Grand Palace and the Bridge on the River Kwai

Hi everyone! We've found time to update you all quickly before we leave Kanchanaburi (we'll be off packing our bags once we've finished blogging) and so here's a fairly short (for once) update of the past few days.

THURSDAY 24th May

After having a relaxing evening last night we decided we would try and get up early today so that we would hopefully have some time wandering around when the heat would be slightly less intense than during the middle of the day. Although we'd wanted to get up early, we hadn't intended on getting up at 06.30, which is what happened, as although we set our alarm for 07.30, we hadn't put it back an hour once we got to Bangkok - whoops! Oh well, it meant we had a nice early start, although it didn't mean we had any relief from the heat, we just missed all of the tourist crowds!
We went to the Grand Palace first of all. It was a really nice place - amazingly ornate too! Every facade, of every building, had some kind of decoration on it, whether it be ceramic tiles, mosaics of mirrored tiles, paintings, or building completely covered in gold! There were many different temples there, including the Emerald Green Buddha Temple, which must have been one of the most intricately decorated places of the whole Palace! It was also being renovated at the time (which made us reminisce about China), so some of the decoration on the outside parts of the building we couldn't see clearly. Unfortunately some of the most beautiful parts of the Grand Palace we were unable to photograph, so we'll have to do our best to describe it to you when we get back! The whole Grand Palace complex has undergone major renovation since around the time of the 60s we think - there was a whole museum dedicated to showing how the renovation was undertaken, why and where etc (although it was mostly in Thai, so we couldn't understand very much, but it was still interesting).
Once we'd wandered the enormous complex of the Grand Palace for a few hours we (well, Steve) decided to go and have a little look at the camera shops we'd found when we were first in Bangkok. Unfortunately it took an age for us to get there, as to start off with we got off at the wrong stop on the water taxi and then we proceeded to get a bit lost and disorientated. During our wanderings we did come across a really nice flower market (mum [Pauline], you would have had a field day there I'm sure), so we did get to see some new parts of Bangkok which was quite nice (although it would have been nicer if it wasn't scorching hot)! We finally came across the camera shops again and we then had to look at several different shops with the same lens in to find the best price and we finally found the newer version of the lens he wanted, which was cheaper than the older version, so he bought himself the EF 70-200mm lens he's been wanting for ages!
We had wanted to go to the Teak Mansion as well (we were able to get free admission, as we'd been to the Grand Palace), however, by the time we got back to the hostel, it was already 15.30 and the mansion closed at 16.00, so we had to give it a miss. We decided to get freshened up instead and spent the evening working on our plans for the next week or so, so that we would have some idea of where to go and what transport we need to use etc.

FRIDAY 25th May

We spent the morning getting our bags packed up once again and paying our bill at the hostel. It was then time to make our way to Kanchanaburi. We hopped in a taxi to take us to the bus station, where as soon as we arrived we were 'jumped' on by a man we presumed was a tout, I suddenly realised he was the 'conductor' for a bus, which was going to Kanchanaburi and was about to leave - so we managed to jump on and were on our way. Poor old Steve reacted badly to his malaria tablet again this morning and so spent most of the bus journey feeling really sick, but he managed to sleep a lot too!
After 3 hours on the bus, we made it to Kanchanaburi and got a tuk tuk to the guesthouse we wanted to stay at. After we'd freshened up we decided to go to the Thai-Burma Railway Museum. It was really interesting and also very sad to realise the desolate and gruelling conditions inflicted upon the PoWs. It's amazing that anyone managed to survive. What was also very shocking was that the Japanese had agreed that should Thailand be invaded by the Allied Forces, then all of the PoWs should die. They did this by the most inhumane methods - forcing them to go on death marches and if they managed to survive this, then they were put on starvation rations! They had a weird respect for the dead and allowed them to be buried in marked graves and also allowed their comrades to hold a ceremony for them, which the Japanese often attended themselves. We only had 40 minutes to look around the museum though, as it closed at 17.00, so we were soon on our way again and decided to visit the Bridge on the River Kwai.

SATURDAY 26th May

We spent the day on an organised trip which took us to several places. We started off spending 4 hours at the Erawan Falls. There were lots of different 'steps' (plunge-pools) we were able to have access to, and some of which we were also allowed to swim in. It was very beautiful there, as the water was a blue/aqua colour and there were some fantastic limestone formations there too. We went swimming in the pools to cool off, but the pools also had lots of fish in them, which would come up and suck at you if you stayed at all still! It made me jump every time, as you couldn't see the ones which were around your legs and feet! Steve jumped when he was floating on his back and a fish sucked his earlobe! After 4 hours of exploring the falls, we had lunch.
Our next stop was at the railway itself. We went to the Krasae Caves, which weren't very interesting, as we could only walk into them for about 30 metres and there weren't any interesting rock formations or anything. At the entrance of the cave, there was a statue of Buddha and an alter for people to worship at, but that was it.
It was then time to catch the train and ride on the Death Railway (so called due to the thousands of PoWs who lost their lives working on the construction of the railway). The ride lasted 30 minutes, but we were sat on the side of the train with the less scenic view, as it was so busy. Steve managed to sneak a few peeks though, and said we weren't really missing anything.
Our last stop of the day was at the Bridge on the River Kwai. It was a good job we went last night, as we were only given 15 minutes to have a look around, so we wouldn't have had any nice photos, if we'd relied on today's visit alone.
After our long day, we were pretty tired, so we ended up freshening up and then having dinner at the hostel, as we couldn't see any nice places near by.

SUNDAY 27th May

Today we're back to travelling. We're catching the bus back to Bangkok and will then catch the overnight train to Chumphon, so that we can get the ferry to Ko Tao and do some serious relaxing and beach-bumming for a few days! Although Steve's going to do a PADI course in diving - he wants me to join him, but I'm not sure yet, you'll find out if I'm brave enough to do it soon!

Well, that's about all there is to know at the moment. We've enjoyed our flying visit to Kanchanaburi and will be passing through Bangkok for the last time today. We'll keep you updated with our plans for moving around. Missing you all!