When we got back from Myanmar, we spent 2 nights in Bangkok, washing clothes, updating our blog, and we even went to the movies. We had about ten days free before starting our week of volunteering in Chiang Mai, so we decided to visit two old capitals of the Siam Kingdom. A two hours train ride took us to Ayutthaya, where we found a nice and cozy guesthouse to spend one night. Because of the extreme heat, we decided to rent a scooter to visit some of the ruins of the old city.
Ayutthaya was the second capital of the Siam Kingdom, after Sukkhotai. In 1767 it was destroyed by the Burmese army, and the ruins are now preserved in the Ayutthaya Historical Park, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
One of the maintained Buddhas in Ayutthaya
The reclining Buddha used in a scene of the old game Street Fighters
The famous head of Buddha in a tree
When the sun set we didn't feel to comfortable about riding around in the dark, so we made our last stop to the local street market where we had some yummy chicken wings and refreshing fruit shakes.
The next day we took a bus to Sukhothai, the capital of the first Kingdom of Siam about 800 years ago. One of its rulers, King Ramkhamhaeng the Great, created the Thai alphabet. The city is divided into Old Sukhothai and New Sukhothai. We stayed in New Sukhothai because there was supposed to be a street market there, but comparing to others cities the market didn't have so many culinary options. We had dinner there the first night and for the next 3 days Tachi didn't feel well, so we didn't do much those days. When she felt better, we took a local bus to visit the Sukhothai Historical Park, also an UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Old Sukhothai. We biked around the park, which was really beautiful and well mantained, surrounded by lotus flowers ponds. It was a cloudy day, and perfect to bike around.
Lotus flowers in Sukhothai Historical Park
A great day for biking around, visiting the ruins
Buddhas placed at the roots of a tree
The next day we took a bus to Chiang Mai, it was a 6 hours drive. We decided to stay at the same place we stayed the last time where we had good internet :) We also spent the weekend there so we could visit the regular night market and the Sunday night market, where we always had good food, including Tachi's so wanted fresh popcorn.
After a tough bus ride up the mountain, with several of the passengers getting road sick, we finally arrived Kalaw. Kalaw is a very small town where we only stayed for one night. The next morning we started a 3 day trekking with Corinna, Lara, an American guy we met on the bus, David, and another German couple at our hotel, Justus and Lina. We started walking out of the city towards the jungle, with Johnnie Walker as our guide.
Team Johnnie Walker
We walked in some beautiful mountain landscapes, past by green tea plantations and saw the local people working in the fields. At the end of the first day's trekking we got to a monastery in a tiny village where we would be spending the night. While Johnnie was preparing dinner for us we got to spend some time with the very shy local kids. David also got to play some "bamboo ball foot-volley" with the teenagers.
One of the local monk kids
Tachi showing off some photos to the curious kids
David in action playing foot-volley with a ball made out of bamboo
We experienced a new type of shower at the monastery. It was like a concrete reserve of water where we used a bucket to pour water over ourselves. The water was freezing cold! Girls had to use specified toilets and showers, while men could choose between all. Johnnie Walker cooked us some good food and we had dinner with candlelight and the company of a giant spider on the wall. We played cards until the praying time was finished so we could go into the main hall of the monastery where we would be sleeping.
Spider joining us for dinner
Nice table of good Burmese food
The next day we had a 24 km route passing cabbage fields, rice paddies, young peanut plants and some fields with yellow flowers that we think were canola. In the evening we arrived to a little village where we would be sleeping in a bamboo hut. While dinner was getting prepared the guys went out for a walk around the village for some great views and playing with some kids. We got a great meal, and afterwards we shared a bottle of Myanmar Rum (less than 2 dollars!) while playing cards. During the walk the guys had found a place that would be nice for sunrise, but unfortunately it was too cloudy so we decided to keep sleeping.
Young boy working alone in the fields
The third day would be the day we arrived to Inle Lake, our final destination. We made an early stop passing by an old, wooden monastery. When we saw the lake from the mountains we had to pay 11 dollars to enter the Inle Lake area, and the last few hours of the trekking our guide was really in a hurry to get down the mountain. The track was tricky and not so easy to walk. We had lunch in a village close to the lake before we took a boat with no seats or roof to cross the lake to Nyaung Shwe. In the middle of the trip our boat broke down and we had to wait until someone came to fix it. The heat was extreme, but they gave us some umbrellas to make some shade.
