A sad but lovely place

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Hello all. Another stop another blog. We flew into Bangkok from Chiang Mai and stayed a night before setting out for Kanchanaburi which is about a 2.5hr drive. I made the mistake of booking a room along the Khao San Road (Bangkok). We got there in the evening and there was some street concert going on which meant the road was heaving. This was a nightmare with our backpacks, after a while I got annoyed and started just pushing my way through. We got to Kanchanaburi lunchtime the next day and found it rather dead. I think people are staying away because of the Bird flu (Kanchanaburi apparently is endemic with it). However we had no plans to go stroking chickens or drinking their blood (something the locals do). We booked ourselves onto a tour that took us to some lovely waterfalls and then onto 'Hellfire pass'. This is an infamous section of the Death Railway where many POW's suffered and died. The area itself is quite full of the history of the Thailand-Burma Death Railway and is the basis to the film The Bridge Óver The River Kwai. After this we went on to some hot springs which were really lovely and relaxing. You bathed in the river for a cold bath then transferred to the pools of hot springs.
The last part of the tour actually involved a little ride on the train along the Death Railway itself. This was really enjoyable, more for the stunning scenery of the area than the actual train. We manged to visit the POW cemetary the next day before hading out to the Tiger temple. This is a sanctuary for orphaned or former pet tigers and is run by monks. It's here where you can stroke and have your picture taken with the adult tigers, which sounds a bit hairy but was really cool. It's all organised and controlled there are lots of these young Thai men that take you though by hand and think they are in control the tigers. However we didn't feel they treated the tigers with enough respect. I appreciate you have to show who's boss with animals but theses kids seemed too cocky with them.
After the stroking we were taken to a cage with 5 tiger cubs. These were just the most adorable things I'd seen (see piccies). You're not meant to touch them but I stole a little stroke behind the ear of a sleeping cub. The entrance fee to the temple is a bit pricy by Thai prices but they have big plans to modernise the santuary and have a 'Tiger Island'. This will faciliite in trying to re-introduce young ones into the wild.

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Photos

Tigershark(y)
Luckily he'd just eaten.

Baby tiger
How cute is this!

The Bridge over the River Kwai
It was getting dark but it had to be taken.