Bridge over the River Kwai

We joined our bus outside the hotel for our River Kwai trip at about 7:00am, enough time for a quick breakfast in the buffet. Out trip was with four other people, all from Queensland and they’d just been to Phuket and were stopping in Bangkok on their way back home.

As we waited outside a hotel to pick up the last two travelers, we watched people heading off to work, stopping at a roadside kitchen to pick up their breakfast. Bangkok is huge and I can’t remember when we exactly had left the city and were in the rural areas of Thailand. We passed huge trucks bringing in sugar cane to sugar factories and stopped at a petrol station for a rest on the way up. I went to the toilet, observing a sign indicating if you were urinating, then head to the left. This took me outside the toilet, where the urinal was on the external wall!

I bought some strange flavoured chips and drinks and we continued our journey, stopping at the war cemetery of Kanchanaburi (Don Rak) This held nearly 7,000 prisoners of war who perished whilst constructing the Thai-Burma ”Death Railway”. It was a very moving and sad place. Nearby was the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, which housed many interesting and informative displays on the construction and life (and death) of the Thai-Burma railway.

From the cemetery it was a short trip to the River Kwai Bridge, which is a lot smaller than I’d imagined. We were originally booked to take the train for a trip along the railway, but we were given the option of spending more time at the Tiger Temple which we all agreed on.

We spent ages walking on the bridge, and watched as the train left the station, crossing the bridge and forcing all of the tourists onto small platforms on the bridge edge.

Lunch wasn't particularly nice, being at a nearby restaurant. I think one of the dishes and or the iced coffee set me off feeling crook again.

Next was the Tiger Temple! The highlight of our short stop in Thailand.

This was a great place to visit and a very memorable experience.

The monastery became a tiger sanctuary by accident when a baby tiger was dropped off, having lost its mother to poachers. The monks had no idea how to look after the tiger, but through trial and error eventually brought the cub back to life, though I believed it passed away some time later. The temple though soon had more tiger cubs given into its care, and now there are dozens of tigers living peacefully here. We patted many little cubs as well as walking full grown tigers, and sitting with the tigers patting and holding them. The tigers are very placid, having a full tummy and ready for their afternoon nap so didn't mind being held and patted by the tourists.

I had originally planned to visit Pat Pong or some other markets in the evening, but I was feeling not well at all so we had a quick explore of some more of MBK then went to bed.

The rest of the pictures for our visit to River Kwai and the Tiger Temple are here: Thailand