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Published: January 20th 2010
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Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of horses galloping across the roof of our Bungalow. Ellie recons it was a lizzard, but I don't think they can get so big, so I'm sticking with the horse theory. Ellie felt much better after being ill for a few days, so had a pampersing session in the morning while I read my book on the Terrace again sitting on my swing seat. We got a Rickshaw (Motorbike with seats on the side, like a big basket) to the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi that crosses the River Kwai. Kwai is pronounced to rhyme with Sway not Cry. If pronounced incorrectly, it has a sexual meaning (but we're not sure what! Haven't found anyone we can ask yet).
There was a guy with a Leopard cub that we were able to have our photos taken with and I held him like a baby as he drank a bottle of milk. He was lovely, very playful and ran in to a restaurant at one point! We crossed the market square in search of somewhere nice for breakfast and found an upmarket place, called The Floating Restaurant, that sits on stilts on
the River Kwai. They asked us to move tables a number of times as they had bookings (they couldn't seem to make up their minds where to put us), so we ended up walking out and going to a Cafe across the road which did a great food.
After that we plucked up the courage to walk along the Death Railway that crosses the river. It runs from Thailand to Burma and earnt it's name because of the number of people who died when building it (due to poor working conditions) around the time of World War II. People say that a man died for every sleeper laid.
Walking along it was pretty scary as there are big gaps to the side of you with a long drop into the water. A little way along, Ellie wanted to give up - she'd already had a nearth death experience - but I said we should push ourselves... and we did it! Amazing!
Later that afternoon, we boarded a Minibus back to Bangkok and chatted to an Australian couple who were heading down south to the Islands. We arrived at Khao San Road at 3.30pm and walked up the bustling street lined
with stalls and shops to find somewhere to stay. We spotted a Guesthouse joined on to a Bar where we'd had a Fruit shake a few weeks ago. After leaving our backpacks behind, we picked up a couple of bargins at Khao San Road and Susie Walking street, then headed in a Tuk Tuk to MBK, the massive shopping mall in Bangkok. We didn't realise just how many floors this covered until we were about to leave - we'd only visited two in the couple of hours we were there!
Flagged another Tuk Tuk back to Khao San Road. Unfortunatly as we flew down the busy streets of Bangkok, Ellie's straw trilby hat (that she'd bought only a few hours before) was swept away in a gust of wind. We stopped for food at a cafe on the way home, but kept getting wafts of nasty smells so neither of us finished our soup/ noodles. Back in our room, we realised we didn't have proper windows, instead they were made from a wire mesh to stop things getting in. This meant the music from the bar below floated up and was just as loud for us as it was for
all the people sat downstairs. Needless to say, we didn't sleep a wink.
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Steph
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De Ja Vu
Hi girlies, well it's like de ja vu looking at your pics of Kanchanaburi, we had lunch in the cafe behind where you stroked the leopard, there was a baby tiger there when we went, well done for crossing the bridge, we didn't do it :-/ Your bungalow looks amazing, I bet you loved staying there. Anyway, not long till we catch up in Melbourne, looking forward to hearing about Vietnam. I've posted a note on your wall Zo about when you get to Oz, send me an email when you can. Lots of love. Steph xx