Bangkok and Kanchanaburi - River Kwai

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After another gruelling (well, more boring really) overnight train journey from Chiang Mai to Bangkok - where I didnt get a wink of sleep incidentally, well maybe i had a doze for an hour or two at the very end but this was usually interrupted straight after i dropped off by Ting Tong wandering through the carriage braying loudly "yip naaah ding dong waaaah" loosely meaning "do you want anything from my bucket?" - the bucket contained foodstuffs (I presume they were edible anyway) but all i really wanted was to be left asleep. It was hard enough to drop off with the bright light blazing down - too hot to close the curtain cus needed the fan to blow on my sweatiness (which incidentally took 7 seconds exactly to rotate 360 degrees and blow on me for around 3 seconds..................) I counted to 10 for around 5 hours solid.

Read a whole book too and then was gutted when ipod ran out of battery.

We then got a taxi to the inimitable (i dont know what that means but it sounds good dunnit) Khao San Road, which felt kind of familiar. Back to the crazy hustle and bustle of that which is Bangkok, unfortunately we arrived at our hotel, the Lamphu, at 7am and had to wait till after 11.30 before we could check in. I'm not kidding you - i stank like a week old bucket of cat poo left in the hot sun and wee'd on by camels by then. i kept getting this really hideous waft and looking around in disgust to find the offending article, only to realise it was me again. ooops. i couldnt understand why sheena wouldnt accept a hug.

we went and had breakfast and wandered around.

it was pure bliss to arrive in our air con room (all the fan rooms taken, so we had to go expensive at 570 baats between us) and have a shower..............

Later we felt an invisible pull which we could not resist and found ourselves directed to the night market on khao san road again, and magically, a pair of ali baba trousers and those dodgy big plastic shoes called crocks, both jumped into plastic bags and appeared in my hand. sheena bought some trouser things too and some great black and white photos with monks in with orange robes contrasting to the black and white. very nice.

damn, we succumbed to shopping, i wouldn't mind but the amount of stuff we have has now surmounted even the ridiculous. we cannot heft our packs on alone and have to give each other a bunk up, while balancing a counter pack on the front which keeps us upright. just dont try any kind of steps up or down as the knees buckle with the extra weight and its just a bugger to get back up again without a pulley.

we comforted ourselves in the air con comfort of starbucks with lattes and muffin. aaaah.

later we hit the pub, ate some dinner and had one of the best nights so far. We met a couple, Lindsay and Joe, who are traveling and Lindsay's parents are out visiting so they were there too. They were drinking Son Sang (or whatever it's called) whiskey, the local death brew at 80% - bloody hell it was strong. You order it by the bottle with cans of coke. We thought it was rude not to and so joined in with gusto. We had a great laugh and it was a brill night, the parents went off to bed eventually and then an hour or so later L&J went too. Then we had an aussie bloke and an English bloke jump onto our table - English bloke was called Smiley, cant remember through the haze what aussie was called tho, we talked and drank more and had more laughs, then me, Sheena and Smiley ended up at Burger King at some silly time - around 2.30am i think and sheena had not one but two burgers ha ha. i just drank beer instead while they had their burgers. we made it to bed by 3.30am, not bad considering we had little or no sleep the night before on the train, i think it was the whiskey that gave us second wind!!! Smiley was a great guy, he gave us some tips for working in australia and is emailing us some contacts in Oz.

we may see him again at some point - he's been travelling for 4 years!!!! imagine that.

so then, next day was Tues, 16th. We wake up with stinking hangovers and have to get up to get the bus off to Kanchanaburi. We went for brekky at the pub again, i managed about 2 mouthfuls of porridge and that was it. mouth like Ghandi's flip flop but worse.

we got to Bangkok southern bus station and actually managed to get a public bus to Kanchanaburi for only 83 baats - its just over a 2 hour journey, and bus was air con, so bargain!!!

Kanchanaburi is where Bridge over River Kwai is and war museums and cemetaries are etc. I had wanted to come here.

We booked into a place called Nita's rafthouse, we got rickshaws there - bloke had calves like camel humps - he needed them too with my packs. Nita's was very basic - a bamboo strip of very small huts on the river, but only 220 baats per night (1.50ish each per night), it was basic as i say and very shabby, but clean. We stayed one night and then found it was very out of the way so moved up nearer to the main drag (or "strip" as we've been told it's called - sunset boulevard eat yer heart out). Its a very tatty place, one main road really along the river with guesthouses, a few bars and small supermarkets dotted along. We went to the JEATH museum - a war museum which consists of a bamboo hut in a U shape, in replica of the huts that the POW's had to sleep in. There were photos and press cuttings there and some sketches by ex-POW's and some facts on the war written up there. It was very moving actually and bought a lump to your throat. Appalling conditions. They had to work on the "Death" Railway till they dropped dead basically of disease or a beating or exhaustion and starvation.

