Best Day Out !!!!!!

Thursday - 1 May 08

Welcome to todays blog. It has been an amazing day for Rick and I. We were up early and it was raining to seem to make the place seem cooler. I love sitting on our porch having a ciggy and watching the sun come up, its awsome, especially when the Bluestar Guesthouse cabins are built over the swamp of the River Kwai and you can watch the frog moving in the swamp and the squirrels running along the powerlines that run above the walkway, the rooster crowing and the birds rustling through the trees. What a life!!

Today was a very busy but wicked day for us. We went on our full day tour to everywhere. We had breakfast at the on site restaurant and got picked up by our driver, Aht and a young student who was our guide. Aht was our driver for yesterdays 'floating market' tour and we travelled in his green Fiat. Well he drove that again today and a German guy called Michael came on the same tour, so you can imagine 3 of us squashed in the backseat and Michael in the front and Aht driving. The young female student couldn't seem to stay awake the whole day and neither her or Aht could speak english so it was not like you could ask questions or find out any info, still it was a great day.

Our first stop after an hour and a half on the road was at some Hot Springs, Michael had a dip but there was no way Rick and I were even going to contemplate it, it was bad enough going to the toilet which was a 'squat' and you stand in half a foot of water whilst you are trying to sqat to take a pee. I know, I know we are backpacking but I just can't get used to 'squats'.

Our second stop was at "Hellfire Pass' and the museum there was great. It showed and told about the Prisoners of War who built the Burma Railway for the Japanese during WWII and what they endured and how they were treated, it truly was viscious, cruel and sickening. How any of these men survived is beyond comprehension. We then took a walk down into 'Hellfire Pass' and Rick and I being unfit and smokers did it tough walking down and then up all of the hundreds of stairs but it truly was amazing how the POW's were forced to dig and chip through mountains to clear this pass so they could then be made to build the railway to go through it. The bloody camera batteries decided to die on me, which ticked me off so I thought I would use my mobile phone and the bloody phone wanted a 'Puk' code and bugger me if I know what that is and if I do have one its probably in storage. So all in all missed taking any photos. We then stopped for lunch at some little roadside eating house and the food was pretty ok. Travelled on to Soi Yok waterfall and you wouldn't believe it, it is a public holiday today and the kids here are on school holidays and the place was packed. Managed to buy some more batteries at the markets there for the camera to take photos, but another challange the internal memory on the camera was full, so I took the memory card out, cleared that, put the memory card back in and lost the photos I had taken, I was pissed off by this time. I am not into any of this techno bullshit, all I want is an on/off button that is easy to use. I have now bought postcards to replace the photos I lost. It will have do.

Our last and final stop on our day tour was a train ride along the River Kwai railway to a couple of stops before Kanchanaburi and it was fantastic and got some great photos. The River followed the train almost all the way and it was a sight seeing the resorts and floating guesthouses built on the edge of the river.

It was a long day and very humid after the rain, but it was such an eye opening and educative day it was worth every bump in the road we felt travelling in that old green Fiat. We arrived back at our guesthouse (which we have decided to stay our 2 extra nights at) at 5.30pm. We picked up our 1st class Sleeper train tickets to Nong Khai for Sunday night at the Travel Agency and stopped in here at the internet cafe and now that this blog for the day is finished can head off to have dinner and an early night.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying reading our blog, I am sure as we move around more we will have some interesting tales to share. Stay tuned !!!!!!