Quick final entry from Kanchanaburi, ahead of our bus back to Bangkok from where we will be catching the overnight bus up to Chiang Mai.....lovely! So yesterday we finally got to go on our trip, much to our relief! It was a long day, but a good one. First stop was the amazing Erawan National Park, to go to the Erawan Waterfall. It is basically one incredibly long waterfall, divided up into 7 main tiers that go for over 2 kilometres. We decided to head up to the top and then work our way down. Big mistake! We'd asked our guide if we needed proper shoes, or whether flip flops would be ok, and she told us flip flops would be fine, it wasn't that difficult. She was wrong! Flippers were ok for the first 3 levels, but after that it was as much climbing and scrambling as walking, and flip flops were just not enough! For some reason though, we persevered, and we made it to the top. I never knew it was possible to be that hot and sweaty, and all I could think of was jumping in the waterfall when we got there! The water was so refreshing, and the waterfall was beautiful....the only problem was the unusually large number of fish in such a small place! They were everywhere, some of them were quite big and almost all of them seemed to like the taste of humans! Now, these were not painful or bleeding bites like the ones I got at the Great Barrier Reef, but it was a slightly freaky feeling! Once we'd swum in the top waterfall we had to start making our way down or run out of time, so we decided just to swim in the bottom layer and miss out the rest. Unfortunately, when we got there, the fish were enormous! They were hovering in all the shallow areas, and as soon as I so much as dipped a toe in they all came swarming over! Sarah managed to avoid them by sitting in the overflow, but I was determined to swim, so devised a strange, neck-risking strategy of clambering over the slippery rocks to slightly deeper waters where I could just leap in and avoid the fish! This I did, and it was worth it for the swim, although I did feel a bit daft when I spotted another chap just slip down a big log into the water - no clambering involved. Should probably have done that instead! After lunch at the waterfall we headed off to the Elephant Camp, where we dropped most of the bus to go Elephant trekking, before we set off for the Hellfire Pass, one of the most infamous stretches of the Death Railway. The pass, and the museum accompanying it, are extremely well presented and the information is very interesting, if a little bit on the sad side. Unfortunately, because we had to go back and pick up the Elephant trekkers, we were rushed round the museum and the pass at warp speed by our guide. Not so bad in the nice, air conditioned museum, but a bit more strenuous going up and down the hundreds of slippery steps to the pass! I didn't think I was going to make it at one point! Everything we saw and heard was very interesting, and I'm only sorry we didn't get a proper chance to explore. After we picked up the Elephant trekkers we got to go on the actual Death Railway itself, just a short journey along a section of track still in use. We were on the wrong side to see the river properly, but it was still a good little trip. And then final stop for the day was at the Bridge over the Rive Kwai - we'd been to visit the day before but it was still good. Glad we'd been to the Death Railway museum already though, as the guides weren't exactly forthcoming with information!! So after a long day, we were pretty exhausted, and of course, dying for a shower. We don't have hot water in our room but for once I couldn't care - it was the most refreshing shower ever! We had dinner with a girl we'd met on the trip, then headed off for an early night - rock and roll, I know! But the night before we'd been to watch Italy's devastating victory over Australia in the World Cup and I don't think our nerves could have taken any more!! So thats it for the moment - not so quick after all! Next entry will be from Chiang Mai where we've signed ourselves up for the 2 day trek....though after yesterday I'm wondering if this is such a good idea!!