July 2nd, 2011
Train ride etc
Gonna work on this blog entry once I get some coffee in me…
OK–done!! So I am going to blog about yesterday–but first let me tell you about my morning. I am sitting in the breakfast room and at 8:26am..it near to perfect here right now. There is a gentle breeze and the temperature seems tolerable–guessing 78-80 and the humidity seems not so bad…so i am going to sit here and blog about yesterday. Just too tired to do it last night.
Yesterday we decided to ride the train to Nam Tok.
This would be the train that runs on the railway constructed with POWs and forced Asian labour I told you about before. We then had prearranged to have a taxi meet us at the last stop and take us to Hellfire Pass, which is the place where the worst atrocities occurred. There was a pass hand cut through the mountains by the labourers. They were forced to work 18 hours days with one small meal of rice per day. Anyway, very very sad and certainly the last sad thing i am going to go see on this vacation…
For those interested in a short history lesson…
http://www.hellfirepass.com/historical_facts_hellfire_pass.html
After an amazing hike through the jungle, we made our way back to the taxi which was actually a Songthew. This is a small pick up that has been modified to have a cover and a shield from the wind…then there are 2 benches in the back and you ride on them.
It was very refreshing–I like riding this way bcz you can see more than from the inside of a car…but if the weather turns, it can be kind of miserable. Fortunatley for us–we had great weather. It did rain on the train ride up–but by the time we got to Nam Tok–it had stopped : )
We then went to Nam Tok Falls…very nice–had a dip in the water to cool our feet. BK and Russ climbed up to get some nice photos of them in the falls. We did not have suits though–so just dipped our feet…
One more stop at the Krasae Cave…Huge cave right along side the railway line…not the most fantastic cave we have seen…but nice to see and tick off the list. Amazing view of the river however…so definitely worth it.
The driver brought us back to Kanchananburi and took us to the south more local area where we had heard about an amazing noodle place from Bea (Troy’s inside Thai connection to Kanchanburi who works at Iyara’s in Redmond). She was right the noodle soup was fantastic…very different flavours than other Thai dishes…we just squeaked in before they closed…so we were lucky to have made it.
Came home to hotel–took dip in pool and then clocked out for the night.
The kids went to pick up our laundry–9 kilos of the sweatiest nastiest laundry ever, I am sure–for only $6…gotta love it!!!
Got a text from Ruby at about 3:44am…she was shopping!! and doing well…must be a day off from diving. Also have heard from Jay–she is still out floating on the water with her Granny and Grandpa–having a great time…they had some rocky water–but survived : )
Miss everyone!!!
L
