A bridge too far?

Kanchanaburi isn't particularly well known outside Thailand but the river that runs through it is; the river Kwai and it's famous railway bridge. As part of a huge rail system built by prisoners of war in WWII under appalling conditions, the railway was one of Japans biggest achievements in Thailand and stretches from Bangkok to the Burmese coast. But at a huge cost of human life, mainly from accidents, beatings, disease and starvation. Although the original bamboo bridge was successfully destroyed by the allied forces, another steel one stands in its place. We walked along the tracks, whistling the famous tune as we went...

We hired mopeds and zipped about the area to see what was about. We saw a huge dam and reservoir, lots of wats and temples and a bit more of the Thai countryside. We went to Erwan National Park and climbed up a 7 tier waterfall that was full of grumpy Russians. The 7th tier was fairly impressive and we had a few swims. You know those fish that will eat the dead skin from your feet you often find in shopping centres or spas? They had them in the wild, in the pools at the waterfall. These fish knew no fear and sped straight towards your feet! Such a strange feeling! Did I mention, they aren't the little ones, they were up to 12 inches long? Some of them possibly bigger!

The next bit we went to was the death railway museum and war cemetery. The museum was brilliant and very unbiased and the cemetery was such a moving place. Seeing all the graves with dates of death and their ages. Some were only 20 years old and many died after VE Day when the war was all but over. As remembrance day was only a couple of days ago, there were poppies and personal messages all over and the hand written notes to parents, grandparents and even a  wreath from "a fortunate soldier who made it out" to his comrades who didn't.

On a lighter note, Gill and I went for a run on one of the nights and after a minor miscommunication, we totally lost each other and were chasing each other round opposite sides of the block! Very frustrating. It it meant we went for a longer run than planned so all is good! Oh and we ate a skewer full of chicken hearts!

Off to the islands!