Waiting for help in the middle of the lake
We even started to paddle with our flip-flops
The locals of the Inle Lake are famous for their way of paddling with their legs
When we finally arrived Nyaung Shwe it started to rain. Johnnie Walker brought us to a very cute guesthouse where our big backpacks were waiting for us. We decided to stay there for some days to relax and wash some clothes.
Our 3 day trek to Inle Lake
Nyaung Shwe is a small town where the electricity is off every day for some time, but at least we had a power generator at our guesthouse, so we could use the fan in our room. We didn't do too much there, just reading, writing postcards, playing cards and going out to eat.
The view from our guesthouse in Nyaung Shwe
Sunset behind a beer poster
One evening we had dinner David ordered a mango lassi, and a few hours later he started to feel sick. That night he couldn't sleep due to his visits to the toilet. The next day he had fever and started shaking, so the nice guesthouse owner brought us to a doctor. He prescribed antibiotics and said we had to cancel our bus to Mandalay that evening.
The next day David was feeling a bit better and started to eat again, but the only thing the guesthouse could offer us was the Shan noodle soup that wasn't good for David's stomach quite yet, so they said Tachi could use the kitchen if she wanted. She boiled some vegetables and they had new steamed rice for David's lunch. Tachi was tired of having Shan noodle soup and decided to go out for lunch. In the evening David was feeling stronger and we could take the bus to Mandalay. We arrived there at 3:40am and, as always, there were many taxi drivers waiting for the people to get off. We decided to walk but it took us a while to find the hotel as Tachi had the wrong address :(
After 1 hour of walking and sweating like hell, we checked in and got some sleep. We woke up for lunch and walked to a restaurant just one block from our place. In the afternoon we went for a walk to find the night market with Corinna, Lara and David 2. The market was nothing more than some stands with fake western clothes. We were looking for somewhere clean to eat and found a restaurant that seemed nice. It was on the second floor and there was a creepy elevator to get up. When we found the restaurant we were welcomed by 4 or 5 waiters, but the place was too fancy and expensive for what we were looking for. They even offered us a private dinner room. We apologized and left the place.
View from the fancy restaurant
We decided to go to the same place where we had lunch before. The place was crowded with people drinking beer and watching television. It seems like in Myanmar is not normal having a TV at home, so it's very common that at some times the restaurants with TV get crowded.
The next morning Guillermo, an Argentinian we had met in Koh Tao, joined us for breakfast and we headed to the AirAsia shuttle bus to go to the airport. The airport was pretty basic, with no air-con, and the check-in was practically manual.
Myanmar was a very interesting place, people are so nice and welcoming, especially in little villages. Here are some interesting facts we saw and learned during our stay:
* It's very difficult to find a good wi-fi connection. In some places you could only access the wi-fi between 7 to 10am. In our guesthouse in Nyaung Shwe they shared their mobile data for the guests, and only for 1h. * The men wear longyi, a wraparound skirt.
* Men and women use a yellow paste called Thanaka. It is made by grinding the bark, wood or roots of a thanaka tree with a small amount of water. Apart from cosmetic beauty, it also gives a cooling sensation and protects the skin from sunburn.
* When you want the waiter's attention, you have to make a kissing sound, almost like calling a cat. :P * You might see many people with red teeth. Everywhere you find street stalls selling betel nut and green leaves. The betel nut, spices and a pinch of tobacco are folded into the leaves and popped into the mouth and chewed. * People who chew the betel nut spit out all the time. So it's common to find red stains on the ground.
Our trip to Myanmar started in Mae Sot, the Thai city on the border. When we got off of the bus we met two German girls, Corinna and Lara, who were also going to the border so we shared a songthaew to the immigration. We crossed the Friendship Bridge by foot and entered Myanmar easily, hoping to catch a bus to Yangon. Unfortunately we were to late for the last bus and the next one would be in two days. The girls had no plans either so we decided to share a taxi to Hpa An where we would get a bus the next morning to Yangon. We had to withdraw some money not knowing exactly the prices of anything so we took 200.000 kyats (aprox. 200 USD). The ATM spat out so many notes that we could not fit them in the wallet! The thing is that the biggest note was the 5.000 kyats note!
