Bangkok and Kanchanaburi

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  Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Tuesday, August 5, 2003

We caught an overnight train and arrived in Bangkok very early in the morning, so the people out and about were either setting up shop for the day or were on their way home from a big night out. We stayed at Orchard House in the street behind Khao San Road, close enough to the action but a bit quieter than the road itself! Paid a visit to a favourite Thai massage place from last time, and ate excellent street food. We also travelled by boat on the river to get a different perspective of the city, and ended up in front row seats at a karoake contest at Siam Square - this consisted of Thai teenagers pulling a song name out of a hat and having to sing it without looking at the words on the screen, most only managed a couple of words before cracking up laughing or shyly giving up!

We then went to Kanchanaburi to see the Bridge over the River Kwai and other World War II things - JEATH museum (not death, they thought that would be too gruesome a name, but the details described in the pictures and stories there are so bad) and a war cemetary with lots of Aussie, British and Dutch graves. It was all very interesting yet such a sad insight into the past.

The town itself was quite nice - friendly laidback people, good street food and some cool little bars including one with red walls and retro decorations which was great! Another attraction of Kanchanaburi (more for Asian tourists) is floating disco rafts, which seem to go all night long with really loud repetitive Thai pop music and BAD karaoke singing!

We spent one day at Erawan Falls, a beautiful 7 tiered waterfall about 1-2 hours out of town. You had to walk alot to get to the different layers, so a swim was well deserved! There were heaps of fish in the different pools, which weren't afraid of humans at all and kept nibbling everyone (I think my screams at one stage turned a couple off getting into the water at all!). We also tried to avoid some monkeys we spotted after our experience at the Perhentians, we've been scarred for life!

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