13/2/05- We (Rolf, Berny and me) wanted 125 cc bikes, we had to get one 125 and two 11o's. Makes no sodding difference and if we were real men we would get some 1500's!! Anyway, we set off to explore, first stop is the bridge again as Julia and CO haveny seen it yet, we pop in to the war mueseum afterwards and its the weirdest, bad taste way to do way to show what happened. They have these clay models of the POWs working in the loin cloths they had to make do with, but they are awful and even show their nether regions in a way that really is un-neccessary!!
After this macabre mueseum we headed off.....to somewhere, being as vague as 'lets go this way' we ended up on the very windy highway, and found signs to an animal sanctuary. What it actually was was 400 dogs and two goats making a very large amount of noise! A quick walk round the very smelly compound and we were on our way again, having not adopted any off the dogs.
More random riding later and we find a cool market where we could get things on sticks to eat!! Nice and cheap too. Spicy fishballs on sticks, and a weird omlette thing.
After a days riding around you really need some Karaoke, so after a little search we found a small bar that was virtually empty and the girls could virtually sing all night, even Rolf had a go! Those aware of my vocal ability will know that I wont do any singing, with good reason.
14/2/05- We are going to meet Tom and Jess today!!! We are so exited we cant wait, but first we need to get to Bangkok again, but its really easy and only tow hours on the bus.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Touching Tiger, hidden fear. (Steve)
Well, I said we were hoping to go to the Tiger Temple and we did. Its an odd place, the Lonely Planet says dont go, someone got mauled about six months ago, so off we go!!
Its out in the middle of nowhere, and you get let into a secure compound of some 80 acres, as you walk in you turn left into 'Tiger Canyon', wondering what to expect, I didnt really think that theere would be 4 adult and two young Tigers 'loose', as in a rope is between the crowd and them, and they are not tied down or anything.
The brave people (us- Sian, Julia, Rolf and myself) then queue up to go and stroke the chilled out big moggies. The funniest thing was Rolf had one picture taken and the workers noticed he could, er, do with a clean shirt as the odour he was giving off could mean he was mistaken for a mid-afternoon snack!!!
We clean people got two pictures taken with the two groups of Tigers, I can honestly say I never really though I'd be stroking an un-restrained Tiger!! Great experience though, wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!!
Hiring motorbikes tomorrow to go and explore........
Its out in the middle of nowhere, and you get let into a secure compound of some 80 acres, as you walk in you turn left into 'Tiger Canyon', wondering what to expect, I didnt really think that theere would be 4 adult and two young Tigers 'loose', as in a rope is between the crowd and them, and they are not tied down or anything.
The brave people (us- Sian, Julia, Rolf and myself) then queue up to go and stroke the chilled out big moggies. The funniest thing was Rolf had one picture taken and the workers noticed he could, er, do with a clean shirt as the odour he was giving off could mean he was mistaken for a mid-afternoon snack!!!
We clean people got two pictures taken with the two groups of Tigers, I can honestly say I never really though I'd be stroking an un-restrained Tiger!! Great experience though, wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!!
Hiring motorbikes tomorrow to go and explore........
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Sunday, February 13, 2005
The Bridge over the river Kwai (Steve)
From the last post I reckon no-one would guess we didnt like Hua Hin that much! So getting to Kancanaburi was a real breath of fresh air. It is geared up for the tourist, but has the feeling of being real Thailand instead of a resort. Having found Sugar Cane guest house, overlooking the River Kwai, we sorted out a tour tomorrow seeing all the war sites.
So on the morning of the 11th, we get up and join a minibus full of people and set off to Erawan Waterfalls, about 80km's from Kancanaburi. I had managed to cut my right foot in Hua Hin by getting pushed into a rock by a ruff sea, so wasnt really relishing the prospect of a 2.5km hike through rainforest to get to the top. Especially as we'd very cleverly worn flip-flops......
With a moderate amount of discomfort we made it to the top and Sian did do swimming in the blue, calcium carbonate rich water on the 7th tier. The way back was frought with other tourists but we survived and headed of to Hellfire Pass.
This was a very eary place, we havent really been at anywhere like this before, so many allied POW's died from starvation, disease and beatings at the hands of the Japanese occupiers that the place has a real sinister feeling to it. They built a railway all the way from Bangkok to Burma -Myanmar as it is now known.Feeling very hot (imagine what the POW's had to deal with) we saw the HAND tools that were used to carve through mountains, check the pictures but its hard to understand what those guys went through, and you cant feel how hot it is. Should also mention that for approximately 18000 allied POWs that died there were about 30000 asian labourers that befell the same fate. Its a grim history lesson, makes me wonder about our planned visit to the killing fields in Cambodia, but its one of those things that I guess you should learn about.......