Tachi feeling at home on another Friendship Bridge
The driver wanted 40.000 kyats (about 40 dollars) and we thought it was a good deal, until we felt how he was going to drive on those poor roads full of curves and narrow parts with cliffs to one side and rocks to the other. It was like a roller coaster, but worse! The scenery was beautiful, but we couldn't really enjoy or take good pictures because of the crazy driving! It was really scary when we passed the big trucks on those narrow roads! Now we understood why the bus goes only one way one day and the other way the next.
Taxi ride up in the mountains
We had to stop some times to show our passports to uniformed men. It seemed like they were writing down our information in a big book to keep track of the tourists, we couldn't understand exactly what that was for. When we finally got down from the mountain we had a stop for food. It's a weird way they eat, they just bring out many little plates with side dishes and a bowl of rice to the table and we had no idea what they were. Asking wasn't an option as no one spoke English, not even the taxi driver.
It got dark very quickly and we were still racing to Hpa An. Suddenly we heard a loud noise, and went out to see our flat tire! Oh, what a nice start in Myanmar! It was in the middle of nowhere, in the darkness, and we had to use the flashlight of our phones so that the driver could change the tire. After 5 horrible hours on the road, we finally got to Hpa An. We bought our bus tickets for the next day and went straight to a guesthouse to rest our super tense bodies and minds.
Flat tire
The next day we had breakfast and took the bus to Yangon. It was a local bus for only 5.000 kyats, with ok space, air-con and TV where they were showing karaoke music videos and very overacted Burmese movies. It was also funny that it stopped in the middle of nowhere to pick up locals that had to sit on small plastic stools. It was about 6,5 hours drive to Yangon. From the bus station we shared a taxi to the Sule Pagoda area where we checked in at a very ugly and dirty guesthouse. We had some late lunch and walked around exploring the nearby area. The next morning we decided moving to a neighbor guesthouse, a bit cleaner than the other one. We took a local bus to the area near the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. It was very hot so we looked for a place with air-con, bought some things and headed to the Pagoda. It is believed that it was built more than 2.600 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world.
Shwedagon Pagoda
We were supposed to meet Corinna and Lara there, but it was so crowded that we couldn't find them. We spent a lot of time there and got to talk with some Burmese English students that wanted to practice their English. When it got dark we went to the Vista Rooftop Bar where we could get a nice view of the Shwedagon Pagoda by night.
Shwedagon Pagoda by night
The next day we went to the train station to buy tickets to Bagan. A man that we thought worked at the station recommended us to go by bus because the trip was shorter and almost the same price. He took us to a travel agency that offered us "VIP" bus tickets for 25.000 each. Luckily, Tachi had read about the prices before and she thought that was a bit more expensive and suggested that we went back to the hotel to check it. On our way back we stopped by another agency to ask for prices and they offered it for 5.000 less and that was what Tachi had read, so we just bought the tickets there. We had lunch at the 999 Noodle Shop, which was quite good but nothing special like TripAdvisor said.
A street near the Sule Pagoda
It started to rain so we headed back to the guesthouse to have a siesta and wait for it to stop. Late afternoon we walked to the river where we had heard about a pagoda that was supposed to be nice for sunset. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and foreigners had to pay to enter so we decided to just have a walk along the riverside. At night we met up with the girls and went for some food in Chinatown, but we didn't find Chinatown to be very exciting. The food did not look very tasty or Chinese, so we ended up just having some beers and David got to try deep fried crickets with some locals sitting next to us.
The next day we checked out from the guesthouse and relaxed in the park until we had to head to the bus station, where we met the German girls. We arrived in Bagan around 4am and had to spend 20 USD each just to enter the city. We found a nice guesthouse to rest a little, have breakfast and rent bikes to tour around some of the more than two thousand pagodas.
