Kanchanaburi 30 Oct

Spent the day with Megan, Terry, Jonnie, Peggy and John on an all day excusion to a number of tourist destinations along the River Kwai. 

We left the hotel at about 08:00 and first went to the Sai Yak Noi Waterfall. 

We then went to the Hot Spa at the Hin Dat Hot Spring (Peggy & John left us here to go Elephant riding and Bamboo rafting.  The 3 of us enjoyed both the hot spring and relaxing in the cooling river beside.  The hot spring was hot!! 








After we had lunch (when Peggy & John rejoined us) we then went to the Hellfire Pass and Memorial Museum which demonstrated the extreme hardships and brutality which the POW's suffered under the Japanese while building the Thailand to Burma railway. 

 

We then went to the Krasae Cave (used as a hospital at a POW camp) and the wooden railway bridge.  The trains were not running (water problems in Bangkok I think), so we walked across the wooden bridge instead. 

Finally we returned to Kanchanaburi to walk across the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. 

Kanchanaburi (River Kwai) 29 Oct

Yesterday evening there was a heavy rainstorm and this made all the stall and shops stop trading for about 45 mins.  The rain was very heavy and the road was soon awash with water.  An hour later the roads were dry again.  

Left Bangkok this morning after joining up with the Truck at the Skania dealer.

We arrived in Kanchanaburi in the early afternoon and booked into Sam's Riverside Guesthouse. After a late lunch there was only time to visit the Thailand-Burma Railway centre and see the War cemetery outside. 

We are here for 2 nights before heading south and a bush camp and then 5 nights on a island off Thailand's south coast. 

Bangkok 28 Oct

Glen, Kieran, Laura and Martin left yesterday evening for an island resort where they will take an accredited diving course before joining us in a few days at the beach. They were travelling on an overnight bus then a ferry before getting to their destination.







  

Spent most of the day walking a few Temples (Wats), finding the floods and buying new sandals as one of the straps has broken on my new pair.














The floods are worst at sunrise and therefore in most of the city that we are in (west bank of the river) it is almost completely cleared by mid morning with only the riverside streets still affected and being pumped out. So far all the streets near the hotel have not been affected although the shop are taking precautions with sand bags and temporary walls. Bottled water is short in some stores, but can easily be obtained a few streets away.

The Wats are very impressive and they all vary in size and style.

China Town was intense and very busy (as with all China Towns) and as I did not need (at that stage) to buy anything I did not spend too much time there.

 On the way back to the hotel I went through numerous flower sellers and then along some partially flooded streets. I bought a new pair of sandals from one of the shops in a street near the river which had been flooded earlier in the morning, but was now pumped dry.

We leave tomorrow on the Truck for Southern Thailand and a beach resort for 4 or 5 nights.

Into Thailand (Oct 26th & 27th)

We left Cambodia early on Wednesday and set off for the border in a service bus. We saw some flooding in Cambodia on the way to the border, however we were delayed when we got 2 blow outs. The first one required a tyre change (from bald dangerous tyre) – we had to wait for the next bus to deliver one. The second was not so serious as we still had a single tyre on the rear right hand side. The border crossing was straight forward and we then split to 2 smaller minibuses for the journey to Bangkok. We booked into The New Joe Guesthouse in central Bangkok.

On Thursday we were all feeling a little delicate first thing after separate boys and girls nights out. In mid morning I had a guided tour of the Palace and the largest reclining Buddha in the world. The Palace building were spectacular and well worth seeing and the reclining Buddha at 45m long was suitably impressive.Most of the shops are taking precautions (building small walls and sandbagging) to prevent the floods.  We are not affected at the moment although water does come into the streets in the morning and we are waiting for the high tides in the next couple of days.  Other parts of the city are badly affected, but we have been lucky so far, but it is buildiong up for a storm at the moment!!

Siem Reap 25 Oct

Quiet day today with a visit to the Crocodile farm where you could feed the crocs with live chicken and ducks (for a price), but I didn't see anyobe actually do it. 

They all appeared docile as they snoozed in the murkey water or sunbathed (usually on top of each other). 

The river which had flooded was now within its banks and a few fishermen were trying their luck. 

Also saw a couple of small temples along the river bank before finding the Post Office to send another batch of cards home. 

Tomorrow morning we leave early for Bangkok and so this is our last day in Cambodia - a poor country (especially in the countryside), but with some interesting growing cities with big differences between those who have and those who have not.  The historic sites (both old and newer) are thought provoking and stunning.  

Siem Reap (23rd and 24th October)

Left Phnom Penh at 07:00 on the 23rd using a small bus to main Bus Station then transferring all our baggages to the larger inter inter city bus.

Saw lots of flooding on the road to Siem Reap, but nothing to stop us.

Siem Reap exists to serve the tourist market for the temples at Angkor Wat and seems very quite in the day, however at night it comes alive with a large night market and all sorts of shops, restaurants and massage parlours suddenly jumping into life.

On the Monday most of us went to see the Anghor Wat temple site (I went with Peggy and John in a tuk tuk). We didn’t set off until 08:00, so missed the sunrise, and we didn;t return to the hotel until after 16:00. We managed to see 4 temples and have a lunch during the day in this vast amazing complex.

Some of the Temples are still used, while others have not been restored and still have the forest climbing out of them.  

The photos cannot do the site justice. Some women were collecting some vegetation which was growing on the roof of one complex and this is used in cooking. (Photos in the album)

Phnom Penh 22 Oct

Today was a day for visiting all the major sites in central Phnom Penh. 

First the Royal Palace - could not see into many rooms (amd then no interior photos were allowed), but the Palace buildings and gardens were beautiful.  Also saw the Silver Pagoda (named as the floor is a sliver colour). 

Then I saw the outside of the Wat Botum, before I retraced my steps back to the national Museum where there were lots of exhibits set in a lovely building set around a very pretty central set of water gardens. 

Then back to the hostel including seeing this on the street Barber not far from the National Museum. 

Finally a quick walk to the Wat Phnom just north of the hostel.  The elephant which I saw on the streets a couple of days ago was available to ride in the grouds of the Wat Phnom. 










Tomorrow we leave at 07:30 for Siem Reap.  Hopefully we should arrive in time to see the Rugby final.