We woke up 3 times in the early hours of Friday morning, both concerned we'd oversleep again. We got up at 6.30am to the harassment of my alarm, dressed and packed for the days activities. We walked down to Tara B&B on the high street as we wanted to have a good breakfast before we got picked up. Funnily enough, we both had the same attitude: please, no noodles! We were both in the mood for a real English: eggs, bacon & toast (we weren't going to push our luck with baked beans). We knew that the B&B sold western food as we'd seen it on the menu the first evening we were here, our breakfast was nothing short of heavenly, even though my bacon was the sliver of a thought and Edd got the tiniest sausage I've ever seen in my life! I also ordered a coffee and got milk in a shot glass, after pouring the milk rations into my coffee, I discovered a dead mosquito at the bottom of the glass. Edd's comment: 'just think of it as extra protein, think of anything here you wouldn't normally eat, extra protein.' We sat and listened to a group of expat-60-something-year-old-men speaking about investments. Some were American and some were English, none were wearing wedding rings and all were too tanned to just be here on holiday. It was a strange collection of people and we imagined up a number of scenarios about their lives.

8am came and so did our mini bus taxi; we tried to get on board the bus but it was parked right up next to the curb with electricity wires dangling down to waist height and a couple standing in front of the door, blocking the way as they sucked furiously on their cigarettes. I wondered how Darwin might explain away their lack of logic and common courtesy in his theory of evolution - nobody else on the bus smoked and yet there they were filling it with their fumes. Edd had made an interesting observation a few days earlier, we had not seen a single Thai person smoke; either they only did so in private, the ones we saw could not afford it, or it was not really the done thing in their Buddhist culture. We haven't figure out which of the above is the answer, but we will get to the bottom of the mystery.

1 hour later we were at Erawan National Park in Kanchanaburi Province; we had until 12.30pm to walk up to the 7 waterfalls if we wanted, or just hang out at any of the falls lower down. Our tour guide, Ann, told us it was a 2km hike up a mountain to the top fall, which took an hour, but she didn't think the waterfall was flowing as last years rainy season had not seen the usual amount of rainfall. I explained to Edd that I had not mentally prepared myself for a hike up a mountain and the only way he'd get me up there was if I was choppered in. We agreed to see how we got on.

We were greeted by a sign at the bottom of the path that said: 'Take only memories, leave only footprints' as well as pictures of how you should conduct yourself on the hike, i.e: respect the culture and wear clothes (no budgie smuggling or bikini hiking allowed). We had to pay a deposit for our 2 bottles of water - 20 Baht each, at the second waterfall, sign a book and get our bottles numbered. If we had any food we had to leave it behind and collect it later. The Thai were hell bent on no rubbish being left behind in their National Park - good for them.

The first 3 falls were already busy with tourists that were as uninterested as I was to hike up the side of a mountain in stupid-degree weather. We got to the 4th waterfall and decided to set up there for a swim. We just bug sprayed, as the forest canopy completely covered the pool and Edd jumped straight in. He has a 'do now, think later' approach to most things in life, so I was not surprised. He took our new camera in the water with him and swam around with the lanyard hooked to his wrist for a while. He kept squealing whenever the fish took a nibble at him, as it tickled, which put me off a bit. Actually, a lot. The man-eating fish were rather large and I hadn't penciled getting eaten by fish into my diary for the day. He went quiet for a second too long and his face went serious... Holding his arm up, all that dangled from it was the lanyard; the camera had come loose and had sunk to the bottom of the pond. I moved around to perch myself on top of some higher rocks and couldn't see anything. After about 5 minutes, he spotted it at the bottom and dived about 3 1/2 metres down to get it. The fish followed: they either all thought it was a game, saw more of him to munch, or thought he was giving himself up as a sacrifice. Whichever one it was, every single fish it in that pond swam towards him. That was me done. Get out, we're hiking further up.

The 5th pond was significantly more Lauren-friendly. I didn't have to go anywhere above my waist and there were a lot of quick exists. I kept my shoes on as the bottom of the ponds were icky and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Beautiful blue pools (with small fish) joined the waterfalls that were dotted all the way up the side of the mountain at level 5, and we climbed up the rocks to explore what else was there. This is quite typical of us, instead of setting up at the top pond and working our way down the different falls, we set up at the bottom and climbed up. We were salmon swimming up stream, literally. There was a deeper pool further up that I accidentally slipped into and immediately climbed on Edds back. I continued kicking my legs while I held onto him as I figured it was harder for the big fish to eat a moving target.