Some of the pagodas and stupas
Enjoying the sight from atop a pagoda
The next morning we woke up early to try to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was cloudy, but it was still a beautiful view. We got some sandwiches from the guesthouse that we had as breakfast on the pagoda before we continued biking to some villages. In the afternoon we tried to watch the sunset, but the weather was not so helpful again.
Sunset in Bagan
On the next day we took a bus to Kalaw from where we would start a new adventure.
The day after the BSB concert we took a night bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. It was about 10 hours ride and when we arrived in the city we had to look for a place to stay. We found a very nice room just outside the old city. After some rest we went out to explore the numerous temples inside the old city, which is surrounded by ruins and a moat. When we stopped to eat, we met a very kind woman who invited us to follow her to her home. She took us on the back of her scooter, and showed us her pets and gave us some tips about the city before we continued our walk.
Ruins of the wall around the Old City
The next day we had our first cooking class. We got picked up at our hotel and went to a local market to learn about some of the typical ingredients in Thai food. Also we got to try bamboo worms, crunchy and salty, yummy! After that we went to the home where we would have our class. There we had to choose 7 different dishes we would learn to cook. We chose different from each other, of course, so that we got to taste more different foods. It was a very fun experience and it was amazing when we tried the food we made. We actually couldn't believe that we were able to cook such good food! And it was a looooot of food. At some point we were so full that we had to ask to take the food back home. Our dinner and dessert that night would be our own take away!
Masterchefs
The next day we went to the Elephant Nature Park office to book our visit, and in the afternoon we took a songthaew to the Wat Doi Suthep. Doi means mountain, so this was a temple up in the mountain from where we could have a great view of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy :( Coming back from the mountain we wanted to make a short visit to the night market in the old city. We arrived just when it was about to start, and everybody froze on the street while the national anthem was played over the loudspeakers. The market was huuuuge, and we ended up spending more than 3 hours there, including an amazing massage!
The whole city froze for the national anthem
On Monday morning we got picked up at our hotel for a day trip to some places outside of Chiang Mai. The first stop was at a hot spring, where Tachi boiled quail eggs in the hot spring for our breakfast. We also had a stop at Wat Rong Khun, also known as The White Temple, in Chiang Rai. This was a weird, but beautiful temple. We couldn't go inside because there were people working on it due to a earthquake last year, but it was interesting seeing it from outside. It had so many white and mirrored details.
One of the weird things you can find at the White Temple
The next stop was the Golden Triangle, which is where the Ruak and Mekong River meet at the triple border between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. At this place we had an option to take a boat across the river over to Laos, but we preferred to go to the Opium Museum. We learned a lot about the area which is one of Asia's main opium producer, second largest after Afghanistan. After lunch we headed to Mae Sai, the northernmost point in Thailand, at the border to Myanmar.
Handstand at the northernmost point of Thailand
Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent at the Elephant Nature Park, the main reason we planned visiting the city. This was a suggestion from Caroline, a very close friend of David's family. The Elephant Nature Park is a rescue and rehabilitation center, very different from the other places nearby where they offer riding the elephants that are actually forced and hurt to do that. We got to see how they took care of injured and handicapped elephants who had been taken out of their captivity. After visiting this place we decided to sign up for one week volunteering here :)
Feeding the elephants
Since David was running out of time on his visa exempt, we had made our plans to visit Myanmar for a couple of weeks and then return to do our volunteering. So early the next morning we jumped on the bus heading for Mae Sot, where we would cross the border to Myanmar by foot.
We headed back to Bangkok because we had bought tickets for a concert in a couple of days. Yes, you guessed it; Backstreet Boys!
This time back in Bangkok we decided we would try staying near the famous backpacker street, Khao San Road. We knew that it would be a quite dirty area, but we were still surprised when we arrived our hostel at about 4 am, and rats and cockroaches would be crossing the floor of the reception area. The receptionist not even caring or noticing our discomfort. As we didn't have any other option at this time, and we were tired, we took our chance and checked in. Luckily the hallway with rooms, and our room was much cleaner so we could get a good rest! When we got up some hours later it had totally changed, and the place was filled with life! By night Khao San Road is a street filled with tourists, street food, people selling everything from fake ID's to fried scorpions, people offering "ping pong shows" and probably anything else you can imagine! Tachi even got her hair cut, but most likely David could have cut just as well, or even better.
