Central Thailand
Kanchanaburi and Ayuthaya

From Bangkok, we decided to take a bus up to Kanchanaburi, a town famous for its Tiger Temple and the Bridge over the River Kwai. We arrived after only a couple of hours on the bus, and managed to find our cheapest accommodation yet at 150 baht, overlooking the River Kwai. It was a bit of a grot-hole, but if it was good enough for most of the local insect population, then it was good enough for me.

On our first full day there, 9th June, we made a trip to the Erawan National Park, home to a spectacular seven-tiered waterfall, the Erawan Falls.

There were seven waterfalls in total, and it took just under an hour to reach the top, under sweltering conditions.

It took a lot less time to get back down, especially for Lauren who managed one flight of slippery wooden steps extremely quickly indeed - on her bottom. On the way back down, aside from falling, we did take a dip in one of the waterfalls, which had a rock perfect for using as a water-slide!

After the waterfalls, we headed to the Hellfire Pass Memorial, a site which remembers over 12,000 prisoners of war who died, having been put to work under horrific conditions building a railway link from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma from 1941-43.

Some of the railway is still in use today, and we took a very rickety train on ’Death Railway’ towards the end of the day,

before heading back into town to have a look at the bridge on the River Kwai.

The next day, we headed out to the Tiger Temple, about half an hour out of town in the back of a truck. Luckily, the tigers are fed before any tourists are allowed anywhere near them meaning that as well as being docile, they are not eyeing you up as supper!

We got led around by a guide who took all our photos - great fun and the tigers were pretty tame, having being rescued when cubs.

The next day, we were at the bus station again, this time headed slightly further north to Ayuthaya, which apparently used to be the capitol of Thailand many moons ago before it got invaded by the Burmese - or at least that’s what Lauren told me the book said. Anyway, after a couple of buses, we arrived in late afternoon, and after a twenty minute wander around trying to find out where we were, managed to locate ourselves on the map and find a guesthouse.

As we were only planning to stay in Ayuthaya for a day, we spent the next morning trying to arrange a sleeper train to take us further north to Chiang Mai that night - a great plan. However, rather like England, the train drivers had decided to go on strike. This being the case, we decided to opt for the overnight bus - something to which we’d become accustomed in Oz. The bus didn’t leave until about 10.00 that night, so we had a full day in which to lose ourselves in the wonderful history, temples and culture on offer. This involved a brisk walk around some old pile of bricks, gawping at a Buddha’s head stuck in some tree roots, then popping off to the local market for a much needed haircut and a sausage.

After an early supper, we then headed to the bus station in the back of a tuk-tuk and prepared ourselves for a night at the mercy of Thai air-conditioning…