I don't learn! Hangovers and boat trips don't mix. Maybe I should pay more attention to the trip schedule before I go out drinking!

First thing this morning we had breakfast at the hotel, left our bags at reception and then headed out on a 30 minute boat trip along Chao Phraya River. The first stop was just outside a temple where there were thousands of fish that "belonged" to the monks at the temple and it was forbidden to fish this stretch of the river. Our boat stopped at the moorings by the temple and we couldn’t see the water for all the fish here. The driver gave us all a couple of bread rolls so that we could feed the fish and they all went mad for it. The picture doesn’t really do it justice.

 Fish all fed and the next and final stop was at the Wat Pho (reclining Buddha temple).

And for the first Thailand history lesson of the trip:-

Wat Phra Chettuphon Wimon Mangkhlaram Ratchaworamahawihan, or the former name Wat Pho, also known as The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, is a Buddhist temple in Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok, Thailand, located in the Rattanakosin district directly adjacent to the Grand Palace. Its official full name is Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn. The temple is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage.

Wat Pho is one of the largest and oldest wats in Bangkok (with an area of 50 rai, 80,000 square metres), and is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images: the Reclining Buddha (Phra Buddhasaiyas). Made as part of Rama III's restoration, the Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. The latter display 108 auspicious scenes in Chinese and Indian styles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho

After the visit to the temple, we headed back to the hotel where we picked up our bags and headed over to the bus station to catch a bus to Kanchanaburi. The bus trip was about 2 hours and we were met at the station by samlors (rickshaws) which took us and our bags (one per person) to the Apple Guest House. At the guest house we showered and got change ready to take our personal samlor out to the War memorial (which was closed) and then to the bridge over River Kwae

The River Kwae bridge and Death Railway also deserve another history lesson:-

The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mile) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to support its forces in the Burma campaign.

Forced labour was used in its construction. About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. The dead POWs included 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, about 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_railway

After taking a few photos of the bridge and the train going over it we were then taken back to our guest house by our samlor drivers, I even offered to cycle mine back as my driver looked knackered and so hot, but she told me that I wasn’t allowed to as they are all licensed and I would not have been covered by her insurance if we had an accident. Christina did get a chance to cycle hers for about 5 meters when we got back to the guest house.