Train Ride to Pack of Cards Wooden Bridge in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Why is a bridge called 'pack of cards', you ask? Because it has fallen down about four times. 

We took our chances and took the train westward from Kanchanaburi to see the wooden bridge. 

The train ride was super beautiful through the countryside, and we saw a surprising amount of crops considering it is dry season in Thailand right now. 

We got off and walked along death railroad - it was actually the hottest day of life, about 40C. I thought my flip flops were going to melt on the metal tracks. 

We then went to ask a wish from the Buddha in a cave, as we had been instructed by a lady on the train. 

It was the first day that we didn't really know what we were doing, but ended up being really lovely thanks to suggestions from kind strangers :) 

We got back to our hotel and made a pit stop at our fave vegetarian restaurant - Mama On's Thai Issan restaurant. 

If you go, get the Tom Kha soup and Thai iced tea with lemon (which is actually lime, since lemons are super rare and expensive here). 

It was back to Bangkok for us!

Erawan Falls, Thailand

After a full day of history, we took the bus to Erawan Falls, about an hour and a half north of Kanchanaburi. 

They are magnificent. 

It is a seven story waterfall in a protected national park. It was a Saturday when we went, so there were tons of Thai people there. And Russians. In speedos. Hell ya. 

We were glad that we wore our running shoes. The first two steps are easy to get to, but the terrain becomes slightly more treacherous as you go to the higher steps. 

They actually had a station where you needed to put a deposit for your water bottles to make sure you don't leave it in the park. Genius! There are also signs to beware of ferocious monkeys, who have been known to steal bags. I think there are noise makers in the park now, and we didn't even see one monkey. Kind of glad I didn't have to fend any off ;)

It was disgustingly hot outside, but we persevered all the way to the seventh step and then had the best reward ever - a nice cool swim! 

There were HUGE fish in the tide pools, however. 

Now, don't get me wrong - I lie fish. I love seeing them swim around me when I dive or snorkel, and I love to eat them. Turns out, I do not enjoy being nibbled by mystery fish in a pool of water. Everyone seemed to think it was hilarious to see me frantically moving about to keep the fish from nibbling my feet and ankles. I took refuge in the waterfall ;)

We caught the last bus back to Kanchanaburi which was packed full of people - we were literally sitting on the steps with the door wide open. 

Thankfully, the bus didn't go very fast. 

Cyn and I have a tendency to pass out on all modes of transport almost instantly, so it was all we could do not to fall asleep and head bob our way into falling out the door. We survived ;)

That night, we had an awesome chat with Cat, the lady boy who owns an awesome ice cream shop. 

She told us all about the difficulty of finding work as a lady boy and how thankful she was for her British boyfriend. 'He take care of me'. If you're ever in the area, pop by and say hi!

Death Railway in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

The easiest way to get from Sukkhothai to Kanchanaburi was to bus back to Bangkok and then take another bus. 

We arrived at around 3am, and let me tell you, was I ever glad to have my travel buddy with me. It's a bit sketchy in the dark. 

We caught the 6am bus to Kanchanaburi, found our hostel - Sam's Guesthouse - although we got totally ripped off by the taxi man (150 baht instead of 50...we were tired and hungry, so we didn't feel like bargaining at the time). 

After a wee snooze, we set off towards the death railway bridge across River Kwai. 

It is called thus due to the number of Japanese POW (prisoners of war) who died during its creation. There were approximately 200,000 POW from USA, Holland, UK and other South East Asian countries, and about 100,000 of them died due to harsh working conditions, poor sanitation and diseases such as malaria and cholera. 

The original bridge was actually bombed by the Allies during WWII, but has been reconstructed as a heritage site. 

We went to the JEATH war museum near the bridge and learned about the history of the area. 

I never realized that so much happened in this area during the war, it was definitely eye opening. We also checked out the cemetery where most of the POW were buried (I believe the American POW were buried in USA). 

There was an interesting story about a Japanese military man who actually came back to try and make up for some of the wrong that he committed during the war. He initiated a reunion of POW and Japanese commanders as a step towards reconciliation, and built a memorial for all those who died. 

The Japanese General who made all the shots during this time was supposed to be hung, but shot himself first. American surgeons tried to save him (to then hang him) but they weren't able to. 

'War is like love: easy to start, and hard to end'  

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we almost got locked into the museum. We escaped ;) 

As a celebration of our sneaky escape, we decided to try the fruit 'durian' for the first time. 

It is banned in many places because it smells so badly. Seriously. It smells like fresh garbage. 

It was supposed to taste better than it smells, but we weren't too impressed. Thankfully, we had some delicious coco yen to wash it down ;)