we have had a busy couple of days! yesterday was brilliant. we managed to do and see such a lot in one day. we were up at 6am for breakfast and then got picked up from our hotel at 7am. is was very early for us!! first of all we headed to kanchanaburi province to a world war 2 cemetary.

During the war thousands and thousands of prisoners of war were forced to build a railway from Burma to Thailand in 1942 by the Japanese. At the time this was really dangerous becasue of the river valley terrain and illness. Thousands died during the building of the bridge and then allied forces bombed the bridge before the end of the war. The japenese soldiers had forced the POW onto the bridge when they saw the bombers coming to try and disuade them from bombing the bridge but it didn't work so thousands more lost their lives.

In Kanchanaburi we visited the memorial for over 6000 of the people who had lost their lives during this time. We also went to the work war 2 musem. After that we went on the 'death railway'. The train was really old lookin.....not a virgin train with power points and air con!! and was very bumpy. We went over the piece of track that is made entirely of wood with a shear drop to the river at one side. was excitin! then we went for lunch on a floatin restaurant. beautiful scenerary and still very hot.

The afternoon was spent at tiger temple!! we had been lookin forward to this the most! the tigers were massive and we had to cover up because it was a temple which it even hotter. there were quite a few tigers in one place and apparently they just lay there all day. we were told they aren't drugged and they behave so well because they are hand reared and in the wild they would stay still anyway (because it's the hottest part of the day). I'd like to think that is true but i'm not too sure. and we saw baby tigers which were really cute and loads of other animals.

Then last night we went out for a few drinks again! and watched some of the footy at 2am this mornin (man utd-bacelona game) when we got in then!

today we have been to the grand place which was beautiful. Again, we had to cover up, hence to trousers and long top. Colette wasnt allowed in in her top and croppped trousers so had to borrow a stunnin sarong and shirt combo. we saw the emerald buddha and allthe monks prayin. some say it has a mystcal quality. i thought it would be bigger but it was surrounded by gold and jewels and everythin sparkly. not allowed to take pictures of it either.

tonight we have a meeting for the tour which should be good coz get to meet the people we will be spending loads of time with. And then tomorrow we head to chang mai for our trek!