I seem to be posting these a lot more often than I had planned, but we are in this little town called Kanchanaburi, most famous for being the town and POW camp situated next to the Bridge Over the River Kwai, but everything is now closed and it is too early for dinner.

Yesterday, I felt the wrath of the tourist scams, though managing to get away unscathed. With Will still recovering from his rather large consumption of various drinks the night before, I preceded to look for the Grand Palace, which on the map doesn't look too far away. However, having never managed to get our bearings of the city, headed off in completely the wrong direction. The often too helpful and rudely persistent Tuk Tuk drivers bombarded me with requests to let them help me. After having one follow me I decided to allow him to try and help, pointing me back in the right direction, he proceeded to tell me that the Grand Palace was closed until the afternoon due to it being a Buddhist holiday. He then offered me the ludicrous price of 10 Baht for a round the city tour visiting the Wats and attractions that were open, then dropping me off at the Palace when it was open. Having read about the scam that would involve being led into a jewellery store. I passed and walked back the right way. Various Tuk Tuk drivers saying the same thing about the Palace being closed, but every single one of them saying a different time that it would open for the public. Nearing the Palace, there were a load of pigeons with people feeding them. Offering bags of bird feed and saying it was good luck to feed them, they forced a bag into my hand, when I declined and put the bag down I would have it thrust back into my hand. I reluctantly dropped the bird seed and walked off, only to be followed and them demanding 150 Baht, I straight of refused as I hadn't wanted it the first place, but being followed by a few men that stood up as I refused to pay didn't sound good to me, so offering 20 Baht, the smallest note, I walked away. Arrived at the Palace and guess what, it was open, the staff obviously aware of the scam, kept reassuring everyone that it was open. It looked impressive, however, we were coming back to Bangkok at the end of our trip and I thought Will would want to see it.

I left Will in the evening and went out and met the girls we met yesterday again. It was a good night, with a live band that they knew.

We left Bangkok around mid-morning. We thought we would catch a local bus to the main bus terminal, so, something where the Rough Guide is probably a bit out of date, we jumped on the number 511, preparing to pay but being told we were on the wrong bus, so we jumped off and looked for a taxi. Flagging a taxi, we loaded our bags and pulled away, but had lied about knowing where we wanted to go so we jumped out down the road. We continued to walk down the road asking the multitude of taxis if they knew where the bus terminal was, nobody did! Something about these countries so far is that taxi drivers are useless, I don't think there is rigorous learning and testing that happens in England. Eventually we found someone who assured us he knew, so, not knowing what else to do, hopped in and we were on our way. Along expressways and major roads we thought we was taking us to the wrong place, but he made it and pulled up outside a huge building with 'BANGKOK BUS TERMINAL' written on the side. Phew! The bus station was huge, and it would be perfectly reasonable to think it was an airport. We bought our ticket for a bus which left in 10 minutes time and got on.

2 hours later we arrived in Kanchanaburi, the heat significantly higher than in Bangkok. Pinching pennies we walked the 2km to the hostel, arriving drenched in sweat. We booked our room, paying an extra 100 Baht (about 1.50) between us for air-con, worth it! We had a look at the very well maintained war cemetery and visited the very informative and interesting museum next door, dedicated to the Death Railway.

Tomorrow we plan on riding the Death Railway, over the bridge and back, before heading back to Bangkok. The train we need leaves at 6am so who knows if we will make it.