We should be there in 30 minutes!

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Kanchanaburi province was our next stop as we were meeting our friends there.....little did we realize how far this next adventure was going to take us!

A couple of days before we met up with the gang we spent some time in the town of Kanchanaburi. On our first night there we went down to The Bridge over the River Kwai, made famous by the film in ’57. It is in full celebrations at the moment and there is a light and sound show recreating the history of the bridge. The performance tells you all that happened to the POWs and how it was built and then bombed. The show was excellent and definitely worth the 100 baht (just over 1 pound) for the ticket!

On the other days around this area we visited the war museum - purely about the Japanese POWs from UK, Holland, Oz, US and others that were involved in building the railway line and the bridge - and the cemetery which is maintained by the Commonwealth. This was very moving as so many of the objects in the museum have come from individuals families and old soldiers themselves that survived being at the camps along the railway. The Tiger Temple was also a big highlight and we got very close to some big cats especially Mhairi as you can see. This place exists as a sanctuary for orphaned cubs and injured Tigers and other animals who find their way to the grounds!

On Sunday we met up with Andrew, Anong (Andy's Wife), Ken (Andy's Dad) and Justin. Andy and Justin were diving buddies from Pattaya (Justin still lives here in Thailand and Andy has gone back to the UK so was here on holiday). We were unsure of how we were getting there and much to my surprise so was Andy! So we commandeared a baht bus and set off along the 323 for a “Resort” high up in the north west of Thailand also where Anongs grandparents live.

Over the next few days there were a blur of dust and sore bums from the crazy roads we encountered all around this area. We had a great time up there though as we had good food, met some great people and generally relaxed away from everything. We spend a good day fishing and relaxing on a house boat and our lunch was caught by Ken! Some things didn’t always go to plan up there and 30 minute drives usually turned into 120 minutes drives, but that just made wherever we were going seem all the more worthwhile when we got there!

Heading back to Kanchanaburi was a epic journey as Justin, Mhairi and I headed back with a family we did not know and they drove us all the way back for over 3 hours! After spending a night in Kanchanaburi we headed to Bangkok to catch the overnight and the next day train to Butterworth in Malaysia.
This journey started at 10:15am on Thursday in Thailand and we were met by Kevin in Klang at 22:00 on Friday. It was a long journey (made slightly longer by the awful man who talked non stop on our 22 hour train journey!) and we are glad to be in Klang and spending time with the family.

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