Kanchanaburi

After leaving Cat Ba, we headed to Hanoi where we would be spending the night before leaving for Thailand the next day.  We decided to go back to the same hotel we stayed at when we were in Hanoi previously and managed to get othe same room for $9USD cheaper.  We spent the afternoon fairly lazily and had an early night.  The next morning we were up before 5:30am in order to catch a taxi to the airport.

The flight and entry into Thailand were uneventful.  We were worried that AirAsia might be really cramped, but our fears were for naught, it was just an ancient plane.  After leaving the airport we headed straight for the taxi stand.  It was very civilised.  On one side, the travellers waited in line for a taxi, and on the other side, the taxi drivers lined up to collect their fare.  The person in the middle appeared to be a translator telling the driver where we wanted to go.  It certainly was a good introduction on how Thai's did things.

We were headed to Thonburi train station where we would catch a 3rd class train to Kanchanaburi.   We got to the station with plenty of time to spare, so we went and looked for some food.  As it turns out, Thonburi wasn't all that well travelled with regards to westerers, so randomly walked into a resteraunt and with no English menu, just asked the waitress what was good.  We ended up with Pork Noodle soup, which I enjoyed.  

We caught the train, and spent the next three hours trundling along to Kanchanaburi.  Kanchanaburi is about 100km north west of Bangkok, and is famous for the "Bridge over the River Kwai".  It was also a POW camp during WW2.  The POWs in the camp were used to construct the 400 odd k Burma - Thailand railway, which due to the POW and Civilian casualties during its construction (>100,000) is more commonly known as the "Death Railway".

It took us a little while to find a room, as we were used to Vietnam standards (hot water, AC, TV etc...) which we didn't find in the first couple of places for reasonable prices.  In the end we stayed on a raft floating on the river itself.

The following day, we had booked a tour.  The tour took us to the Erawan NP, an Elephant ride, some river rafting and a look at a section of the death railway.  The NP was stunning.  The main feature was a 7 step waterfall which we were able to visit at each level (and swim if we wished) The trek to the 7th level was pretty intense.  The rise was 4-500m which was covered in about 2km of track.  Lots of stairs, and a bit of rock-scramble as well.  By the time we reached the top we were in need of a dip.  The air temperature would have been about 35d, the water an icy 16-17d.  Very refreshing.  I ended up swimming at the 7th and 4th level which had smooth rocks which you could slide down.

The elephant ride was nothing spectacular (just sad looking elephants being poked and prodded), and the river raft very quiet (if you ignored all the irrigation pumps going in the background)

The final bit was a look at the Death Railway, and a ride on a tran over a section of it.  Where we were taken was a section Australian POWs constructed "bridges" which hugged a cliff face.  It was incredible that it could be constructed at all, let alone at double pace under the threat of the Japanese...  After a quick stop for photos at the actual bridge over the River Kwai the tour was ended.  I think it was a good way to spend the day, but would have liked to see Hellfire pass.  Oh well, something to do next time.

Today, in the morning we took some time to discover some of the sights of Kanchanaburi itself.  The main attraction for me was the JEATH (Japan, England, Australia / America, Thai, Holland) Museum which shows the conditions of the POW camp, alongside news paper clippings and personal accounts of the conditions during WW2.  It was a very sombre place, and very moving.  Following the JEATH museum we stopped by the War cemetary and had some lunch.  

We are now in Bangkok, staying in a guest house a couple of streets for Khae San Rd which we hope will be nicely central to everything Bangkok has to offer.  Tomorrow I think we will do a walking tour and try and catch a Muai Thai fight in the night.

(photos when i get home, too much hassle getting the camera down here to dl photos... and Im hungry ;)