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Published: March 31st 2007
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Riverside veranda
Watch out, Karaoke barge approaching on the starboard side!
Longtail boat on the Kwai Our hot and sweaty (A/C??) 3 hour mini-bus trip to Kanchanaburi, to the west of BKK was uneventful except to note that the motorway was lined all the way by houses and businesses - so much so that you hardly ever glimpsed the country side and so had the impression of never exiting BKK. In any case, we were dropped off at our booked lodgings - Sams Riverside GH who gave us our floating room facing the river Kwai for a reasonable 6 bucks a night! This was a perfect start as we sat on the veranda sipping beers, chatting to our affable dutch neighbours and watching the sun set over the infamous river .... Then the first of the karaoke barges came into earshot: it starts as a low wail and then builds up to an earsplitting crescendo as the big party room on water (which has a sound system rented from the fullmoom parties) chugs slowly by opposite. The noise fades ever so slowly as it continues along the river, but the next one soon appears to replace it, with the added dreaded possibility that some tonedeaf, high-pitched Thai lady may have possession of the microphone. Our visit
Kwai sunset
Silence returns as one of the monstrous barges chugs away up river. coincided with the 2 week Thai new year holiday, so this was not the usual river traffic we were informed by the amused manager. Well, what was the usual traffic awakened us early the next morning and left our room rocking in the swell of their wake. Half asleep, after another night of coughing and sore throats in an A/C atmosphere, we soon realised that a lawnmower had not been started under our bed, but the longtail boats were ploughing up and down the river ferrying our fellow tourists to different points along the river.
We eventually adjourned to a delicious and very spicy brunch in the slighty pricey apple-noi restaurant and concluded that due to our lack of sleep and bad coughs we were fit to do nothing for the rest of the day. It was nearly as sweltering as BKK, but the proximity of the river offered a little respite. A foolish attempt was made to visit the POW cemetary in the full heat of the afternoon sun, nevertheless, as it appeared close on the map. Rather than become our own final resting place, we overshot and ended up in a small shop buying refreshments. There was a
power cut and all the shops were closed (Sunday), so as we pondered what to do a songthaew driver pulled up and started to smile and talk thai with us. Between himself, the shopkeeper and a helpful young customer who spoke a little english we managed to communicate where on our RG map we wanted to return to and agree a price. The songthaew (coverted pickup truck with benches and a roof, to carry 10+ passangers in the same general direction) had had only one other very patient passanger awaiting our conclusion of the deal which took nearly 10 minutes. It is a very disarming characteristic of the Thais that they can smile a lot, be very polite, get some business and still make you happy. It makes travelling in Thailand so stress free, although that is not to say that you don't get scammed - but they do it with a smile on their faces!
The tourist part of Kanchanaburi reminded me of the strip of restaurants, shops, bars and internet cafes in Pokhara, Nepal. You would wonder how it would have turned out if the western tourists hadn't started arriving in their droves. Of course, here in Thailand,
you had the added "service" of female company in a lot of the bars and once again I was glad that I had brought my own apple to the orchard. We had experienced the same services offered in Sukhumvit in BKK, but in that expensive neighbourhood (!!??) it had been even more up front and sleazy. Well, it was the Jolly Frog for dinner and a movie and then the Easy Bar for beers, U2 on the speakers and a very tattered pool table. Another bad night of coughing in the air-con followed.
Next day it was an early morning Tuc-Tuc (motorbike taxi with sidecar) to finally see the famous bridge and to ride the death train over it - jolly exciting, what! The original bridge and railway, which includes hellfire pass, had been built by allied POWs and conscripted asian labour during WWII for the japanese to have a link to Burma. 16,000 POWs and over 100,000 Asians died during it's construction. The original bridge was bombed by the Allies in 1944 and the recontructed one is a single track, steel girder monster - not very impressive!
We hopped on the 2 hour death train ride Nam Tok where
we visited our first waterfall and I nearly did me coxix in after landing on my arse after a refreshing shower. Still, it got me talking to a couple from Pamplona who had just bought 2 bikes a week beforehand in BKK and were going to cycle around SEA. It was already so hot that they had to stop at 11 a.m. each day!
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