Despite my reservations about Bangkok I have to say its quite an amazing City. It has everything really - Wats (temples), a palace, ambience, skytowers, markets, a river, sky trains, an elephant walking down the high street, pld men with young thai girls, ladyboys, some of the funniest cab drivers in the world and a bit of ping pong (if thats your cup of tea - not mine though).
Its such a buzzing and vibrant city that I have to say I could have stayed there a lot longer but I headed off to Kanchanaburi on the train which was a lovely ride through some beautiful country side
Kanchanaburi itself is a lovely little riverside town where you could easily spend a week or so. Arrived late and managed to find an amazing floating bungalow with an amazing view of the River Kwai...spectaculour in fact as the sun set. I booked onto a tour for the next day to see the Erewan Waterfall which is in a national park. 20 minutes into the park I see monkeys playing in the trees. Spent all morning at the park but didnt get to swim unfortunately because of time constraints as in the afternoon I headed off down the river on a bamboo raft and rode an elephant. I cut the elephant ride short though as unknown before I got on, the elephant was chained at the feet, and was being poked by a wooden stick with a steel curved knife tip at the end which the Mahoot kept poking into the elephants nose/ear - it was very sad and upsetting and was the only downer of the afternoon
After we headed to the "Death Railway" which thousands of POW's were forced to construct by the Japanese and where so many thousands died. Unfortunately today it is pretty much a tourist circus but hey ..I am still glad I went. I also visited the Allied war cementry which was very sombering
The evening was finished off with a lovely meal at a riverside restuarant overlooking The Bridge over the river kwai with a beautiful sunset in the distance - happy days.
Am back in Changmai now and off to Pai in a few days to do some trekking. Tonight, I have a ticket to go and see some Thai Kick Boxing which I am looking forward to.
Gotta go
very happy
lots of love.x
