We headed from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi on a two day tour. The first day we went to see the historical bits around there - the Bridge on the River Kwai and the Death Railway. We first saw a World War II cemetery full of mostly British prisoners of war that died building the railway. We then spent a little while looking around a museum of random WW2 bits and bobs, then walked over the famous bridge (although, in reality its not the famous bridge, just one that happens to be in the exact same place - it was bombed by the allies towards the end of the war!). Following in Thai health and safety traditions the bridge was a bit of a death trap - it had massive gaps in it and trains still run over it and there’s not really many places to get out of the way!

We then had a ride on the railway, we saw some of the countryside and various cuttings where thousands of the forced labourers had died digging them. In the afternoon we were taken to do “bamboo rafting” and an elephant trek, but they were a little naff really!

The next day we went for a walk in Erowan National Park. There are a series of seven waterfalls there that we went to see and you can swim in most of the pools too. The pools have fish in (sometimes called Dr. Fish) that try and eat the dead skin from your feet. Its a really weird sensation and I don’t think Bex was too taken with it! You can pay to have it done in lots of shops here.

We then made our way to Ayutthaya, just north of Bangkok. The town is an ancient city, and we spent the next day cycling around the crumbling ruins of ancient temples. There were some really interesting things to see, and it’s also interesting to see that people still leave offerings at them when sometimes there’s not much more than a pile of bricks left! At first Bex didn’t enjoy the cycling too much - Thailand’s roads are not a great place to get back into cycling after having not done it for 10 years! Whilst cycling around we also saw a place where they had trained elephants to dance to Thai music - a very weird sight!

From Ayutthaya we went north to Sukhothai, another ancient city. This one is a bit different as the old city hasn’t been developed into a new one, instead the new city is next to it. There are a load of temples in a central historical park, then some other ones a bit further out. We cycled around here as well - Bex enjoyed it a lot more as there were hardly any cars. Our guidebook had promised that the outer ones would be still hidden in the jungle, making you feel like an intrepid explorer finding them for the first time - I was a bit disappointed to see that not only had they been round and chopped it all back since our guide was written, but they’d also managed to double the price to visit them! We really enjoyed it despite the persistent rain, and it was nice to visit an attraction that rather than being overrun with tourists was actually in places completely empty! We are now a bit ‘crumbling buddha’ed out’!

We took the bus to Chiang Mai where we have just done a three day, two night trek. We did bamboo rafting again, which was a lot more fun than the first time, then went on a walk through the forests to some hill tribe villages. Our guide was quite funny, although he didn’t speak much english, and I had fun swimming in a waterfall and seeing the people there. It did rain a fair amount but we managed to avoid a lot of it! We slept in two different camps in the hills, overlooking paddy fields and farms. We also tried our guide’s home made rice whiskey! On the last day, after we finished walking we did another elephant trek. We didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one, not least because I don’t think they would win any awards from the RSPCA. As with most things though its the people you do it with that makes it enjoyable and we had a really small and friendly group.

We’re now back in Chiang Mai, and we will be heading to Chiang Kong on the Laos border tomorrow before getting a slow boat to Luang Prabang over two days.