Walking down Khao San Road
Before the concert we were hoping to meet up with a friend of Tatiana. She had been staying on Bali for some time, but just visited Koh Phanang with a friend of hers, where we originally wanted to meet her. Since we never made it to Koh Phanang we made the effort to meet her in Bangkok before she headed back to Bali. Darcie had visited Tachi and her family last year, as a Servas visitor, and by coincidence we would be in Bangkok at the same time. We met up with Darcie and her friend for lunch, and just spent some time talking about life and our travels! It was great to meet up with her :)
Meeting up with Darcie
Finally the day was here! The day that Tachi had been waiting for for almost a month. The day she would finally get to see the Backstreet Boys live. In Bangkok!
Who would have thought this would happen? Definitely none of us.
That morning we didn't do much, just eating and relaxing, until we started to find our way to Impact Arena. We decided we wanted to start out early just in case any problems would show up along the way. It would have been devastating if Tachi had missed the concert! There were no problems, and we arrived 2 hours before the concert. That gave us the chance to take a picture with the Backstreet Boys!!! We got some free cookies to enjoy until they opened the doors, and then we easily found our seats.
Waiting excited for the Backstreet Boys
It was a bit weird seeing the old guys on stage, and singing songs we sang back in the end of the 90s! Tachi had a dream come true, but she had to manage with the company of David instead of all her girlfriends...
The trip to Koh Tao started by taking an almost
2 hours delayed night train from Phechaburi to Chumpon. It was about 5 hours of
shaking and noise, and as expected Tatiana could not sleep. We arrived at
Chumpon just on time to get the ferry tickets to Koh Tao, which took about 3
hours. When we arrived to the island we had a quick snack before we walked
towards Sairee Beach, in search for a diving school. We found one with Spanish
speaking instructors, and Tachi decided to start the course that same
afternoon. We ended up staying next door in a dirty bungalow so we wouldn’t
have to get up so early to walk to the diving school.
While Tachi was doing her Open Water course
David had to find other things he could do on his own. On Tachi’s first day in
the water David decided to explore the island by foot. On the way up to Two
View viewpoint he met and joined two other travellers who were heading for Aow
Leuk, a beach on the other side of the island.
View over Sairee Beach from Two View viewpoint
The next day, David joined the boat for a
couple of dives while Tachi kept doing her exercises. Unfortunately she did not
feel comfortable, and had problems with some of the exercises, so she decided
not to finish the course. A three day course was a bit to quick for her to get
comfortable with the sensation of breathing under water, so we got a cut in the
price for not continuing the last day. Hopefully with some more practice she
will be able to join David for some scuba diving in the future.
As we didn’t need to stay next to the diving
school anymore, we headed out to find a better place to stay. We found a very
clean place in front of Sairee Beach, with swimming pool, restaurant, bar, and
for the same price as we were paying at the dirty place. Now we had a few days
to enjoy the island and its beaches!
Boats in the sunset at Sairee Beach
The day we moved to the new bungalow we just stayed around Sairee Beach and enjoyed a relaxed day in the sun. We didn't really have much luck with a cloudless sunset, but it was still a beautiful view! The next morning we got up early, grabbed a not so tasty breakfast, and started our hike to the other side of the island. David had managed to convince Tachi that the steep and sweaty walk was well worth the amazing views over the island. Our plan was to do the same route over to the other side, but then go to Tanote Bay instead of Aow Leuk. Because of the burning sun, and a very steep road down to Tanote Bay, we ended up going to Aow Leuk. It was so good to get into the water, but unfortunately we didn't have enough money to pay the deposit for renting snorkeling gear :( Just because we had left almost all the rest of our money as a deposit for our bungalow... Why all these deposits?? Nevertheless we enjoyed the beach, and could watch some colorful fishes in the crystal clear water. As the sand was to hot we spent almost all the time in the water, just getting out for lunch. Before it got dark we returned to our hotel, and enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pool after a long day of burning sun and a lot of sweating. We were hoping to have a nice fish dinner as our last on the island, but we were rather disappointed.
