Hey,
A brief catch up of the last few days,
SUNDAY
Up out and checked out of hotel by 7:30am (only 4 hours sleep again). Weather very hot and dripping with sweat within 5 mins.
Did a tour of The Grand Palace. Beautifull. Full of beautiful temples a lot of which are made from gold.
Saw the Emerald Budha, (which is actually made of jade), a little dude about 2 foot tall he was wearing his winter outfit ( has 3 that change with seasons), so was mainly covered up. Very Beautifull.
The one annoying thing was the tour guide kept hurrying everybody up so you didnt really have time to reflect, or take photos.
Jude's travel tip - rather then go on a tour, jump in a taxi or tuk tuk (if your crazy), you can buy audio guide and it is a hell of a lot cheaper.
There was this one Dutch guy on the tour who loked the spitting image of Jean Claude Van Dam from the 80's, even had the slick back wet syle hair.
After the tour finished collected luggage from HI (goodbye luxury) and went to new hostle/lodge. The area is totally different then the over tourist/commercial centre where the HI was, this is more Thai and backpacker. The room was Clean and basic. Shower/toilet was an all in one job with a short curtain seperating the two (and strangley looked like the dodgy tiled school toilets from 1980's Brentwood County High ).
On checking in was told that I was sharing my room (with another single traveler on tour) who hadnt yet arrived. Chucked rucksack on bed nearest balcony/air con - well I was there first ;-) and then went into major panick as read (on tour notes at reception) that I needed full insurance policy - I only had policy number and phone number. Two copies of passport - downstairs copier was broken. And 8500 Bhat in cash - I only had 2000 . Eeeeek!
I found an internet cafe near by (that was worryingly full of 6 year olds playing really violent war games), and after an hour of trying and failing to download policy from internet gave up and decided to deal with it later.
Jumped in a taxi and went to Wat Po the temple of the Reclining Buddah. All 47 meters of him. He is so big they built the temple around him. Amazing.
Jumped in a tuk tuk to go to the weekend market, only to get conned by driver (who by the way had a very dodgy balding curly mullett), who kept taking me to tailors and gem factories "go in, 10 minutes. You buy. You like" I think he must have been on commision. By the time he had taken me round (what felt like ) half the city and scared me silly with his driving I didnt have time for market so went back to hotel, where he tried to charge me twice as much - cheek! My own fault as you are warned everywhere of dodgy tuk tuk and taxi drivers (who dont want to put meter on). Put it down to live and learn.
Met up with tour group and leader Pun Pun. There are a couple from South Africa, a couple from Oz (all on way home from working in london), two friend - girls form Oz, a couple form London, one girl from Columbia and one from Canada. The twelth person (my room mate) is yet to turn up.
Everybody seems really nice. I think I am the eldest, but, dont have to admit that to anyone ;-) We sat around and chatted about the tour etc for a little while then six of us went out for a meal on the Khoa San Road, which is near by hotel, and somewhere I am going to explore when I am back in Bangkok. Full of hustle bustle with street vendors selling noodles, fried grashoppers, maggots etc and even cocktails (yes cocktails on the street).They do a mean Kamikaze there - even though it is bright blue!
As for earlier stress turned out only needed insurance policy number and phone number (which I had), nobody had copies of passport and found an ATM and paid the next day.
Phew!
MONDAY
Highlights
Had 10 mins to spare before everybody meeting up and jumping in taxis to bus station, so had the great idea of going to the shop I discovered (yesterday) for bottle of water. Only to get lost and end up back at the hostle stressed and sweaty panicking that everyone was going to be waiting for me, only to find I was the first one there.
Had a two hour bus ( I think the last bus with air con for a while) journey to kanchanaburi then transfered to taxi to get to accommodation. When I say Taxi I actually mean a converted (Ford type) truck with roof and two long seats in the back. Everybody was squeezed into back with all their luggage.
