The next day we got a bus to \'the Hellfire Pass\' which is part of the old Thailand to Burma railway built by prisoners of war and Asian labourers in the 2nd world war by order of the Japanese. It was called this because it was the hardest section of the railway to cut - they made a cutting right through this massive rock of a hill just with hammers and picks. It was horrendous to learn about the torture they endured and the weather, living conditions and diseases and hunger - I didn\'t even know anything about it until I went there so it was quite shocking. So many thousands of people died, loads of them not much older than me. The place was quite dramatic and the museum there was really good. We went to a town for lunch then jumped on (literally - there was no platform, just gravel!) the train that uses the same route of the death railway as it is known . There was a section in the train reserved for monks! It was a beautiful journey saw lots of mountains and rivers and saw lots of sugar and tapioca growing, as well as lots of flooded houses unfortunately. Our journey ended by going over the bridge over the river Kwai, which is very famous as it was also part of the death railway and was partially bombed in the war. Old men on rickshaws met us at the train station (a bicycle with a mini carriage on the back!) they took us to our guest house, then to another museum about the death railway, the cemetary of all the prisoners of war and then the bridge which you could walk on but you had to watch out for the infrequent trains! Was a busy day! The next morning we had free so could choose from a variety of things - I went with a few others to a place called Erawan waterfalls where there was a beautiful walk through rainforest taking you from one big blue pool to another with tons of waterfalls, some of them really big! We walked up to pool 5 and swam and there were little fish that tried sucking on you which was a bit freaky - we were warned about them though and knew they were harmless! I stood under a massive waterfall it was so cool. It really wasn\'t long enough there we only had about 2 hours I could have spent all day there! In the afternoon after a western lunch (I had had enough of rice by this point!) we got a bus to bangkok where 2 minibuses met us for our final guest house owned by a rather wealthy Thai family. The rooms were gorgeous and the whole house was made out of Teak wood it was beatiful and that night there were the most bizarre and interesting animal noises outside ever! We played jenga after dinner and had a few drinks. I got up in the night and saw glow worms outside on my walk to the loo! Someone found a squirrel in the shower, a spider landed on someone and there were geckos everywhere! Was so cool. In the morning the daughters showed us round the local market where there was turtles for sale still alive, fish for sale alive (not in water!) and frogs alive by with their guts out! It was rather horrible and the fruit and meat (not refridgerated or covered!) had flies on and our lunch came from there! All the food smells were way too much for 9.30 in the morning, bu the market was nearly over it started at 2am how crazy! After lunch we got the buses to a river pier where we boarded another longtail speed boat bigger than the last one, and went all the way into the centre of Bangkok - a much more relaxing way to arrive than by bus! People were swimming in the manky looking river and there were people cooking and selliing things on boats! It was a bit like how I would imagine Venice to be, as there were houses all along it on either side and everyone had boats. All the houses were wooden and open and there were food shops all the way along too! Once back in the same hotal we started in we had the afternoon free so most of us went to a huge shopping mall by taxi which really was enornmous! 7 floors and about quarter of a mile long I reckon! Didn\'t buy much though, as my rucksack is already very full! Then back in Bangkok I went to get Jane our guide a box of chocs to say thank-you and almost got lost on the way back - quite scary, every street looks the same! We had our final dinner as a group and said goodbye, but ended up seeing most people the nest morning in the hotel anyway! Me and 2 others that were fling out at more or less the same time that day went to the Grand Palace but they only looked from the outside. I went in - it was very impressive lots of grand temple like buildings and statues and murels all gold and sparkly! I met the same 2 girls in the hotel and they shared my transfer to the airport and paid him loads of money even though it was my transfer already paid for! They went off to get their flight to Singapore and I fouind my way ok but then the flight seemed to go on forever it was driving me mad! Found my connecting flight fine in Sydney and now here I am in New Zealand! I will update this in a few days to let you know what it\'s like and what I have been doing, as I only have 8 minutes left on the net! (you pay by the hour) Keep looking!