First couple of days in Kanchanaburi!!

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Kanchanaburi is really nice, not all of it but the places i've seen so far have been amazing. So much history here and the culture is clearly influenced by it, even though thousands of people come to visit, the area hasn't become a tourist attraction which is great.

Day 1 in Kanchanaburi
Anyway the 1st day I arrived I had a rest as I was exhausted from the traveling mayhem from the morning. Woke up and went and got some food from the guesthouse restaurant... well i say from the guesthouse restaurant but actually what they do is order it from a local place and have i delivered lol.
Then met a girl who is volunteering at tiger temple which sounds amazing, I wish i could of done it but you have to stay there for at least a month 😞 - we chatted for ages over how she got involved and stuff which was interesting and has given me a few ideas for the future.
Then I found the internet cafe where i did entry the other day. I found out that its run by an English guy called Stuart and his girlfriend Ice who also run a small guesthouse. I took a look at the rooms and decided to move to there place after my night at Pong Phen.
After that i walked to the 7 eleven to get some water, when I came out there was a lad who works at the Pong Phen who offered to give me a ride back on his moped (sorry mum but honestly even the taxis are sometimes mopeds and you just have to ride on them at some point) we jumped onto his moped and then he offered to drive me down to the bridge over the river Kwai (same as in the film) - it was about 2km which would of taken me a good 25 minutes to walk so getting a lift was great. He dropped me off at the bridge and said he would be back in 10 minutes to get me.
I took some photos at the bridge but it was very dark at this point so they didn't come out great, I just looked out over the river and tried to imagine what it would of been like trying to build something like that in 16 months!! (see done my history.. apparently engineers said it should of taken 3 years)
10 minutes later i walked to where the lad had dropped me but no sign of him.... 20 minutes later no sign... i start to worry a little... the moped taxi drivers had clearly caught on that I might need a lift, lol.. the good old saying of 5 more minutes (which i usually say when im half asleep) came in handy.
I got to the point where I had to leave and just as i was riding away on a moped taxi the lad came YAY!!
Got back to the hostel... chilled out for a bit, went and hung out with Stuart and Ice then headed off to bed!!

Day 2 - Tiger temple day 😊
So yesterday I went to tiger temple!! Yay!! It was amazing!! The taxi picked me up from my room.. it was like a pickup truck, not safe at all!! 40 minutes later we arrived at the temple, quite a lot of people were there so plenty of people to take my photo for me 😊
I gave a 500bhat donation (lonely planet recommendation) then took a long walk into the tiger canyon within the complex.
This place was amazing, loads of animals there: buffalo, warthogs, camels, cows, horses and birds.. and obviously tigers!

We walked to where all the tigers were and I just couldn't believe people were literally sitting on top of them and stroking them and just walking around them. I went into the canyon, a monk held my hand and walked me round to see all the tigers. I had my photo taken with some, played with them n stuff.. was incredible!!
Then went to say the baby cubs... it was so cute!! I had my photo taken with them, stoked them and kinda had a little fight with it haha.
It was such an amazing experience, I wish i could stay there.

Anyway got back to the guesthouse, met up with Stuart who offered to take me to the bridge on his bike as it was still sunny... we got there and it was even more beautiful and amazing than the night before. We walked across the bridge and a train actually came towards us to we jumped out the way (not anywhere near as dramatic as I just made it sound but good to get a little excitement going). The bridge was incredibly unsafe though, if you tripped then you would definitely end up in the river!! Wouldn't be allowed within a mile of it in the UK!

Last night we had a party as well. Had some food, loud music, lots of people arrived, spoke to a guy who runs a museum in Perth which i'll take a look at when i get there. Just had a great time.
About 12 i went back to my room, put the TV on and watched some crazy vampire film... then went to sleep. 😊

So thats the last couple of days. Today or tomorrow i'm going to the Erawan 7 tiered waterfalls in the national park with Stuart, should be gorgeous. Apparently its exactly like the waterfalls used on the front of postcards 😊
Thats it for now then.

Speak soon
xxxx

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