After a hectic morning in Bangkok sorting a new camera I headed west in Northern Thailand to Kanchanaburi. I hung out with Paul - a well traveled Irishman! I stayed at Bamboo House where the Thai guest house host had a London ascent to her English and ended every sentance with "innit!". Needless to say we got on well I enjoyed laughing and poking fun at her crazy ascent! We trekked up the Erawan Falls in the National Park- there are about 7 waterfalls in total walking up a mountain for about 45 minutes. Hundreds of fish populated the various pools where you can swim and slide down some waterfalls too. Kanchanaburi is home to the famous Bridge over the River Kwai which I could see from my floating hut which was home for 3 days - back wash from boats made the hut move around in the mornings! The Kwai Museum documents that 100,000 POWs died in its original construction. The Japanese created the bridge in order to create a trade route to Burma to get to Allied occupied India at the time. When the Allies bombed the bridge in 1947 ( er I think!) the Japanese made the POW's stand waving on the bridge. Needless to say the bridge was still bombed and the River Kwai was red with blood and dismembered bodies for days afterwards - it's pretty thought provoking to be there. There are hundreds if not thousands of graves in the cemertery now a tourist point. From the historic photos it appears some POWs stayed in huts not to similar to mine as well as prison railway carriages.. There are pieces of the original track in the museum. Chilled with some elephants here too and watched one slam dunk a basket ball!. A Thai elephant trainer has a job for life and forms a special bond with these magnificent creatures - the elephant will of course out live it's keeper. The highlight of being here for me was The Tiger Temple - they are Chinese tigers and the story goes that an orphaned cub barely alive was taken to a forest Monastery and welcomed by the Abbot- Pra Acharn Phusil ( pictured with me in the photo album) who saved him from certain death. Since then more orphaned tigers have found refuge in his care- now there are 16 and they are breeding. The plan is to introduce the newly borns back into the wild and create a sanctuary - people volunteer from all over the world to assist in their care and wash them!. I saw the Abbot place a tiger on a little girl - she looked pretty scared! Call me crazy but - I had to do it too so being a cheeky so and so I asked the Abbot. It was such a crazy experience - the tigers heads are huge and really heavy - the one on my lap was called Techo - which means fire - only looking back at the photos do I realize how close my hand was to tiger teeth! The heavens opened later and one of my distinct memories is a girl running with a tiger on a leash and having to hide up - basically you don't stand infront of tigers! What an amazing day huh Paul?