Pinch and a punch from Bangkok

Moving on day today :-/ Took a Tuk-Tuk from our guesthouse, before breakfast to avoid the crowds and unforgiving sun, up to the official Bridge over the River Kwai. We had planned to go there with our trip on the Death railway the other day but,hadn't made it there.

Tuk-tuk ride was amusing, Kanchanaburi versions, unlike traditional Bangkok ones, have a motorbike with 2 benches at right angles to each other in a kind of frame set up on the left side of the motorbike. So by the time we had all squidged up, it was a bit lopsided!! Shocking for snap-happy me, I know, but I never got a photo of it grr!

Had to be done, Oriental express selfie

When we got to the bridge, we couldn't get on to it yet because there is no footpath alongside, you walk directly in the rails, and there was a great big train sat static along its length... The Oriental Express! The Bridge itself was a little underwhelming; if you believe the conspiracy theories, then it's not even the location of the original WWII one anyway but, the Thais will tell you vehemently that it's the authentic spot! It had to be seen though; we couldn't visit the River Kwai and not the bridge!

All this washed and ironed for £2 in less than 12hrs :-)

After that we got a slightly more robust bright orange songathew taxi back to the guesthouse to pick up our laundry... 5kg for £2 washed, dried, ironed and folded.. And get packed up. Packing was bit more of a struggle as we had winter trousers/hoodies/trainers to pack in this time that we were wearing on way here but we managed it ok after some jiggling around!!

Cosy!

We booked seats on a mini bus to pick us up from our guesthouse, it more or less on time (no mean feat here!) but they'd slightly overfilled their seats at the booking office... 13 people and a baby, for 11 seats, and no space for luggage even though they had asked if we had big backpacks, plus air conditioning that was about as effective as asthmatic gnat blowing on us... would have been fine if we could open the (sealed) windows... It was the hardest part of the journey so far for the kids I think. After an hour I gave in and let them have the iPad and a bit of Rio 2 managed to distract them (and 3 other thai kids... One of which was sat on the floor!) most of the rest of the way.

The bug lady's stand

Our new digs for the next 2 nights is not far off the Khao San Road, a busy backpacker-y area in the centre of Bangkok. This city is frenetic, bustling, smelly and sweaty... It's a complete assault on the senses after the haven of calm we had at River Kwai, but our little Rang Kha Mhin Homestay is a tiny oasis, that we are all sat chilling in, after a little mooch around this afternoon, before real sightseeing tomorrow :-)

*EDIT - after needing to go back out into the bedlam for food we came across a slightly more unusual stall at the night market...the bug lady... J, Adam and I all tried the bamboo worm and J also ate the fatter fleshier silk worm... Bizarrely it just tasted like a walkers beef and onion crisp!!