The Guest House s great. a hut on water. Very basic and only has a fan. The bathroom, well, it is one room with a hole in the floor (to the river) for drain.The shower is a nozzle on the wall and the toilet has no lid on the cysten(?) and a leek in the ball c*** so when you flush water sprays out of the top - nice, huh. Oh and the door does not fully close. But, when you step outside and look at the view of the river and a temple in the distance it is worth it.
In the afternoon we all went by individual rik shaw to the jeath museum, war cemetery and the bridge over the river kwai.
The bridge is very touristy with market stalls by the entrance and it is a little hard to imagine the horror of it.
They say (I think) that for every sleeper laid one thousand people died. It is a shame that nothing is mentioned of the fact that more Thai people died then anyone making the bridge.
My rik shaw driver was quite an oldie with no shoes and a big chunk of his right calf missing. I was worried that he wouldnt be able to make it, but, he sped along over taking everyone else, sometimes driving head on into the face of traffic. I think I may get over my fear of car crashes in Thailand. The poor bloke must of been knacked by the end, poor soul. Oh, and on the way there we saw a monkey in the street tied to a tree!!!!!!!

Had a wander around the town with woman from canada (I am really bad with knowing names at the moment) the town is mainly bars, food and internet cafes. All geared for tourists. coming to see the bridge.
All met up in the evening for a nice meal in local Thai resturant - Apples. Then played cards and chilled before going to bed.
AS wasnt tired decided to do washing, which was a big mistake as ended being up until 1:00am and ruining fav top
Woke up about 4:00am to lots of very strange and creepy noises, got up to turn on fan and out of the corner of my eye saw a gecko running down the wall and dissapear under the bed next to me. Well, after that I couldnt sleep out of fear of it crawling over me (shiver). I got off light as other people had large water bugs and/or coackroaches (eeek).
At around 6:00am there were so many weird and wonderful noise over heard, outside and in room that I decoded to get up check if any of my washing had dried - nope. So I
watch the sun come up over the river.
Went back to bed at 7:15 and daydreamed for the next few hours mainly of things crawling under sheets and on the floor. made sure I shook everything out when I got up.
Tried to brave the shower in the morning but could not get it to work (tried everything apart from the handle on the dodgy pipe that looks as though it will fall of that apparantly is the the thing to use - D'oh) so ended up washing my hair in the sink with a bottle of water.
took a taxi/truck to the Tiger Temple which is a conservation area for tigers and other animals who have been resued from poachers or sick/injured. It is run by monks and allthough very touristy is very peacefull and kond to th animals.
The tigers are very tame and you can have your photos taken with them (for a donation that goes towards a new centre where they can roam freely and the cubs can be trained to go back into the wild). it was so hot they were laying sleeping and you are led round whilst a guide takes photos a little contrived but not cruel, what I didnt like was that you could have your photo taken with a tigers head in your lap and this poor tiger time after time kept having his head lifted up and plonked on a strange person. There were also wild boar, pigs, horses, goats deer and a cute bear cub who attacked my bag when I tried to take a photo. Everybody else no problem - typical.
Oh and also fell over and bashed up good knee, so now I have one bruised and one scabby - lovely.
Getting to know people a liitle better. All seem nice and I think everyone will get along. There is one who keeps travel dropping "when I was in blah blah blah" and one who is on way home after living in London for the last two years who keeps putting it down, which I think is rude, but, biting tongue.
Went to a local market tonight which sold very strange food types. Pun Pun had Grasshoppers and kept offering, but, I declined. The taxi there and back was just the back of a truck - no seats, had to sit on side or floor.
Have an early start tomorrow. 4 hour bus trip to Aauthaua where we have 3 hours free - hoping to jump in a taxi and see a few budah's then 12 hour sleeper train ot Chang Mai.
Janet, thank you for text. Unable to send out on phone. drinking plenty (water) and trying something different everyday. Wish you were here.