Kachanaburi

OK so I'm a bit behind writing on here...

We left the orphanage super early in the morning on the 12th of July, and arrived in Kachanaburi at about midday. B, one of the volunteers had suggested we stay at the 'Jolly Frog' guest house which the Lonely Planet describes as 'dirty, but so are the guests' haha! We ended up paying a man on a bicycle to take us there, yes, a bicycle. At first we thought one person per bike, but no, we were both squeezed onto one little seat and the driver/rider used a handy wooden stick out the back to dangle our backpacks on while he rode us through town. You should have seen the guys calf muscles!! I was slightly concerned for my bag but it managed to hang on quite well.

There are a lot more tourists in Kachanaburi, compared to what we had been used to out in Sangklaburi. We stayed on the main tourist drag where of course there are a million guest houses, bars, Thai massage places and travel desks.

While eating our lunch at the guesthouse, we saw this old man standing in blue hawaiin print shorts, no shirt, sunnies and a cigar...holding a GIANT fake gun. Well, at least we thought it was fake at the time. It was hilarious how stupid this guy looked and we nicknamed him 'Rambo'.

After lunch, we watched as police took him away. Maybe the gun was real?! The guy didn't seem too fazed though as he carried his glass of red wine out with him.

The film 'Bridge over River Kwai' was filmed in Kachanaburi, which is the reason a lot of people visit the place. This is where in 1944 the Japanese bombed the bridge, killing thousands of prisoners of war. We went to the war memorial museum which looked as though it would have been nice years ago but wasn't well kept.

We then walked across the bridge, which in any western country would have health and safety barriers all over it. It was pretty dangerous because so many people were walking across it you had to balance on beams over the river. All in good fun though! Good thing it wasn't too windy!

As we reached the other side we saw a Thai Popstar recording a music video - which we had to walk right through and it was pretty hard to keep a straight face.

On the other side we saw an Elephant, strapped to the ground by a chain no longer than 30cms. It was horrible. The Elephant just stood there trying to rip off the chain with its trunk and foot. I have no idea how long it has been strapped there and I didn't see any food around it. It made me so angry but there was nothing I could do. After literally stomping my feet I walked away from the whole situation. I know I go on and on about it at home and I'm going to continue going on and on about it when I write about the Elephant nature park, but this is exactly why I wish people would stop supporting the Elephant tourist trade in Thailand.

Anyway...Since it was Saturday night we figured we'd hit town! We started early because we hadn't really been to bed past midnight for the past 2 weeks haha! We headed to the 'Buddha Bar' which was like this little hippy reggae bar and we sat on some cushions with Martha from Mexico and had a few drinks. A few hours later the street was still dead! I had had enough to drink to just fall asleep, so thats what we did!

We soon learned why the Lonely Planet described its guests as dirty - it seems the Jolly Frog is just the place for Western Men and Thai Women to meet! Hrmmm

Next stop Chiang Mai!