Enjoying Aow Leuk Beach
The next day was our ferry back to Chumpon, and our overnight bus back to Bangkok. We will be missing Koh Tao!!
Wow! What a difference! First of all the communication is much more of a challenge here, hardly anyone speaks English. To find our way from the airport to our hostel we used simple words and pointing on maps. We caught a train from the airport to downtown Bangkok, about 1 hour, for only 5 Thai Baht, which equals about 15 cents (USD). Several times during the train ride people tried to throw water in the windows. From April 13th - 15th is a big celebration of Songkran in Thailand, also known as the water festival. This is why we left India before our visa ran out, so we could join the Thais in celebrating their New Year. From the train station we could just jump on the metro taking us nearby our hostel. In the street where our hostel was everyone was playing around, soaking each other with their water guns and buckets. Of course as we were arriving they wanted us to be washed as well. Luckily we managed to keep our backpacks dry, but not clean, and we arrived happy to the hostel.
Songkran welcoming in Bangkok
We were planning to go right back out to participate in the Songkran celebration, but Tachi was having more problems with her sore throat so we decided to take it easy and regain energy for a big Songkran celebration the next day. Unfortunately Tachi didn't get much better, and it wouldn't be good for her throat to get soaked by cold and warm water and enter or exit air-conditioned buildings all the time. Tachi decided to stay in and insisted that David went to celebrate and enjoy the last day of Songkran, and bring back some of the experience to share. David walked down Silom Road among thousands of Thais and other tourists!
Silom Road during Songkran
The next day when Tachi was feeling better we started our sightseeing in Bangkok. There are so many temples and other things to see and do. We started the morning with a soup in the streets for breakfast and headed for the Grand Palace. From the end of the MRT we walked through parts of Chinatown to get to the taxi boat which would take us all the way to the palace. To enter the Grand Palace you must cover your legs and shoulders. We were prepared for this, but it was an extremely hot experience. The details and colors of the Thai temples are amazing! We must have used about 3 hours sweating and looking around the huge area.
Grand Palace
After cooling off in the shade with some nice Pad Thai and fried rice we got back on the taxi boat, back to see Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha is 15m tall and 43m long, an impressive view! Wat Pho is one of the biggest Wats (Temples) in Bangkok and they say that we could see 400 images of Buddha in different postures there. We did not count them all because we also wanted to try out the famous Thai massage they offer before closing time. The temple is considered the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. First we tried half an hour of body massage, but when we finished this we decided to do another half an hour of foot massage. It was so good after a long day of walking around in the heat! On our way back we stopped for some dinner in Chinatown. It was incredible watching them make our food with high flames in the middle of the street, and it tasted so good!
The huge reclining Buddha in Wat Pho
Included in the ticket to the Grand Palace was another museum, a bit further north. We decided to stop by here on our way to the famous street market in Chatuchak. The museum seemed to be an old mansion where the royal family spent vacations. It was a quick walk-through, especially trying to avoid loud Chinese tours! We got onto the skytrain heading for the largest market in Thailand. At the tourist police office we got a map and description of the different areas of the market. It was pretty big! We felt like we walked through most of the market seeing everything from clothing, antiques, foods to pets. It was a lot of walking in the heat again, so for David's Birthday the next day we woke up late :) We took a nice and relaxed walk in Lumphini Park, enjoying some green parts of the capitol with the lowest amount of vegetation in the world.
Loving the green part of Bangkok, Lumphini Park
Tachi had made a reservation for a fancy dinner at the rooftop restaurant at Sofitel Park Society, and we went over there to confirm the reservation and question about the dress code. Obviously David had to wear pants, which he does not have, so we ended up going shopping. We had a delicious dinner with a great view over Bangkok!
