Kanchanaburi - Bridge over the River Kwai

Getting out of Bangkok wasn't the easiest of missions. We first tried to take a taxi to the northern bus station, but the taxi driver chucked us out after 2 minutes, telling us the journey was too far and not worth his while. We therefore had to get out of the taxi, in the sweltering Bangkok heat, with our big rucksacks, and trek up the stairs to the skytrain, where we got on the train, and then off at the wrong stop, I lost my ticket, we both got a bit tetchy and regretted not having paid for a door to door minibus, got on another train, then got a taxi from the last train stop to the northern bus station, where we quickly found a minibus that was going to Kanchanaburi, and got in, along with a monk who sat next to our bags (women aren't allowed to sit next to or talk to monks). The journey there took about 4 hours but was relatively painless, and when we got there, we shared a taxi with another girl to the guest house we had booked. The driver initially took us to the wrong one and then tried to charge us more for taking us to the right one, but we weren't having any of it and I got out of the taxi, gave him the money and refused to pay the extra. He wasn't happy about it at all. We checked into Apples guest house, which had been recommended by my cousin who stayed there about 12 years ago. The woman on the front desk couldn't speak a word of English and there was a big confusion about our reservation which we had paid for in full online. We were dismayed to find they didn't have a pool, as advertised in the guidebook, but the room was nice enough so we decided we couldn't be bothered to try and find somewhere else. We were so hungry, having not eaten all day, we ate at the restaurant attached to the guest house, which is highly rated and is part of a cookery school. The curry was nice but we were over charged for some blue rice, which we didn't order and also for some cokes, so we never ate there again. That night, we went into town, hoping to book a tour to go to some of the attractions, but we dallied and hesitated for too long and by the time we'd decided on a tour, the agency was shut. We went back to the hotel and emailed the agency, asking if we could join their tour at 8am the next morning. They emailed back saying we could do the tour and asked us what our room number was so they could pick us up. We emailed back and went to bed, ready for an early rise the next day. The next day, we rushed about like mad women, trying to get ready and have breakfast before 8am. 8.00 came and went and the bus never showed up. At 8.15 we decided to ring the company on skype and they said that because we had never called them at 7am to confirm the booking, they presumed we didn't want to go. So we were now left, having gotten up early, with no tour to the Hell Fire Pass (the place where the Prisoners of war built a railway). So we got our guide book out and decided to do it ourselves. We asked the woman in the restaurant at our hotel, who also couldn't speak English, how to get there, and somehow got it out of her that we had to catch a bus from the main street in town. We went to the main street, but couldn't see a bus stop, just a lost Israeli couple who were also looking for a bus stop. In the end, we caught a taxi to the central bus station, where we intended to take a public bus for £1 to Hell fire pass. As we were just about to board the public bus, we were approached by a taxi driver with a sign saying he would take us to Hell fire pass, and all the other places on the tour we would have taken. He offered it to us for £10 each, which was £2 cheaper than the tour, so we took it. We got into his taxi (one of those open tuk tuk-like things) and set off on the two hour journey to Hell fire pass. Half way there, I looked at the driver in the mirror and realised it was the same one from the day before who we had pissed off!

In the end, we had a really good day and the driver turned out to be lovely. We got to take our time looking around Hell fire pass museum and railway cutting (we would have been rushed, had we taken the tour), and the driver also took us to a waterfall we wanted to see and to the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a historically educational day and we learnt all about the forced labour that took place during WW2, where the Japanese forced the British, Australian, American and Asian prisoners of war to build a railway, in horrific conditions, resulting in the deaths of thousands. It was very moving, and we had a free audio guide, that read out various accounts from survivors as we walked around the remnants of the railway. Hell Fire Pass is so called, because it looked like hell at night, when the prisoners were forced, by the Japanese and Korean guards, to work through the night, and chisel out a railway passage from big mountain in the jungle, with vary basic tools. Many men died from exhaustion, starvation and various diseases such as typhoid. The audio guide said that the guards decided who was too weak to work that day, by making all of the men do a stool sample, and if it contained more than 90% blood, they were allowed to put down their tools for a day. Any less than 90% and they were forced to work through it, being whipped and brutalised all the long. It was actually very interesting to hear about this Japanese brutality, after having visited Japan and the memorial museum in Hiroshima. It almost went some way to explaining why the Americans felt they had to drop the A-bomb – because the Japanese simply would not give in. I'm not saying that this justified the dropping of the bomb, but it was nonetheless interesting to see the other side of the war. After Hell Fire Pass, the driver took us to see a waterfall, which was a bit dried up and unimpressive, and then we had lunch from a 7 eleven and made the 2 hour journey back to Kanchanaburi, where he took us to see the bridge over the river Kwai. It was just an ordinary metal bridge, and it was raining, and we heard a train coming, so we took a few pictures and then got off it quite quickly. They say that the film that was made isn't that accurate and not that many died making the Bridge, but I haven't fully looked into it. At the end of quite a heavy day, we went out in the evening, for a meal in the town and then treat ourselves to an hour -long massage for £5. I had an oil massage and Jemma had her first Thai massage, which I kind of pressured her into, telling her that she couldn't come to Thailand and not try a Thai massage. She didn't like it any more than I liked my one on Koh Tao and the next day she had a bad back. I felt really guilty.