Day 195 (Thu 18 Jan) - Kanchanaburi
Up early this morning for a days sightseeing.
Piled into a bus that first took us to some waterfalls. Quite pretty. We would have liked to stay longer but unfortunately we were on a mission.
After the waterfalls we went to the Hellfire Pass museum. This museum is dedicated to the POW's and labourers that died whilst building the Burma railway under the Japanese. We watched a short film about the working conditions, the inhumane treatment and also the immense sense of fighting spirit displayed by many of the POW's. This extended to subtly sabotaging the railway by placing termite nests near to the wooden supports of bridges.
We walked a short distance along the Pass. It was absolutely baking!
We boarded our bus again and wandered off to a local restaurant for lunch.
Then we headed off to the elephant camp. Here we clambered up a wooden structure built against a tree to a platform ready to board our elephants. We boarded our elephant called Cat; really disconcerting to see how high we were from the ground!
As we plodded along in single file, the elephants would seemingly take turns to misbehave. Cat seemed to have a liking for veering off the path and trying to eat any vegetation within reach of a powerful trunk. When she behaved the elephant in front decided that he needed to make room by depositing a few Jumbo poos. Whilst this was going on the elephants were quietly rumbling. Almost inaudible but you could actually FEEL the rumbling from below. Weird.
We walked through a shallow stream that the elephants seemed to really enjoy and up and across a bank into some shady forest. Great fun although you had to be careful to pull your legs in as the elephants would brush very close to the trees.
Great fun. Said goodbye to the elephants and boarded a bamboo raft. Sarb decided to steer at the front ( [1], [2] ). Didn't do too bad, although there were a couple of large impacts.
Had a great time floating down a shallow river, watching the butterflies and other insects flitter past.
After the rafting we boarded the bus and headed off to the bridge over the river Kwai ( [1], [2] ).
Got back to Kanchanaburi and met up with a pair of travellers, Claire and Tom a fun couple from down Devon way, that we had met on the elephant ride. Turns out that they had also spent a few months in India! Decided to go for an Indian (what else?) at a place called Ali Bongo's on the main street of Kanchanaburi.
Had a great meal, although we well and truly over ordered.
Then decided to go for a drink. And what a drink!!! We got back to our beds at about 5.30am in the morning absolutely well and truly trollied.
Piled into a bus that first took us to some waterfalls. Quite pretty. We would have liked to stay longer but unfortunately we were on a mission.
After the waterfalls we went to the Hellfire Pass museum. This museum is dedicated to the POW's and labourers that died whilst building the Burma railway under the Japanese. We watched a short film about the working conditions, the inhumane treatment and also the immense sense of fighting spirit displayed by many of the POW's. This extended to subtly sabotaging the railway by placing termite nests near to the wooden supports of bridges.
We walked a short distance along the Pass. It was absolutely baking!
We boarded our bus again and wandered off to a local restaurant for lunch.
Then we headed off to the elephant camp. Here we clambered up a wooden structure built against a tree to a platform ready to board our elephants. We boarded our elephant called Cat; really disconcerting to see how high we were from the ground!
As we plodded along in single file, the elephants would seemingly take turns to misbehave. Cat seemed to have a liking for veering off the path and trying to eat any vegetation within reach of a powerful trunk. When she behaved the elephant in front decided that he needed to make room by depositing a few Jumbo poos. Whilst this was going on the elephants were quietly rumbling. Almost inaudible but you could actually FEEL the rumbling from below. Weird.
We walked through a shallow stream that the elephants seemed to really enjoy and up and across a bank into some shady forest. Great fun although you had to be careful to pull your legs in as the elephants would brush very close to the trees.
Great fun. Said goodbye to the elephants and boarded a bamboo raft. Sarb decided to steer at the front ( [1], [2] ). Didn't do too bad, although there were a couple of large impacts.
Had a great time floating down a shallow river, watching the butterflies and other insects flitter past.
After the rafting we boarded the bus and headed off to the bridge over the river Kwai ( [1], [2] ).
Got back to Kanchanaburi and met up with a pair of travellers, Claire and Tom a fun couple from down Devon way, that we had met on the elephant ride. Turns out that they had also spent a few months in India! Decided to go for an Indian (what else?) at a place called Ali Bongo's on the main street of Kanchanaburi.
Had a great meal, although we well and truly over ordered.
Then decided to go for a drink. And what a drink!!! We got back to our beds at about 5.30am in the morning absolutely well and truly trollied.
posted by Jo and Sarb at
1/18/2007 07:36:00 am
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