And I thought Openwork was bad.

Today, we've moved to the Jolly Frog, a backpacker place. Its much more scenic and roomy and has a big restaurant. Nita's also smelled really bad on the river and it was starting to make us feel a bit sick! So here we are. Its still the same price and a much better standard.

Today is Weds, 17th October. We walked up to Bridge over the River Kwai this morning, its about 15 minutes walk from where we are staying on the River. The guide book said that many people find the bridge very disappointing after all the hype, but the only disappointment for me was that it is now reduced to a tacky little toy train ride back and forth over the bridge for a few baats and the history behind it seems somehow diminished. such is the way of the world. i didnt find the bridge a disappointment, but quite sad and poignant with the thought of 200,000 men dying to build it. There was also a wooden temporary bridge alongside it to move supplies and the iron for the main bridge during construction, but that is no longer there. Then of course, allied forces bombed the main bridge, which is now repaired for use. Only 16,000 were british soldiers that worked and died, there were also dutch, thais and other nationalities involved. Most of them were asians conscripted for labour, but no memorial seems to exist for them in their own country? puzzling.

We then walked to the larger of the two war cemeteries, with just under 7,000 memorial plaques and some remains. Most of the bodies had died of cholera and disease and were just dumped and burned in big pyres so it wasn't possible to recover many bodies and identify. however the plaques have names and ages and some family messages on which are very sad. The cometary is kept beautifully with plants between each plaque and nicely lawned throughout. There was a wreath of red poppies on the stone memorial with a card on for someone's grandad who had died.

We then walked back to the Jolly Frog and booked a day out tomorrow at waterfalls, hot springs, and also to see Hellfire Pass (more of the Death Railway) and lunch etc, so we have to be ready for 8am tomorrow, groan.

We treated ourselves to a massage before dinner. Well, i say treated..............after our nice relaxing massage in the jungle last time on our trek, we had a bit of a shock. it was a lot more vigorous and darn painful!!! i made a few squeaks and this seemed to delight my masseuse who was a crazy woman trying to bend me in inhuman ways and poking her very sharp fingers down to the bone! it was very beneficial im sure but i aint letting them get their particular hands on my poor old battered bod again. i feel like ive been put through a mangle.

Thursday 18th

Went to a waterfall today, then hot springs, then Hellfire Pass, another part of the Death Railway which is famous for being a very difficult part of the railway for the POW's to build as they had to cut through solid rock with mainly hand tools, and again many died in doing this. It was so called as they worked round the clock, and they were malnourished working round the clock by fires, the POW's called it Hellfire Pass. The museum was excellent and had lots of information and film and photos, and we walked along the actual Pass and memorial stone. Very moving. Followed by a ride on a part of the Death Railway a bit further away on the train, as we were waiting to board the train i got a bloody migraine and my eyesight went so i didn't see any of it! it was about half an hour ride which i spent with my head in hands trying to block out the light. Thankfully, it was the end of the day and we then got on the minibus back to Jolly Frog. Luckily it wasn't a severe migraine and after painkillers and a lie down I've come out for dinner and now a blog.

Tomorrow we get a bus back to Bangkok at 3.20pm, 2 hours to Bangkok, then a taxi to Hua Lamphong station for our train to Surrathani (overnight again - groan, another 12 hours or so), then we have a bus ride and ferry to KHO PHANGAN at last!! cant wait to get to the island...............2 more sleeps!!! yipppeeee.

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Photos

Grand Palace
small part thereof

Grand Palace
there was lots of it, too much to put all on........

Joe and Lindsay
friends we made in pub! drank whiskey til we dropped

Riding in our rickshaws
Not as hairy a ride as ours in Nepal Kit!!!

Downtown Kanchanaburi
by Nita's - too far from the main "strip!"

Jeath Museum
This was typical bamboo hut the prisoners had to live in, each had 2.5 foot of space

Comments

[Mr Brian Lewis]

Millipede air taxis
This journey is false. The Estelle depicted in these photographs is obviously a composite entity created from old magazine cuttings. The shadows are all wrong, a familiar sign. The proportions of the Grand Palace are at least 30% mistaken and the greens of the landscape have been added with crayon. The real Estelle is living under a railway bridge near Didcot with a laptop and some cans

[kit]

LOL
get sh*tfaced on a shoestring hahahaha love it x

[Rich]

SangSom
Ahhh you finally found it, the sacred sangsom with thai red bull, pure rocket in a glass, got me into many a pickle! Glad you enjoyed Pai, nice isn't it? Where you staing on Phan Ngan? When it gets hotter try staying at Bottle beach on the north end, it's probabaly sgut for the next 5-6 weeks though, Have fun guys, not too many changs now and stay away from the full moon parties, they're not for responsible adults!