sawadeeka!

---

Wow! well hello there from Amy's travels! I have been in Thailand for a week now- but I'll bring you up-to-date on what I've been up to.

Well, after a long flight here to Bangkok we found ourselves on the bus from the aIrport to the Kao San Road (KSR), and found our accommodation quite easily. As we had arrived in the evening we got changed freshened up etc and then headed out onto the KSR.well what a feast for all the senses, especially for someone who has not been this far away from home or in this part of the world before! Tuk-tuk drivers and sales people are constantly coming at you- after a few days it actually became quite draining!

However, we were loving every minute! We organised for a travel agency to get us our visas for our nexts stops; Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia (apparently this is the easiest way to do it) and they weren't going to be back until the following Tuesday. So, Like and I decided we would get out of BKK for the weekend. So next stop, Kanchanaburi, which is about 2hours NW of BKK. We stayed at this adorable little GH, where outside our room seemed to be the local neeting point for red ants! We booked a one-day tour here to go and see the local sights. The Erawan Falls are a 7 tiered waterfal set in a stunning National Nature Park, where yo hasve to walk up to 2200m to get to tier no . Absolutely amazing, and we got to go swimming in the waterfall pools which was awesome. Next stop, after lunch as everyone was ravenous, was to the Death Railway and Kasae cave (used as a bomb shelter in WW2, and houses a Buddha statue now), which is where 700 WW2 POW's died making the railway from Burma to Thailand for the Japanese. Very sad- they are all buried and commemorated now in cemetaries around the area. After this stop, Luke and I separated from the group as we wanted to go to the Tiger Temple, which is where Buddhist monks have taken in wounded and orphaned animals. But it is famous because the tigers roam freely in Tiger Canyon- we actally got to stroke them and sit with them. Quite a scary experience but just incredible. One tiger got a bit crabby and the Monk just laid his hands on the tiger's head, said something to the tiger and that seemed to sort him out! Just amazing! And also there were 4 baby cubs who were just adorable! After this we rejoined the group and headed to the Bridge Over the River Kwai.

Once back in BKK (to pick up our visas) we sorted out our trip up north to Chang Mai, Thailands 2nd city, as this is the way we are coming to eventually get to Laos. We arrived this morning at 6am on our overnight bus- knackered, but nice change of scenery. And that brings us to today. Wandered around the local market- bought a tshirt for 70 baht- whcih is about a pound! crazy! Anyway- here we have arranged to go on a three-day trek into the jungle which invoves (lots of trekking obviously), staying with the Karen Hilltribes who live in that area for two nights, riding on elephants (not sure how i feel about that yet!) and also seeing the waterfalls and jungle area. It will be in an area where no other tourists go apart form this tour we are going with, and it is apparently like going back in time, as they have preserved their way of life so well. We are going with a very cuturally and environmentally conscious organiser, so I think my anthroplogy and geography lecturers would be proud! Can't wait- should be an amazing experience.

---