Bridges and bicycles

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Leaving Bangkok yesterday was a bit of drama, mainly because the cab driver couldn't find the train station. From Thonburi on the western side of Bangkok two trains a day, unpleasantly at 7.40am and more reasonably at 1.55pm leave for Kachanaburi.

Fortunately the journey took two and a half hours rather than four and a half, so when the bottom was starting to get unbearably numb, we arrived. Kachanaburi is only about 130km from Bangkok, but the train stops every minutes to let women with plates of fried chicken get on.

Scenery is of the soothing rice paddies and lotus flowers variety, with dinky little wooden rural stations and the occasional town with terrifying wiring.

Staying a great backpackers' hostel called the Jolly Frog. Rooms are fine, and it has lovely gardens on the banks of the River Kwai. Today I and some friends from the train hired bicycles. I wobbled off behind them to two war cemeteries, examined the contents of the Death Railway Museum and finally found our way to the bridge.

We probably made life more difficult for ourselves by approaching from the other side. We had to cycle down what looked the entrance to a hotel, through a checkpoint and along a dirt path to drag our bikes onto the railway track. While you could easily fall through the sleepers, there is a strip of metal down the middle for walking. The bike kept getting stuck in the tracks and the metal strip wasn't really wide enough and there are no hand rails ... Just platforms to jump onto if a train is coming. They don't do bridges like this in the UK.

At the other side it's a bit Apocalypse Now with a party atmosphere and vendors selling snacks and coconut ice cream. Slightly surreal actually. Still, felt like an elemental bridge experience.

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