kez & hay travels 06

Arrived to hot and sticky Bangkok and wondered why on earth we decided to come to this part of the world at its hottest time of the year.  Met up with Helena (for those who know her) as she transited Bangkok on her way to Cambodia for a 3 week holiday.  With one day in Bangkok we didn't do much due to the heat, but organised ourselves for our next day's travel to Kanchanaburi.  The next day, sitting on the train at a Bangkok train station waiting to set off, and practically melting in the heat, we sat through the loudest thunder storm which appeared to be happening just above our heads.  Arriving at Kanchanaburi, the starting point of the death railway built by allied POWs during the Second World War, we booked into a tranquil room just by the river and met up with Helena, our Swedish friend we met in Mongolia.  During our stay here we went to Erawan national park and climbed up its 7 tier waterfall, visited the Bridge over the River Kwai, and travelled the length of whats left of the Death railway.  The railway line, that weaves in and out of huge rock faces and crosses many unstable-looking bridges, was ordered by the Japenese to be built by their prisoners of war, so that the Japenese could get war supplies over to Burma and beyond by land.  The construction of the railway cost the life of one prisoner per sleeper.