I starter writing this last night, but started nodding off from sheer exhaustion.
first nights sleep was interrupted by a mild case of reflux. This minor reflux was somewht affected by the green curry i had had earlier, to basically mean RED HOT reflux. Had a peppermint and some water and was ok.
The next morning, up at 5.45 (hey its sounding like a work day) shower and get dressed and rachy and I head down for the hotels buffet breakfast. Turns out the breakfast was incredibly good. Rather glad of that, as the long days tour was ahead and a big boy like me, needs to keep fueled.
So at 6.45am we board the tour bus for our River Kwai, Death Railway Museum and Tiger Temple tour. First stop was a museum dedicated to those that had build the railway from Thailand to Burma, including the rail bridge over the river Kwae, I had been aware of the fact the Japanese had used POW’s and labourers to build the railway, but the sheer enormity of the task had never been clear to me. Thousands died during the construction. The mind boggles at the Japanese idea - hey we are fighting a war on multiple fronts, but we need a way to get to burma that isnt by sea… LETS BUILD A RAILWAY. The fact that they got the 300km railway built and were using it while at war, is incredible. The cost in human life cannot have been worth it.
On the way through, we stopped at a thai service station, my need for caffeine overtook my good coffee sense and I purchased nescafe in a can. To my slight chagrin, I liked it. Much better than a big m ice coffee, not as nice as a decent latte, and way too sweet, but eminently drinkable.
We then went to the bridge over the river Kwae. Full of tourists, as expected, and the locals there very insistent on selling you their touristy books. We were approached at least 10 times by the same woman. It leads me to suspect that the tactic is to keep coming back until you buy the books just to stop them coming. I did however purchase a straw hat (pictures will be put up on facebook later). We then boarded a train to travel that line. It is mildly disconcerting to be given a certificate to say you have been traveling on the Death Railway. The train lurched and rattled quite a bit, and we were glad we had spent a little extra for the “VIP” seating. These had cushions on them to shield us from the bumps. We also made acquaintance with another melbourne couple who were on the tour with us, so had nice conversation for the 1.5hr journey. Some of the views were spectacular, but it was a little like being on Thai Puffing Billy. After the train ride, we adjourned to a nearby restaurant for a nice Thai buffet lunch. After this, another 30 minutes on the bus and we arrived at the tiger temple. We were told that for an extra 1000Baht donation, we could have special photo with a tigers head on one of our laps. Initially I was not going to do this, but upon finding out that all donations go towards building a better habitat for the Tigers, I changed my mind. I will admit that the idea of getting so close to these huge beasts is one I really like. So we got taken through to the first tiger, as I sat down for the photo op, the tiger appeared to get a little aggressive and we were hurriedly moved to another tiger. These animals are absolutely magnificent, and I can now also report, they are much heavier than they look. For the 1000Baht donation we got the “special photo” with a Tiger head in my lap, and also a walk around patting each tiger individually and a photo op. The tigers are kept with very large metal collars, and I question whether it is cruel to hobble them so, however, all the tigers in the temple are bought in by the people for the monks to care for, and would likely suffer a much crueler fate if they had not been so, and the monks take duty of care seriously and the tigers are well exercised, so I do take some small comfort in this.
I also had the obligatory photo op of standing friendly with a genuine monk. One that Rachel politely declined, because as a girl, she would have to stand about a foot away, as monks are not allowed to touch females.
After that, the tour ended and the bus took us back to Bangkok. From a pre-7am start, we made it back to the hotel at around 7pm. After freshening up at the hotel, we headed back out to MBK for some more shopping and dinner. We ended up having dinner at an incredibly good Japanese restaurant on the 7th floor. I cannot remember the name, but the food was very very good, the service was excellent.
Also, I had my first beer in over a decade. It was a Singha beer, yes there is photographic evidence, and yes, i liked it.
This morning we once again enjoyed a buffet breakfast, and are now ensconced in our room, planning for the days activities.
Tonight we will write some postcards, and I will once again fill in the boring details of the day.
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