After that we had an hour long train ride to go over the famous Bridge over the river Kwai, it is still used today although all but 130km of the original track was torn up. We got off the train and walked up the tracks on the bridge, most of the bridge was renewed after the allies bombed it at the end of the war.
That ended our day trip and after all the walking around in the heat we were knackered!! That was until we got back to the hotel to discover Julia had arrived, so needless to say we ended up going out for a few re-union drinks.........
We woke up today to fire works on our ceiling, our fan decided to wear through its cable and starting sparking everywhere, not the best of alarm calls but it woke us up. Thankfully we turned it off in time as no fuse appeared to be present, and our little room didnt burn down!!
Hoping to go to the Tiger temple this afternoon which should be scarrey, I mean nice.
So on the morning of the 11th, we get up and join a minibus full of people and set off to Erawan Waterfalls, about 80km's from Kancanaburi. I had managed to cut my right foot in Hua Hin by getting pushed into a rock by a ruff sea, so wasnt really relishing the prospect of a 2.5km hike through rainforest to get to the top. Especially as we'd very cleverly worn flip-flops......
With a moderate amount of discomfort we made it to the top and Sian did do swimming in the blue, calcium carbonate rich water on the 7th tier. The way back was frought with other tourists but we survived and headed of to Hellfire Pass.
This was a very eary place, we havent really been at anywhere like this before, so many allied POW's died from starvation, disease and beatings at the hands of the Japanese occupiers that the place has a real sinister feeling to it. They built a railway all the way from Bangkok to Burma -Myanmar as it is now known.Feeling very hot (imagine what the POW's had to deal with) we saw the HAND tools that were used to carve through mountains, check the pictures but its hard to understand what those guys went through, and you cant feel how hot it is. Should also mention that for approximately 18000 allied POWs that died there were about 30000 asian labourers that befell the same fate. Its a grim history lesson, makes me wonder about our planned visit to the killing fields in Cambodia, but its one of those things that I guess you should learn about.......
After that we had an hour long train ride to go over the famous Bridge over the river Kwai, it is still used today although all but 130km of the original track was torn up. We got off the train and walked up the tracks on the bridge, most of the bridge was renewed after the allies bombed it at the end of the war.
That ended our day trip and after all the walking around in the heat we were knackered!! That was until we got back to the hotel to discover Julia had arrived, so needless to say we ended up going out for a few re-union drinks.........
We woke up today to fire works on our ceiling, our fan decided to wear through its cable and starting sparking everywhere, not the best of alarm calls but it woke us up. Thankfully we turned it off in time as no fuse appeared to be present, and our little room didnt burn down!!
Hoping to go to the Tiger temple this afternoon which should be scarrey, I mean nice.
We love toursits!! (Steve)
So, nice though Khiri Khan was, we decided to move on to Hua Hin, a bit further north towards Bangkok. It is such an easy country to get around, you can buy tickets everywhere to anywhere!!
Anyway we avoid chicken liver soup for brekky and head off to the bus terminal, the bus is not as smooth as before but ok and we get to Hua Hin to be greeted by a tourist resort that would not look that out of place on one of the Spanish Costas! Not really what we were looking for but for two days its bareable. We manage to find an over-priced hut on a pier for 350B, complete with its very own species of mould inside. But we can hear the sea under us so it redeems itself a bit.
That said its two days on a crowded beech but we can do it, and we can avoid the seedy girlie bars on a couple of streets.........
All in all, thats Hua Hin really, not much to say exept that we wont rush back, but if you want to see overweight old men on the beech with young Thai girls its the place to go. Oh, but the seafood is really good.
Anyway we avoid chicken liver soup for brekky and head off to the bus terminal, the bus is not as smooth as before but ok and we get to Hua Hin to be greeted by a tourist resort that would not look that out of place on one of the Spanish Costas! Not really what we were looking for but for two days its bareable. We manage to find an over-priced hut on a pier for 350B, complete with its very own species of mould inside. But we can hear the sea under us so it redeems itself a bit.
That said its two days on a crowded beech but we can do it, and we can avoid the seedy girlie bars on a couple of streets.........
All in all, thats Hua Hin really, not much to say exept that we wont rush back, but if you want to see overweight old men on the beech with young Thai girls its the place to go. Oh, but the seafood is really good.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
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