KANCHANABURI 31ST OCTOBER-6TH NOVEMBER 2006

Early start on the 31st, we had to leave our accomidation at 6.15am, walk about 30 moinutes to catch a 2B ferry over the river then try to find the Thonburi, Bangkok, train station, which was a bit of a nightmare because everyone kept telling us to go in a different direction which isn't pleasent with a backpack on and a train to make. We finally found it and caught the 7.45 to Kanchanaburi 100B. We could of caught the bus but thought it would be nice to try the train for a change and it was nice a nd scenic and makes a difference from always being cramped up on a bus. We got in to Kanchanaburi at 10.20am and we were suddenly hit with a completely different pace to that of Bangkok... Getting in at Bangkok you are bombarded with taxi and tuk-tuk drivers jumping at you with their engines roaring but when we arrived in Kanchanaburi we were bombarded with one little old Thai guy on a bicycle and cart calling out "taxi". He was very sweet but we didnt ablidge seen as we could walk faster than he could cycle and we were only going about 800km anyway.

We found a place to stay in town called the 'Jolly Frog' which was nice clean and rooms with a bathroom wre only 200b. It was right on the river kwae in a garden setting with lots of hamoks and chairs around a cheap guesthoust / resturant. kanchanaburi is 130km west of Bangkokina slightky elevated vally,amid hills and sugar-cane plantations.

On our first full day we hired bicyles for a few hours to ride around and see the town. We cycled up to the Bridge over the River Kwae, then went to the Thailand-Burma Railway museum to learn about the prisoners of WW11 that were made to build the so-called 'death railway' and many died doing so.

On the second day we caught a local bus 40B, 2hrs, to Erawan National Park, the most visited national park in Thailand. It is very beautiful and contains Erawan waterfall. Its 2.2km to walk from the bottom teir to the top and there are 7 teirs in all, and most of them have lush pools which you can swim in. The only downer being the pools contain fresh water fish, and loads of them! from little ones to huge ones and they all wanted to nibble on our flesh as soon as we entered the water. Its not like they hurt but there were so many on you at once i got really freaked out. i didnt like them at all! When we got back to the room that evening Lewis washed his T shirt and wanted to dry it by our room fan, so hung it on a metal hanger and actually hooked it onto the fan which instantly broke the fan as the plastic blade inside got caught on the metal hanger and snapped! He went on a mission the following day and talked a Thai guy into getting him a new plastic blade for only 100B then came back and fixed it.

On the 4th day we went on the death railway from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok, which is the end of the line. It was a 2 hour train journey but was a bit dissapointing because the scenic part only lasted about 5 minutes so we got the bus back as it was cheaper. That evening we ventured out to the night market which was great to look around, it was a really good market that sold everything from 10B noodle dishes to tables containing a mixture of puppies and bunnies for sale, they were so cut Lewis had to rench me away.

The next day i wanted to see a cave called Krasi Cave and the tiger temple so we thought we'd hire a mo-ped to get there. Finding Krasi cave was a nightmare. We set off on the main road and all was good but once we took the turning off no signs were in english, and no-one could really speak english. Everyone sent us in different directions and we seemed to be going round and round in circles. It was so frustrating but we were determind to find this cave. After about 3hrs of searching and a lot of fuel burned we finally found Krasi Cave and to give the tale a happy ending it was absolutely CRAP! it was the worst cave ever, if you could even call it a cave, it was basically a small dark hole in a rock that smelt really moldy and damp and comtained one buddar.

On the way back we decided to go to the Tiger Temple.We had been in two minds whether or not to go here since we had arrived in Kanchanaburi. We knew it was a temple that contained tigers which you could touch and get your photo with, and everyone we spoke to had raved about it. Neither Lewis or I really like zoos or caged animals and thought it may be cruel for the tigers but decided to go and check it out for our selves. It was very much like we had imagined, amazing to get that close to grown tigers but huge amounts of tourist rushed in and out for the novalty of touching a tiger. They had small living quarters, it just didnt look pleasurable for the animals and very unatural. The only thing that makes it ok is knowing that the tigers were all brought to the temple as orphaned cubs through being pouched and saved by the monks. They have never lived in the wild and would never be able to be released and through making the temple a tourist attraction, large ammounts of money has been raised and is being used to build a 12 achre enclosure where they plan to breed the tigers and release their offspring into the wild. So the eventuallity will be worthwhile and rewording , its just seeing the tigers as they are now left us both with very confused feelings.

That evening was the Thai festival called Loi Krathong, where everyone gets together and small lotas-shaped baskets and boats made of banana leaves containing flowers, insence, candles and a coin are floated on Thai rivers, lakes and canals. Residents also launch these awesome paper hot-air balloons that fill the sky. We went down to the river for the evening, it was packed, everyone joins in and parties all night, either on the river bank or on these, madly, unsafe looking floating discos. It was a nice end to our visit to Kanchanaburi as we planned to leave for Ayuthaya in the morning.