To get here we chose to take our last overnight train in Asia from Chiang Mai in the north to Bangkok in the south, and then a chicken-bus 3 hours north-west to Kanchanaburi. The night train was really comfortable - we had the equivalent of a soft sleeper in Vietnam but instead of cabin doors we both had our own curtain and the mattress was a lot more comfortable. In typical Asia-style, the train was 2 hours late getting to Bangkok Hua Lamphong (apparently it always is) so we weren't planning on being able to catch our connecting train from the Bangkok Thonburi station. But the bus was fine, though this time, instead of awful music, the film Salt was played (annoyingly) with very bad Thai dubbing.
Kanchanaburi is famous for the bridge over the River Kwai, among other things. The bridge was built by allied POWs as a supply route from Burma in the 2nd world war, under the watchful eyes of the brutal Japanese. On our first day in town, after we'd finally found our hotel, we went for another one of our walks which turned out to be 3km from one end of town to the other where the bridge was. We'd heard reports that the bridge wasn't that spectacular, it was only made famous by the film, which itself went some way to highlight the unfortunate plight of the many thousand of POWs killed in making the bridge and the route further up the 'Death Railway' line. The reports were largely right, it's nothing special and much of the original structure has been replaced/repaired following bombing in the war, but it is still pretty cool to walk over the tracks, dodging the semi-regular trains that still use them.
We then decided that we needed relief from the intense heat, so in order to get back to town we got in a mental 15ft long boat with a V8 engine strapped to the back - and covered the 3km distance in minutes; our boat trip on the River Kwai was an awesome wedding present!
On Friday we went for a walk of a different kind - through the Tiger Temple, another reason to come to Kanchanaburi. Anyone who has heard about the temple will also probably have heard that the tigers are supposedly drugged (this blog is one of thousands on this subject), otherwise how would so many people have walked up to these natural predators and got away with stroking it?!
Despite meeting one of the volunteers from the temple in a bar the night before, a British guy who was on the road to becoming permanent staff, who tried to re-assure us that no drugs were used, it was still with some trepidation that we booked and boarded the Songatheuw (taxi) the next day.
When we had bought our tickets, we were so transfixed about seeing the tigers that we almost missed the pack(?) of wild boar feeding at the entrance. The temple is actually a sanctuary for many different types of animals - as well as the 105 tigers there are massive Black Asiatic bears, deer, lions, buffalo and various birds. We later got stared out by the boars and having watched one or two David Attenborough documentaries in the past, we knew better and slowly backed off!
We also hadn't appreciated how huge the place was - it was a slow 10 minute walk from the entrance to the grand-sounding Tiger Canyon, where we were greeted by an army of western volunteers, one of which explained that included in our entrance ticket was a few photos with the tigers and that if we wanted special photos, ie a tiger's head in your lap, it would cost £20 a pop! It was probably the price that put me off but the thought of having something so dangerous near that part of my body wasn't too appealing either, so we stuck with the standard photos. And to be honest, unless you are a bit of a nutcase and/or really love tigers, the standard photos are more than enough to get close to the beasts. Luckily we got there early enough in the afternoon that we were about 10 minutes earlier than everyone else (which also meant we had more than enough time to see the rest of the park) and very quickly I was being lead (Fiz was being chicken so I went first) by the volunteer's hand to an area containing at least a dozen tigers of various ages, all but one of which was chained to the ground. Now, they did all look very lethargic (the tigers not the volunteers!), which is strange considering there was so much human meat roaming around - this is why people think they've been drugged. Apparently though tigers sleep for 18-20 hours of the day anyway and they'd also just been fed - stroking time is always in the early afternoon straight after feeding time. Regardless of our reservations, as we stood behind, posed with and stroked the tigers, we both couldn't help but feel a little in awe of the animals and thankful that we'd had the experience. The jury is still out on the drugging and there's no doubt that this is a terrible tourist trap but the alternative for the animals seems to be the risk of endangerment in the wild, thanks to poaching, which can fetch a farmer a year's wages just for one kill. And I left feeling a little better about it having seen that none of the animals looked to be in distress or malnourished - in my humble opinion!
After we'd seen the tigers play-fight and be bottle-fed, the bears sun-bathe and the rest of the wildlife feast on dinner, we headed back to town.
Kanchanaburi itself is a bit of a strange town - by day it seems perfectly peaceful, with a huge range of delicious food available (thanks in the main to the plethora of expats who have set up businesses there) and some friendly faces for this far south in Thailand. But by night, the main strip completely changes in to a party town; lady-boys and banging music abound - an eclectic mix of north and south.
On Saturday we made our way back for the third time, to Bangkok, our last stopping place in Asia. Immediately it was clear that we were on our way to/in Bangkok - the minibus driver was a lunatic and there was a thick grey coating in the sky covering the strong sun. But it was good to be in this vibrant city again.
Yesterday was our last shopping day, and as Asia is famous for its markets we went to the mother of them all - Chatuchak market in the north of the city. You really can buy pretty much anything, from clothes and home furnishings, to chipmunks and puppies! It took us the best part of a day just to see everything there. Times must be hard though - everyone we had spoken to beforehand had said to bargain hard, but none of the stall owners were budging much. We also found Choconanas - frozen bananas smothered in chocolate and covered with various toppings - delicious!
We then ventured to the MBK centre, the huge mall in town where all the cool kids hang out. Rather than going to the cinema to watch a film we hadn't heard about (we're very out of touch!) Fiz surprisingly agreed to give a 4D simulator a go - as long as we didn't pick a scary one. Luckily we chose to do it before dinner, which we had in the food court and which had to be paid for with coupons.
Today we finally went to see the floating market of Damnoen Saduak, 100km or so away from Bangkok. To say this is geared towards tourists would be an understatement - there were no locals buying anything, at least not when we were there and there were only souvenirs and some food on offer. But it was a good insight in to how life used to be and still fun to haggle from boat to boat.
Tonight I took Fiz on a traditional Thai dinner cruise on a converted rice barge on the Chao Phraya river, to mark our last night in Asia. We're both stuffed now and have a travel day tomorrow so we're off to bed!
It is very strange to think that we'll be flying to Australia tomorrow and we'll be sad to leave Bangkok - this place has so much to offer, we just ran out of time to do it all!
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