Bangkok by night from the rooftop of Sofitel Park Society
The next couple of days were also spent in Bangkok, getting our visas for Myanmar and having the camera for service. Early morning the 22nd we had our train for Kanchanaburi. We had two main goals for Kanchanaburi, learn about the construction of the Burma Railway, also known as Death Railway, during the second world war, and refresh ourselves in the waterfalls of Erawan National Park. The day we arrived was just for exploring the nearby surroundings. We got a view of the Bridge over River Kwai from distance, checked out prices to rent a scooter, but the best part of that day was visiting the night market. Every night, near the train station there is a market with second hand clothes, gadgets of every kind and lots of food :) We walked around trying a lot of new and different foods! One of Tachi's new favorite desserts after that night is the ice-cream balls covered with some kind of marshmallow thing, called Mochi Ice-cream. Our plan for the next day was to wake up early to catch the train to the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum, but when we woke up it was pouring from the sky. We decided it would be a bad idea going to the Hellfire Pass if it was going to rain like this, and went back to sleep. Luckily David woke up again not long after, and the weather had cleared up. Quickly we got our stuff together and went for the bus. We got some good help from Joy, who worked at the museum. She told us to get off the bus with her, showed us where to catch the bus back, and helped us prepare our walk on the Death Railway before the museum even opened. Thank you Joy! We chose to do the whole trail which took us about 4 hours with some stops to listen to our audio guide and also admire the scenery and reflecting along the way. This railway was built by the Prisoners of War and Southeast Asian labor workers, known as romusha, as Japan was in need of a more secure supply route between Thailand and Burma. They constructed 415 km of railway in 14 months under severe conditions. More than 12 000 POW's died during the construction, and the number of romusha who died is assumed to be as much as 90 000. It was a very emotional and educational walk along the railway where all of the cuttings and embankments were done by man power!
Hellfire Pass
Today a part of the Death Railway is still operational from Nam Tok. We got on the train to experience the ride on the historical tracks back to Kanchanaburi. The ride was quite long but we passed by very nice landscapes and we could see how impressive it was to have built this railway in the way it was. After passing the famous Bridge over the River Kwai, we got off of the train and took a short walk on the bridge before returning to our guesthouse.
Riding the train on the Death Railway
The next day David woke up earlier to rent a motorbike before we had breakfast and took the road to Erawan National Park. Tachi was a bit afraid that we would face crazy traffic but it was actually an easy ride and we could enjoy the green around us. The Erawan Waterfalls consist of 7 different waterfalls, with green emerald or light blue refreshing ponds full of hungry fishes eating the dead skin off the visitor's feet. When the small fishes nibbled on our feet it was just tickling, but when the big ones did it, it wasn't that comfortable! At one point Tachi decided to enter the pond with her shoes.
Refreshing in the Erawan waterfalls
The next morning we visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery to try to watch the ANZAC day ceremony, but it had not started by the time we had to return to do our check-out. We took the bus to Ratchaburi where we were going to catch the bus to Phetchaburi, but with a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of Thais saying that bus stopped going years ago we just barely got on the train heading south. We had to stand during the 1 hour ride, and as the only tourists we got a lot of staring at us. At the train station in Phetchaburi we got on a pick-up taxi, called songthaew, and hoped to get a room at one of the few guest houses in the area. We got a room, had dinner at the night market and relaxed for the rest of the evening. The next morning we had a soup from the neighbor for breakfast, and started walking towards the Khao Luang Cave. We didn't get far before we realized that it would be too exhausting walking all the way in the burning heat, so we caught a songthaew. There is a temple inside the cave with many images of Buddha. Outside the cave are many hungry monkeys waiting for the tourists to give them food, and they can become quite aggressive. Just in front of us a tiny monkey jumped onto a lady, giving her a shock. Luckily we passed without any monkey attacks ;)
Khao Luang, temple inside a cave
We were hoping for a songthaew for the trip back, as our driver didn't want to wait and said there would be others to catch, but there were none, giving us no other option than walking back in the burning sun! For our last day in Phetchaburi we were planning to walk up to the temple on the mountain, but it was under maintenance, and we were also met by a lot of angry monkeys, so we decided to just walk around the town. We had our dinner at the night market again, before heading to the train station. Our train was supposed to leave some time around 10 pm, but didn't arrive until past midnight. Time to hit the beach!!!
One of the maintained Buddhas in Ayutthaya
The reclining Buddha used in a scene of the old game Street Fighters
The famous head of Buddha in a tree
Lotus flowers in Sukhothai Historical Park
A great day for biking around, visiting the ruins
Buddhas placed at the roots of a tree
Tachi enjoying her fresh popcorn
