Bangkok

Back in Bangkok, and a taxi journey that should have lasted 40 mins took us around 1.5 hours. Our taxi seemed to have lots of 'No' signs. No dogs, No smoking, No eating, No Durian - all the usual.

But this was by far the biggest of the 'No' signs!

Instead of braving more taxis (the roads here were always crazy and packed with traffic) we took the boat up the river into the city.

A great prespective and no traffic lights! The Temple of Dawn.

The grand Palace.

Classic Thailand.

Back to good old Khoa San road - in the day.

.......... At night.

We were once again very appreciative of the the hospitallity of the Snidvongs where we were able to stay in one of their appartments. They also invited us to a night at the opera.

Where a Thai production of a well known Thai ghost story was being performed before heading off to the West End. It was fantastic and in English with subtitles, so we understood every word. Essentially the story is of a man who falls in love and has a child with a lady. He then has to go off to war before the child is born. While he is away the lady and child die during child birth but their spirits stay on waiting for him to return. He retrns and thinks she is the real deal but her ghostly figure haunts the locals. Until he denies her she cannot go on to the afterlife.

We decided to spend a full packed day at the River Kwai rather than a 3 day trip. First stop: the floating market where we had the worst rip off act we have had in the whole of our trip. They tried to sell us boat tickets for 2500 Bhat which is around £55. The tickets should have cost around £3 - £5!!! We walked away and would you known it the price fell..................... dramatically.

The floating market is purely for tourists and sells, well, lots of trinkets (or, in other words, mainly tat).

It was a great experience, however, and lovely to see all the boats floating passed selling their wares.

It did get a little crowded!

OK - very crowded!

Back on the open river.

The river Kwai is famous for its bridge. In World War II the Japanese (who occupied much of SE Asia) needed a trade route to/from India. Their first choice for this was the sea. But it was too dangerous due to the allied forces. As a result, they decided on the crazy railway which would have to cut through the mountians and jungle bordering Burhma. Huge labour forces were required - what a great activity for the prisioners of war and local Indians/Thais etc!

The conditions and the labour were unbelievably bad and around 100,000 died (10,000 pow's, the rest civilians) - yet another atrocity of war.

The local museum held great information of this fairly unknown crime fo war.


The bridge over the River Kwai.

You can acutually still see the bomb marks in the pillars from where the Allied Forces bombed it as part fo the final war effort that eventually led to the Japanese surrender.

Another little bizzare museum holding - well - lots of oddities.

A statue.

Old bells made of bombs.

A very strange bomb scene complete with naked dummies.

Oh - and the strangest toilet sign ever.

The mountians the railway cut through, all cut by man power alone.

Our last weekend was over a Buddhist celebration, kind of like our Lent. The monks were given many gifts including lightbulbs and food.

We decided to stop at a local bar - well we were on holiday, after all!

Due to the Buddhist festival no alchol was allowed to be sold. This did not stop the Thais, who simply served us in mugs instead! (Not the first time I have drunk wine from a mug on the trip).

We have grown so used to this classic Asian temple scene - it will be missed.

Our last night and the Snidvongs, our unbelievably fantastic hosts, invited us out for a last Thai supper.

What a meal - I think we had every classic Thai dish in one meal.

The following day, our last day, was very much bitter sweet. We were both so ready to come home and have missed everyone so much but Asia has become a very comfortable place for us. We will return!