Hiya everyone!

I have safely arrived back in Bangkok after my brief trip to the Northwest of Thailand, Kanchanaburi and Sangkhlaburi. Kanchanaburi is where the famous river bridge over the river Kwai is located. I stayed there for three nights. My first was one to remember for two reasons: I was staying on a room that was floating on the river (thought it might make me seasick but thank God it didn't), very special, but the second reason was, I didn't get much sleep as I could hear animals in roof walking around, biting into the timber and trying to chew their way into my room! I changed the next morning (not kidding)! I actually got a single room, which was 70 Baht, the equivalent of 1 pound!!!!! It was so cheap in Kanchanaburi, I couldn't believe it. A lunch time meal would cost around 35 Baht, 50 pence, and a main evening meal would come to 65 Baht! Arrived in Kanchanaburi on Tuesday (lunch time ish) and went to see the river Kwai bridge. After that I explored the area with my rented pushbike a bit before having dinner and falling into bed (the floating one). After a restless night, I got up and rented a 'little' scooter to head out to Erawan waterfalls, which was supposed to be really stunning. Well, the 'little' scooter was able to reach 100km/h (and you don't even need a helmet, although I was wearing one, or driving licence for it!!!!) According to the Lonely planet guide, it was only 30km away, well, I'm not sure how they measured the distance but I can tell you, it was 70km in real terms. So I got there, totally worn out from the long ride (I stuck to 50km/h as I didn't have any safety clothing on) and commenced the walk up the the highest level (7 levels altogether). After the second level, my strap on my sandal broke and I didn't have any spare shoes with me. So I did what engineers do in this situation, I improvised, temporarily fixing my sandal by trapping the strap with tiny tree twigs in the opening where it had pulled out. Admittedly, it didn't last very long but long enough, which is the main thing. On my return from the top level, I enjoyed a quick dip in the water but didn't stay too long as the fish kept biting my toes and legs!!! The next day I took it easy, uploaded some pictures and went to the Tiger temple in the afternoon where I was allowed to stroke real tigers (for a donation obviously). That was really amazing although very touristy. I will publish the photos soon....

After that I really had enough of being stuck in a tourist area and decided to head further north to Sangkhlaburi, a town near the Burmese border, with the longest wooden bridge in the world. Apparently. In the UK, the bridge would be classified as 'in urgent need of repair' but in Thailand is probably just as good as it ever was! On the other side of the bridge is a Mon village, an ethnic minority in Thailand. It was good to get out of the tourist area and enjoy the real Thailand. In the evening, I met a French (Karine) and a Swiss (Sabine) girl, my age, and we had a brilliant couple of days together. Anyone listening into our conversations must have thought we are completely mad as we kept switching between English, French and German, within one sentence! On Saturday, we explored the area by bicycle but probably forgot to consider how hilly it is! It was a very sweaty experience! But good after all. We also went up to the Three Pagoda Pass (crossing into Burma) but this was closed due to the current political unrest in Burma. It was a pretty unspectacular place but at least we all poked our hands into Burma (not that I would want to put anymore of my body there anyway)...

A long bus ride back for me on Sunday to Bangkok (8 hours) as I am heading out to meet Ian today (Monday). We are heading south to his house and then continue down the coast until next Saturday when I have to be back in Bangkok to start my grand tour around Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and back into Thailand).

So hopefully hear from you soon!
Yvonne

PS: I have managed to find some new shoes, which is more difficult than you would think as a size 6 1/2 seems to be bigger than Thai feet. On that note, I don't envy anyone with a bigger bust than me as I have been told that I already need the biggest bra size available here! That's a nice change...