Water time

Word Up!

We are in Chiang Mai at the moment... um... we set off from Bangkok on Monday on a 'long-tailed' boat passing the floating markets, big fish and huge scary monitor lizards. We caught a few more impressively large religious things (our enthusiasm now starting to wane somewhat... temples, temples, shrines, temples, big Buddhas and temples). We headed on to Kanchanaburi and grabber a samlor (single seater bike style rickshaw) to a neat little guesthouse on the River Kwai. On tuesday we visited the cemeteries and a museum for those who gave their lives during the construction and subsequent demolition of the 'Death Railway'. We also took a stroll across the infamous bridge over the river which has been reconstructed. Later that day we visited the Erawan national park for a dip in there seven waterfall pools. This is a must for everyone although it takes a while to get used to the gangs (youths) of fish that start attacking you and trying to rid you of your skin (apparently only dead skin but I'm not sure.... you give an inch...). We also went canoeing along the river for 6km, Kay and I hopped in a double canoe. This is now Ashley's favourite persuit as we both make a crackin' team and flew past other canoe-ists in style... sort of.

At night we hit the night markets and witnessed a sound and light shows where they re-enacted the story of the bridge over the river and it's demolition by bombers (for this they used remote controlled planes with fireworks attached and the wizards behind the show went a bit pyro seemingly setting fire to parts of the bridge to convey the attack.

The next day we set off on a barge cruise down the river stopping off at a few more temples and heading out to a more peaceful Thailand. We stayed on the boat over night, sleeping outside isn't really a worry though as the temperature stuck at 18 degrees celcius anyway.... it's a hard life.

The next day and a few bus rides later we reached Ayutthaya from where we caught an overnight train up to Chiang Mai for a day off bamboo rafting, elephant riding, walking and more night marketing. That's about it from the last few days, it has been pretty hectic. Now we are going to go for a stroll into town as rumour has it there is a pub that sells strongbow... cider?! I can't wait.

Catch you in a bit. Love to everyone,

xxx