OK,

So far the response has been fairly positive with regard to my tiger pictures so at least I know I am not writing complete drivel here! I thought it only poilte to bring everyone up to date on my activities. THis is about a week old now but as you will find out in later blogs, I have been somewhat cutoff from civilisation and between that and endless bouts of imbibing large quantities of local produce, time has been short.

So, the best thing that has happened to me was meeting a travel mate (Andy) at the train station and then 10 mins later we met an Aussie couple Matt and Kate who seemed up for a laugh and were more than happy to be part of a team sharing the burden of planning the next day! It is harder than it appears!

We had all decided to head off to Kanchanburi about 130km NW of Bangkok on the train (more later about trains Dad!) and see the amazing 'Bridge over the River Kwai'. Actually the bridge you see isnt the one that is famous in the film; that one is 300m downstream and as the picture from the museum shows, there isnt a whole lot of it left.

So we arrived and checked into the awesome Apple Guesthouse and set about touristing. During my 4.5 days there, we managed to cover an awful lot of ground:

The first day we visited the bridge site but sadly decided that the importance of seeing the bridge wasnt as pressing as stopping at every bar along the way and treating ourselves to the local beers - of which there are many.

We did make the bridge and I apologise in advance for the photos being a little shaky as the balance wasnt amazing. We then headed to this lovely restaurant where I ended up (mistakenly) eating snakes head curry which was quite possibly the hottest thing I have EVER eaten. It was unbelievable and reduced Matt and I to jibbering, incoherent wrecks. I freely admit that I dont remember much of the night after that! I do vaguely remember visiting a bar where we fed some large birds as it was the only bar I could remember form the Rough Guide as being vaguely interesting. I shall paint the picture - it was like a cross between Twycross Zoo animal home and the local park left to wrack and ruin and all the furniture rotting - all in a rainforest. Amazing! I loved it. One of the large birds had an excellent aim and the other was nursing cataracts so a couple of us got nasty nips.

The next day was a struggle to say the least (I am still attesting to it being the curry) but I fought off the weakness to head off in search of the JEATH museum; which stands for the initials of the countries that built the railway from Burma through Thailand; Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand and Holland. THe shapest amongst you will have noticed that there are 2 A's and only 1 in JEATH. Hmmmm! Perhaps they dont like the committment of one or the other countries. But anyway, this was an extremely bizarre place filled with Japanese possessions in no particular order and there was far too much writing for it to be a good museum but the highlight was seeing the remains of the original bridge.

Oh and the other highlight was seeing 3 Japanese men in colour co-ordinated outfits in 3 primary colours. Classic!

The next day we took an organised tour from Apple's and headed off for a whistle stop day of the local sites:

Sai Yok Falls, The hot springs, Hellfire Pass, Krasae Cave and the Death Railway and finally back to Bridge over the River Kwai. Whilst it sounds a lot, actually, we got just the right amount of time in each place and I saw some amazing stuff. THe falls were very impressive and the hot springs were quite that - HOT! We soaked there and rested our weary travelling limbs for a couple of hours and I honestly think that it did me the world of good.

The Hellfire Pass is the nickname given to a stretch of railway near to the Burmese border that took the lives of several hundred POWs and I believe it was the spot where my grandfather worked when he was a POW so it held a certain amount of personal importance for me. The museum there was first class (opened by an Aussie former POW) and the line, whilst removed, was available to walk along and preserved fairly sympathetically. From the viewpoint were you see a couple of pics of me, you can see the lush greenery and the mountains of Burma in the background. It is an amazing sight but must have been hell to work there. It was also interesting that on the Death Railway, there were two gagues of tracks for the differing national railway trucks to use (we think). BUt all in all, a great and fun packed day.

The following day, we all thought it would be a tremendous idea to hire scooters, drive around Kanachanaburi and see all the war cemetries and a fascinating cave temple and then head off to the Erawan Falls and then to the infamous Tiger Temple. This was where the good ideas stopped that day. As we left Kanchanaburi for Erawan, I noticed that my previously full tank of fuel was just beow full. 30km later and less than halfway to Erawan, I was on the red - eek! Cue crisis management. The Aussies wanted to crack on and I explained dutifully that I wanted to stop when I was at half but against my better judgement we had continued. 1 rider was despatched back to the last gas station where he bought enough to fill everyone up (as it turned out 3 of the 4 of us was on empty - they just hadnt noticed) and we set off on our merry way again.

Sadly, the Lonely Planet guide we had planned from and the local advice we had taken did not take into account that we would encounter the tail end of a monsoon whilst pootling along on our little scooters - sadly, we did! We arrived at the falls soaked and Andy was on the verge of hypothermia which abated quickly as the effect of the wind chill wore off. Unfortunately because the distance was greater than anticipated, and the fuel crisis. we only had an hour there before we had to set off to get to the tiger temple. TO make matters worse, when we arrived at the best falls of the 'famous 7 tiers',a film crew was making a travel programme so we couldnt get near or swim there! Doh!

We drove onward like the people from Born to be Wild and I had the metal music playing in my head as my 25cc scooter gave its all. I had my head down and was trying to make as small wind resistance as possible and I got to...........45 miles an hour! Incredible. Needless to say by the time we arrived at the Tiger Temple (which incidentally isnt in the Rough Guide to SE Asia and isnt signed either from anywhere) we were too late and the park was closing. We therefore decided to stay and extra night and get up there early in the day to get it done before setting back off to Bangkok.

The Tiger Temple was amazing - only 300B (about 6 pounds) but well worth every penny. The tigers seemed happy and relaxed (a bit like Blue Peter dogs once they start them on the course of tranquilisers) and we were assured the only thing they were lacking their diet was taurine. Why do tigers need to drink Red Bull? Hmmmm again.

You were allowed to pet some of the tigers and we got time playing with the bay ones (bearing in mind they were still tigers as one rushed off to maim a nearby goat) and then we all took a walk down to the local quarry where you could carefully and under close guidance, have your picture taken with various tigers. I became somewhat alarmed when I was asked to sit between two tigers who were having a disagreement about whose rock they were sitting on and then Burroughes comes along and parks there! Also, these 2 werent chained! I was worried to say the least! I think the pictures speak for themselves though at how amazing (and nervewracking) it is to be near these magnificent creatures.

And there you have it. A whistlestop few days in Kanchanburi whereupon I returned to Bangkok. sold my sleeping bag and bought an even smaller one and posted 2kg of stuff home as it was surplus to requirements! Take the advice everyone gives you if you come travelling; pack, unpack, halve it and repack. It is SO true.

Im off to find paradise next in the form of the Andaman Coast islands. Hopefully not going too near to Phuket until the end of that phase - there must be more to see than that!