Kanchanaburi - a place I could never forget with a name I can never remember. Now dont get me wrong, India was absolutely amazing, from having chai tea with the bus drver after a 16hour journey to watching men in suits hanging off (and one time fall off) speeding trains, I loved every crazy minute. But feel free to blow my little socks off there Thailand!

Bangkok was a belter and Kanchanaburi (up until a few days ago I never knew existed) is probably THE most beautiful place we've been. We're staying in a bamboo hut right next to the river Kwai. Yesterday we had our official day of history and went to the War Museum and the Cemetry and Research Centre. The War Museum is the most eclectic museum i've ever been in. There are plenty of artifacts and information from the bridge but it was like they couldn't find anything else of relevance so just packed the spare rooms with 100's of clocks, pianos, cameras, bank notes and most randomly of all - trays of twigs, and just hoped that no one would notice. Maybe im missing something, perhaps Mr Tojo had a thing for collecting big massive dried up old leaves and thats why they were so carefully presented in a glass cabinet in the middle of one of the rooms but i doubt it. After getting acquainted with the jist of the building of the bridge we plodded 3km down the road to the cemetry. By the time we arrived we were close to melting in the boiling heat but it was totally worth it - the cemetry was really moving and it was so nice to see how well kept the place was with flowers sitting between ever single plaque. The peacefulness of the place didnt inhibit James from running about under the sprinklers like a crazy dog as soon as they came on, I would've jumped on my high horse but it was absolutely roasting so fair play. We took a dander across to the research centre which had 8 exhibition rooms and about a million information sheets on every wall all of which we meticulously read every single one - no one can accuse us of taking history lightly! It really was pretty moving reading about all the men who lost their lives building the bridge and pretty worrying that I had no real idea about it until now. I'd vaguely heard about the film "the Bridge over the River Kwai" but unfortunately it was the only film ever made that we didnt manage to watch on HBO during our travels through india.

So, after getting a badass dose of 1945 Kanchanaburi history we took a walk home and planned our journey down south over a bit of pork and basil dinner which looked like cat food - and still the appetite is coming back, get in!

Jo

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