From Khao Yai National Park our next destination was Kanchanaburi home to the bridge over the river Kwai which you may have heard of as it is a famous book title that was made into a film. Unfortunately all the transport centres out of Bangkok, this meant going back to Bangkok for the third time. We decided to get the train again, and decided to go for the cheapest seats, 3rd class unreserved. The journey took about 4 hours and was pretty stuffy as the window by our seat was jamed shut. We finally arrived in Bangkok and we needed to head to the south bus station; our guide book said this is where all buses originate from to go to Kanchanaburi. We found the Thai name for the bus station and went to find a tuk tuk or taxi as there where no public transport links to the station. A taxi driver found us and asked us where we wanted to go, we explained in English, failing that we used the Thai name for the station, he still had no idea. Luckily there was a guy there who spoke English and translated for us, we thanked him and got on our way. Kate noticed by the direction we were driving that we were going the wrong way, and then she started to recognise the roads we were driving down, we were heading for the north bus station! We tried to explain to the driver that we needed the south bus station but to no avail. He pulled up on the side of the road on the hunt for someone who could speak English. The first few had never heard of the south bus station, we were starting to think it didn't exist. Finally we found someone that new about the bus station but said it was very far away and that we're better going to the north bus station, so we made our way there hoping that they had buses that went west of Bangkok. We left our taxi and went on a hunt for a bus company that was going where we wanted to go. Luckily we found one that left in 30 minutes, she told us to come back to the window in 15 minutes time and she would let us know what bay we had to go to. We quickly grabbed some food as by this time it was 3.30 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast at 7.30. Unfortunately we were in such a rush to grab some food that we didn't ask what type of bus it was, we were just relived to be booked on one. It was a minibus, which has become our worse type of transport. There isn't much leg room and nowhere to put your bags, it normally goes in the isle (meaning you have to climb over everyone's stuff to get on or off) or on your lap. Fortunate for us the bus emptied out pretty quickly on route to Kanchanaburi so we could spread out a bit. We were told that it would take about 3 hours, however our driver managed to do it in just under 2. Although, we do have to mention, that when we pulled into Kanchanaburi bus station and got of the bus he had in fact been pulled over by the police and they were writing him a ticket. We found a tuk tuk to take us to a guest house we had seen in our book and agreed a price. Unfortunately the guesthouse was full but we found another one a little further down the road that looked nicer. The cheapest room they had available was for 400bt a night but it was on a raft on the river and had hot water, so we decided to take this room for the night then move into a cheaper one for 150bt the following night. The 400bt room was very nice, right out on the river.

On our first day in Kanchanaburi we decided to go to the Burma - Thai railway museum. It was a great museum, very interesting and informative. It explained the various roles that the countries in Asia had during the Second World War, and how Japan drove the British out of Burma and built a railway linking Burma to Thailand that went all the way to Bangkok to transport military supplies for the Japanese . The track that was designed and built went through rugged terrane, it was a massive task. It was decided that Prisoners of War (PoW) would be used to build the track by hand. Along side the PoW's people where recruited throughout Southeast Asia. The 415km track took only 14 months to build and was nicknamed the Death Railway due to the number of lives that were lost, more than 100,000. The muesem explained how the PoW's where promised better conditions in there new home, but this was very far from the truth. Living conditions where horrific. Very long working hours, using only very basic tools, little sleep, very little food, often just watery rice, little to drink, no basic hygiene, if a man passed blood through his excrement that was less then 50% they would be sent to work. Disease was a constant threat and was the cause of many deaths. Grave yards where built throughout the line of the railway. There was one section of the railway nicknamed Hellfire Pass, called this as it was the most demanding construction points. The men had to dig using only hand tools through up to 12 meters of solid rock at some points. Working in sweltering conditions, experiencing constant beatings from the officers and being so weak and frail you can't begin to imagine a day in there shoes. Families of the soldiers didn't know if they were dead or alive, some families weren't informed of their son/husband/fathers death until nearly two years after the death.

After the museum we had a look around the cemetery opposite, it was so sad to see the scale of the torture. Many of the Asians that were recruited lived in even worse conditions and weren't even accounted for as no records where kept.

After this we decided to take the 3k walk to the bridge over the river Kwai which formed part of the railway. The bridge is no architectural masterpiece but is amazing to see, and meant a lot more knowing the history behind it.
In the evening we found this restaurant that served amazing food - Nut Bar & Restaurant. Not much of a title and it doesn't really look too inviting from the outside but Kate had the best massaman curry that we've ever tasted. All the food is cooked by one lady named you guessed it Nut. She was really friendly and asked us how we liked our food. We went again the second night it was that good and she gave us a free desert!

The next day we were up early and went to the Erawan waterfall. The waterfall has 7 tiers and some you are able to swim in. We were told that it took an hour to get up to the top tier and 1 hour to get down. As we were pushed for time we decided to get up to the top as fast as possible so that we could take our time coming back down and stop off for a swim. Luckily we had our trainers on as it was a big climb up over boulders, tree trunks and over streams. Our socks got a little wet but it was fun. We managed to make it to the top in under 30 minutes which we were pretty chuffed with, although we were drenched in sweat. We slowly made our way back down and stopped off at tier 5 for a swim. The water was so clear but pretty cold. Kate dipped her feet in and suddenly the fish started swimming towards her. We had read that the fish here like to nibble on people, a bit like the fish pedicures you get at home but the fish are bigger and it actually feels like they're nibbling you. Once we got over the weirdness of it we jumped right in. The fish were everywhere and there were hundreds of them, you had to keep moving to keep them off you, but it felt quiet nice after a while.

We then decided to head down to tier 4, here they had a giant boulder that was so smooth you could slide down it. The only draw back was the nibbly fish here where huge, about a foot long. Kate wasn't brave enough to go in but Pete did and had a go on the slide and quickly jumped out again. We made our way to the bottom had some lunch and then head to hellfire pass. The museum was similar to the one we had visited the day before but the interesting part was when we took an audio tour down to Hellfire Pass. You could actually walk along the railway track and through the pass. It was incredible to see and you couldn't even begin to imagine the work that would have gone into breaking through the rock. You could see the downward grooves of where they cut the rock. It was hard at times to listen to the audio guide as they had people speaking who were PoW's that worked on this part of the track. The stories were horrific and unthinkable.
Once we made our way back up we headed to another part of the railway where we boarded a train that went along the death railway, again it was hard to imagine working in that heat doing hard labour.

We would have liked to have stayed longer in Kanchanaburi but we needed to head to Bangkok for the Christmas celebrations.