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Published: August 28th 2014
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Cows
We're not in Bangkok now! Cows blocking the road. Jo and I were not about to mess with them on rental bikes. The hotel arranged our taxi as we checked out so we missed the usual fun and games of getting a driver prepared to use the meter. Victory Monument was the destination as we were advised that this was the place to book a bus to Kanchanaburi. There were no signs in English at all but a tout pointed us in the right direction.
I was about to buy two tickets at THB120 each when I was told that we needed a ticket for our bag also.
"Why would I do that?", I asked.
Silence...
We walked to the ticket counter next door and forked out THB120 per ticket with the bag travelling free. Within 10 minutes a mini-van rolled up and we were on our way on the two hour journey.
Kanchanaburi lies around 130 kilometres west of Bangkok and is best known as being the home of the Bridge over the River Kwai. The bus station is a few kilometres from the tourist part of town and our accommodation at Kanpura Hotel was another few kilometres further again. We caught a tuktuk at THB150 (NZD6) and pulled into our rather pleasant digs for the next
few nights around ten minutes later.
We checked in and enquired about renting motorcycles. The friendly staff told us to come back to reception after we had settled in and they would sort something out for us. One of the staff was commissioned to take us to a rental place on the hotels private tuktuk and we were treated to a short tour of the town on the way.
Motorcycle rental was THB200 (NZD8) for 24 hours and we signed up for 48 hours, allowing us enough time to use the bikes after checkout from the hotel on the final morning and the chance to find our way out of town in a few days time. We followed the tuktuk back to Kanpura Hotel then headed back into town to see the famous bridge.
We declined the opportunity to take a small gaudy multi-coloured train across the bridge but walked along it and took photos from one side.
Around a kilometre away is the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre Museum where two floors of models, photos, displays and text explain the harsh conditions that POWs had to endure during the Japanese ordered building of the "Death Railway" from
Burma to Thailand.
We missed the kick-off of the All Blacks v Wallabies Bledisloe Cup match at the Aussie Rules Bar but sat through the game from about 15 minutes in. The South African referee missed what would have been a good game although the 12-12 result was probably a fair outcome. The gathered Australian ex-pats gave us the expected grief - a draw was as good as a win as far as they were concerned and they were probably right - I felt as though a draw was a loss.
After an entree of meat of unknown origin from a stall next to the bridge we rode to a restaurant on the tourist strip where my chilli clams at THB120 (NZD5) were excellent.
We rode the bikes back to the Kanpura Hotel through light rain having missed a short downpour while eating.
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