Kanchaniburi

I get a tourist mini bus from bangkok to Kanchaniburi. Mistake! They crowd more people on the mini bus than you would normally expect on a full sized bus. Only two hours though so its hust about bearable except when the driver had to change gear, i had one leg either side of the gear stick! I did however meet a swedish girl called Jennie, and we deicide to travel together for the next few days. Jenies exceptionally attractive but i know from the outset that she is uncorruptable, Good ‘eye candy’ though!

We find a guest house by the river kwai, a fraction of the cost of Bangkok accomodation. That afternoon we head off to the war museum to learn some history about the significance of this place during the second world war. Educational!! Then we walk to the War Cemetary's where thousand of Allied troups were burried.. Emotional!! .

The following day I get up riduculously early to meet Jennie for some more sight seeing. We hire bikes and head off to the Bridge over the river Kwai. After visiting the rather unremarkable looking bridge we go cycling in the coutryside but the bikes arent built for the terrain and after 18km I have a puncture and Jennie's brakes have broken.

That night i head out to watch some football with a rather annoying Australian bloke who's favorite conversation is how crap the English are at everything. He predicts a Man U loss and an England Loss to the french in the rugby.. Bloody French!!! At least United won though...

Following day another early morning to catch a local bus to vist a national park with some opf the coutry's best waterfalls.The falls were amazing and after trecking up the hills and through a thick canopy of forrest we make it to the top teir of the water falls where there is an amazing pool of clear turquois water. Perfect!! We spend an hour here swimming and taking photographs before starting our treck back down the mountain.

Once down we catch the bus half way home and are then left with a conundrum,we want to get to a train station in a nearby village in order to catch a train back which runs down the death railway line and across the bridge over the river kwai. Problem is there is no transport from where we are to the village. We have next to no time and decide to resort to hitching. Jennie was unsure about it but our other option was um…well…. We didn’t have any other option! Anyway the whole hitching thing turns out to be really easy, every car that passed stoped to see if they could help. In the end a young guy in a pickup offered us a lift, when we got close to the village I asked him where he was heading and it turns out he was going completely the opposite way. He refused to take any money though, and got us there just in time. 2 minutes to spare.

The train ride was fun, if a little bumpy… The scenary was amazing and having learned about the railways history in the museum, the significance of it seemed very apparent.

Following morning Jennie and I get up early again (that’s three bloody early mornings in a row!) to catch an early local bus heading for Ayuthaya. Thailands old capital.