Day 17 - July 13

We woke up early, had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Then we waited outside the hotel for the Kanchanaburi tour to pick us up. Just as we were starting to get a bit nervous that they had forgotten about us, a woman came running shouting for "Tina". Her name was Oy and she was our guide. We were taken to the car, in which we also put our backpacks. Apparently we were the last persons to be picked up, so the car headed straight out of Bangkok. As we got stuck in traffic, Oy announced that "traffic in Bangkok very bad, everything else very good". I'm not so sure I agree completely with that statement :-)

Despite the car doing about 140-150 km/h once we got out of Bangkok, the ride to Kanchanaburi took about two hours. Both of us fell asleep on the way and woke up as we approached the city. Kanchanaburi looked like most other Thai cities, i.e. pretty awful, apparently being only one long street lined with Thai shops.

We first stopped at a cemetery where Western soldiers who had been working on the Death Railway were buried. It was quite big, with sections for British, Australian and Dutch soldiers.

Then we drove to the JEATH War Museum, which we were given about 15 minutes for exploring. Now, admittedly the museum is not very large, but we thought 15 minutes was not enough. It enabled us to pass through a tent with various exhibits from the POW camp, but didn't give us time to read anything.

The museum was on the bank of the river Kwai, and after coming out we were taken to a boat and driven down the river. The ride was only 5-10 minutes, but it was by far the best experience of the whole tour. It was very refreshing going at high speed down the river and feel the air blowing against us. We stopped at a bridge and got out. It turned out to be "the bridge on the river Kwai".

The place was packed with tourists, especially on the bridge itself. We walked across the bridge and back again, taking some photos. To be honest, it wasn't that interesting, after all it was just...ehm... a bridge. Not particularly fancy and not even the one the POWs had built, since that one had been bombed by the allies. It had however been rebuilt at exactly the same spot.

There were lots of souvenir shops around, but as it was very hot, we settled for some ice cream only. Eventually the train arrived, giving us the choice of either riding the train for a distance, or come with our Oy to a some kind of cave. May Tina, me and a guy from Australia opted for the cave instead of standing for an hour on the packed train.

We drove for half an hour and arrived at where the train would come a little bit later. After walking along the train tracks for about 100 meters, there was a cave in which POWs had been put when they were punished. Now, there was a Buddha statue inside. For som reason, Oy was almost panically frightened that one of us would get injured while we waited for the train to arrive. The place didn't look very dangerous, but apparently the tour insurance did not cover us waiting outside the cave, as this was not really part of the tour, but only a "favour" that Oy was doing for us. The area was very beautiful with the train track just creeping along the hillside, the river floating below and lots of lush, green and tropical vegetation.

The train arrived and we regrouped with the others to be driven to our lunch spot. This was on a boat that seemed to lie permanently by the riverside. We were given various Asian food, and although it looked quite good, we didn't think it tasted very well. The surrounding scenery was very beautiful, though!

After lunch, time was about 1330 and the tour was basically over. On the drive back to Bangkok, Oy started giving us various "good deals". Apparently, the company had a tour to some kind of "show" which usually cost 600 Bath, but where we would be given a special discount of 300 Bath since we were already in the area. We were not particularly interested, and it was also unclear what would happen if some of the group wanted to go, while others didn't. Would the others just have to wait outside? We didn't like the way Oy was trying to "force" us into spending even more money.

Fortunately, the problem was solved by itself because suddenly there was a loud bang from the car, which then had to stop next to the road. It was not clear what had actually happened to the car, but when we eventually could continue, we had ost so much time that we didn't have time for the show :-)

On our arrival in Bangkok, it suddenly started raining horrendously. However, instead of dropping us off at our respective hotels, we were given a special "bonus" by being taken to a huge gem shop! We were getting increasingly annoyed with this tour. After having paid 750 Bath for very little, we were not expecting to be taken to such a place. Anyway, we were given a free drink inside, and the place was so huge that there wasn't really much buying pressure. There were simply not enough staff to follow all the other tourists around and "befriending" them.

When we were finished, Oy told us that we would be driven to our hotel in another car. This was quite inconvenient for us because we would then have to move our backpacks to the new car, and in the process become completely wet from the pouring rain. Why couldn't we just go in the other car? May Tina told Oy that this arrangement was stupid. Now, Thais are supposed to always keep their cool, but apparently Oy was not a typical Thai because she seemed to take this as a personal insult. "Who you calling stupid? I take you to hotel! No problem! It is system."

May Tina, who remained completely cool, remarked that "then it is a stupid system". Now, Oy was really pissed off, and said something like "It is Bangkok system! Not stupid system! I take you to hotel! No Problem! Good system! No stupid!" The way she really lost her temper was quite amusing :-)

We transferred our stuff to the other car, and were driven to our new hotel, the Tong Poon. Even though it was was 50 Bath cheaper than the Muangphol Mansion, it turned out to be much nicer. We were given a big room with bathroom, TV and refrigerator. Our faith in Mr. Prakit's ability to recommend good hotels was reinforced.

While relaxing at the room waiting for the rain to end, we discussed what to do next. Initially we had wanted to travel to Nakhon Ratchasima and the North Eastern part of Thailand, but now it turned out that both of us were having second thoughts. We were already at day 17 out of 42, yet still we hadn't come any closer to Malaysia. Travelling was taking much more time than expected. If we travelled eastwards now, it would take us several days before we could return, leaving us with little time for Malaysia. Besides, both us were tired of temples, wats and Buddhas, which was the main attraction in the Eastern part of Thailand.

We therefore decided to skip Eastern Thailand and travel southwards instead. But where should our next stop be? We wanted to go a place where we could relax, do nothing and regain some energy after a quite stressful first two weeks. Before leaving home, we had not made any plans to visit Phuket, but now it emerged as a potensial candidate for our next stop. Back then, we had planned on finding "our own" secluded beach, but now we didn't want the hassle of going somewhere without proper tourist infrastructure. We decided to have a chat with Mr. Prakit and see what he had to offer.

First we tried walking down to the train station, but we eventually had to take a taxi when we got lost :-) Mr. Prakit easily arranged bus tickets and a place to stay for three nights at Phuket. The hotel was at Patong Beach, which was a place we initially had definitely wanted to stay away from(!). However, now we were so eager to get away from Bangkok, that we didn't really care where we ended up, as long as it was in the general direction of Malaysia. Besides, if we didn't like Patong, we could easily just move to somewhere else on Phuket, we figured.

We took a tuk-tuk back to Siam Square, checked out which movies were screening tomorrow at the cinema, had a small meal at Burger King, walked around the area and went back to the hotel. We slept well during the night.

Day 18 - July 14

This day would mainly be about killing time until the bus to Phuket left around 1800, so we slept until quite late. Breakfast at the hotel was the best we'd had so far, and around 1130 we checked out and took a taxi down to Richly Travel to store our backpacks.

We then took a tuk-tuk back to Siam Square to spend the day there, browsing around in shops. First, we however bought tickets to U-571 and had an ice cream at Swensen's before the movie started. After the movie we had a meal at Burger King and then it was time to take a tuk-tuk down to Richly Travel again.

According to Mr. Prakit, the bus to Phuket had broken down(!), so he had gotten us train tickets instead at roughly the same price. We would take the night train to Surat Thani and change to a bus there.

Having discovered that food on the train was as cheap as everywhere else, we didn't bother to get any supplies, but instead just ordered some really great Satay chicken on the train. For a while we were a little bit worried about being on the wrong train, since it didn't leave on schedule, but eventually it got going and everything turned out to be correct.