We still had an hour and a half to kill, so decided to see how hard it was to get to the top. At level 6, Edd had to jump in one of the pools as he'd had a negative reaction to the bug spray suddenly and was going red all over. He washed it off and we both put sun cream on - the forest canopy wasn't as dense here and we were getting more and more exposed to the sun. His reaction stopped and we continued to level 7.

Now, I've hiked up Skeleton Gorge and done Crystal Pools in Cape Town, South Africa. On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd put Skeleton Gorge at a 9 and Crystal Pools at an 8. It was incredibly hot the day I hiked them, so I'd recommend cooler weather; I'd also add in that they aren't designed for the unfit, if you know what I mean. I'd rank Erawan Falls at about a 4-5. It wasn't very easy, but it wasn't terribly hard either. You could definitely do it if you weren't fit, but had good hiking shoes.

We got to the 7th level and were blown away by it's beauty. The rocks were all limestone, but the 7th level had white algae growing on them, which not only meant you couldn't really see them, but it also meant that the water was a luminescent blue. Definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life. We climbed in for one last swim and slid around the slippery rocks. We couldn't have come this far to not climb in, but make no mistake: in wasn't a graceful entry, or exit. We sat at the bottom of the first waterfall that fed all of the other waterfalls we had just visited and felt like we were sitting at the beginning of the world! We wished we'd gone there sooner, but had to get back for 12.30pm and with only half an hour to go, we had to basically run back down the mountain to get back. We managed to only get back at 12.45, shovelled some food down and hop in the mini bus for the next activity: elephant riding.

We got to the elephant camp about 20 minutes later and climbed on top of an old girl I nicknamed 'Baobab.' Edd spent most of the first 10 minutes wanting to climb off, but then got used to it and settled in. We were taken down to the river where the elephants got in to about the tops of their tummies and they played around a bit. It was so hot, I was glad she had a chance to cool off. We were then taken to an open field where the 'driver' climbed off and Edd was asked if he wanted to climb onto her neck. He got some trunk loving from the other tourist's elephant and we all had a good laugh. He spent the next 5 minutes complaining that his family jewels were getting crushed, but managed to get comfortable and commented that it was much comfier there, than on the seat I was still sitting on. The whole ride lasted about half an hour. We got back and were then whisked off by another little Thai man who led us back down to the river to go Bamboo Rafting. A long tail boat pulled us up river, turned us around, and then left us to float back down the way we came. We were offered the opportunity to jump in the River Kwai and the 2 guys that were on the tour with us (not the smokers), obliged. Edd and I had seen previous hostels dump their sewerage straight into the river and decided swimming in it was not on our to-do list.

We got back to the camp, tipped Baobabs 'driver,' said good-bye to the old girl and left for the train station. We got there in under 10 minutes and had a 40 minute wait for the train that arrived at 4.05pm. We walked along the railway track to the wooden bridge that was built by POW's in WWII. We ventured into a cave that they used as a hospital for the POW's and tried to wrap our heads around what it would have been like to be captured, taken to a country where you didn't speak the language and used as a slave to build a long wooden bridge for a railway track in ridiculous temperatures, under even worse conditions.

A little while later, the train arrived and we climbed aboard; it felt like we'd stepped back in time about 60 years. Massive open windows, wooden benches and a metal outer that looked like it had been manufactured in the 18th century. We passed by beautiful countryside and farmland and jumped off 25 minutes later. Last stop: River Kwai bridge.

I managed to have a 15 minute power nap on our way back and felt distinctively refreshed after the long and eventful day we'd had. The River Kwai bridge was magnificent even if I lacked the background knowledge to understand its true significance. Our camera had died at this point and we resorted to my phone to take the last few snaps of this iconic bridge. Edd attempted to haggle with a vendor for a hat he really liked but met his match - Thai style. She took the hat off him and waved him goodbye. He paid her the asking price and left, defeated.

We got back and went to the B&B for a swim in the pool. We ordered our dinner, to-go, and had G&T's on the balcony wanting to watch the sunset. Clouds came over in the distance and we were entertained by a lightening storm instead (no thunder, no rain). We were completely exhausted and knew tomorrow would be met with some seriously stiff muscles, but it had been a really good day.