Our Journey North

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Hello all, hope you are well

We had one night in Bangkok after Hong Kong before getting the bus to Kanchanburi. Its where the bridge over the river kwai stands. During the 2nd world war 300k prisoners of war & asian labourers worked on building the bridge & because of the poor conditions, malnutrition etc, over 100k died. It was quite a moving place. The idea was conceived by the Japanese after allies blocked the sea routes in 1942. It only took 6 months to complete. We also visited the war cemetary & saw many english, dutch, australian & thai graves. Many of them died just a few days before the war ended & all so young. Enough to make anyone feel choked.

We stayed in a guest house for very little & the food was incredibly cheap too. We were eating dinner & drinks for under 3 pounds for both of us & the guest house was only 7 pounds per night. It also had a pool.

The only organised trip we did was to the tiger temple. It started off in 1994 when am injured wild boar was brought into the grounds. More & more animals kept wandering into their grounds & the locals got to hear of their work. In 1999 someone brought in a tiger cub for them to rear. Its mother had been killed by poachers. Soon it became a sanctuary & they now have around 10 fully grown tigers & 8 cubs, All hand reared & tame. They want to try to release some back to the wild, but its difficult because of the handling from birth. So they are now keeping a pregnant mum away from human contact in the hope that she will teach her cubs to become independent & hunt for themselves. Maybe then they could go back to the wild. I hope so. A wonderful afternoon.

After 2 nights in Kanchanaburi, we tried to get a bus North towards Chiang Mai, but no such luck. They originally told us that we would need to go back to Bangkok & then train from there. Eventually, we managed to get a bus to Suphanburi, change & then another bus to Ayutthaya. Nearly 5 hours in the most uncomfortable seats imaginable. The Thais are so tiny, there was no leg room. Glad to get off.

We did a historical tour in a tuk tuk with Kwanjai & her husband & 2 children of the many temples & buddhas in the area which was excellent. She really looked after us. In 1 temple, they have a pot of sticks with numbers on them. You kneel in front of Buddha & shake the pot until a stick falls out. It has a number which represents your fortune. Mine was number 26 & part of my fortune was that pregnancy will produce a baby girl. We shall have to wait & see??

After 2 nights in Ayutthaya, we caught a train to Chiang Mai. It took 10 hours, but was quite comfortable. Chiang Mai is quite small, yet has nearly as many temples & wats as Bangkok. We walked around the city today & saw some of them. All very beautiful. Its too hot to do too much.

Tomorrow we fly to Kuala Lumpur for 2 days & then hope to find a nice beach resort to chill for a week or so.

Thats all our news for now.

xxx

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