty but the 9 hour flight to Bangkok wasn’t! It was an old 747 and didn’t look like it had been upgraded for years so the flight in cattle-class was not at all comfortable. A big brick bat for Lufthansa! Nevertheless we did eventually arrive in Bangkok complete with all our luggage, and after leaving most of it at airport storage, caught a taxi to our hotel. I had booked our hotel on the internet and it was great, not too flash or expensive but very friendly. (and a third the price of the Shangri La down the road!) We got there at about 3 o’clock, 26 degrees and humid but the aircon worked well so we just relaxed for a few hours before venturing outside for a walk around. The streets were crowded and bustling with street vendors everywhere and tuk-tuk drivers hawking for fares, but despite that it was not intimidating and quite fun. We stopped down by the river where the ferry boats were coming and going in all directions and dodging the huge rice barges as they cruised past. We watched as the heavy rain made it’s way up
Thailand
Bridge on the River Kwai the river and decided to wait until it had passed before wandering back to the hotel. Just what you would expect in Bangkok at the start of monsoon season I guess. The rain passed and we wandered back, stopping at a street-side restaurant for dinner on the way. (we decided to be adventurous) When we got back to the hotel we booked a trip for the next day to the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Tiger Temple and headed off to bed.
Getting up at 6 o’clock for breakfast seemed quite easy as I’m sure my body clock was saying I should be awake anyway. It had been raining heavily most of night and was still raining but we were keeping our fingers crossed that it would clear for our trip. The hotel breakfast was great and we were ready for the minibus to pick us up outside the door at 6.50. The minibus took us to the outskirts of Bangkok where we transferred to a coach for the rest of the journey which must have taken the best part of two hours (partly due to a holdup from an overturned beer truck - but we didn’t stop).
Thailand
Bridge on the River Kwai During our drive the rain had stopped, the sun was out and it was getting really hot and sticky outside. Our first stop was a little war museum at Kanchanaburi dedicated to the building of the ‘death railway’ by POW’s during World War II. 415km of railway built through hilly jungle terrain over a period of 15 months and resulting in the deaths of 90 000 Asian labourers and 16 000 Allied POW’s. Not quite on the scale of Nazi atrocities during the same time, but the blatant disregard for human suffering and life was still the same. We then got back on the bus for the short hop to the most famous part of the railway, Bridge 277 over the Khwae Yai River (which, at the time, was actually called the Mae Klong!) and immortalized by the book and movie ‘Bridge on the Rivert Kwai’. We took photos, walked over it and even stayed on it while the train rolled over. We hopped back on the airconditioned (phew!) bus and drove to another part of the railway line where we jumped on the train to experience the railway for ourselves. It was a pleasant trip with beer and cake
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One of the wooden bridges on the death railway and padded seats, and perhaps a little sacrilegious in the memory of all those who died to build it - but at least we weren’t Japanese. (I wonder if any Japanese ever take this trip?) After the train ride our group split up and another minibus took our half to the Tiger Temple where Buddhist Monks had made an animal sanctuary for tigers and other animals. (Although there are some (CWI) who say that the tigers are not rescued from the wild at all but obtained illegally by trading with black market tiger farms) It was a hot and sticky afternoon and almost all of the tigers in the ‘Tiger Canyon’ were sleeping while we were closely escorted around to sit and pet them for photographs, the cubs on the other hand were a lot more animated and fun to pet. It was quite a unique experience getting that close, but it was a bit disappointing that most of them were asleep. There were other more expensive options where you could spend more time there and get to see them feeding and playing but it wasn’t part of our package unfortunately and by about 4pm we were on our way
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Tiger Temple back to Bangkok. We must have travelled well over 100km each way and by the time we arrived back at the hotel it was time for dinner so it was a long day. A cold beer, a shower and dinner at the hotel finished it off nicely.
The next morning the rain had returned and put paid to any sightseeing we may have wanted to do and we stayed in our room until it was time to go to the airport. We got there early again just in case and found out our fight was delayed, so we had plenty of time to get our bags and shuffle our way through the system at leisure. The only problem came when I thought security was going to arrest Jac for having my pocket-knife in her bag! Instead they just made her throw it in the bin, so now she owes me a new one. Funny thing was that the bag had got through Graz, Heathrow and Frankfurt airports before anyone had noticed we had a knife! - Oops! The 10½ hour flight to Auckland may not have been as uncomfortable as the previous flight, but I still didn’t sleep a wink
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Tiger Temple and vowed never to fly long haul economy again! It did eventually come to an end though - along with our holiday - and we arrived home on a sunny day which afforded nice views of familiar territory. Once again through customs without a hitch and out into the waiting crowd.
Just over 11 months since we left and what do we have to show for it? A few souvenirs, a few thousand photos and a million memories. Met some really nice people, rekindled some old and not-so-old friendships and saw some amazing places. Visited 20 countries and drove 16030km and one day I might tally up the kilometers by rail, sea and air but really, who cares, we had a great time.
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