Chad and Sharon Moore

It isn't just doom and gloom in the Kanchanaburi area but let's start with the Hellfire Pass anyway.

We visited the infamous section of the death railway at the Konyu Cutting.  There is an official Australian historical memorial site and museum here and they provide an excellent but heartbreaking audio tour which greatly enhances the walking trails.  It's full of soundbites from surviving POW's and gives you real insight into their experiences.  We walked for about 2 hours along one of the trails, it was hot, humid and the mosquitoes were feasting on us, but it did give us a better understanding on how hard it must have been.  This part of the 214km railway line was worked on by predominately Australian and British POW's and every ANZAC day a dawn service is held here.

We spent some time at one of the many waterfalls in this area and also bathed in a fantastic outside hot spa.  We were the only farangs at the spa and the only ones wearing swimmers.  The few Thais there were fully clothed so we felt a bit underdressed!  It was lovely though, the water was very hot and steam was rising all around us whilst we relaxed listening to the sounds of a cold mountain stream flowing past us.  We were even brave enough to take a dip in this cold water afterwards, totally refreshing!

During our time travelling, Sharon has become addicted to baby animals, for example, cats, dogs, goats, cows and even geckos!  The best so far though, has to be a tiger cub!  Local monks run a tiger temple which is an animal refuge looking after rescued tigers.  We were lucky enough to spend some time with a cute but energetic tiger which Sharon of course, wanted to take with us :-)

We did manage to ride on one of the local trains which goes along part of the death railway line, with other backpakers we jumped on a section of the track which is nice and scenic and travelled a couple of stops. The locals must think we are crazy but it's just like catching the manly ferry with all the tourist taking snaps whilst you are just trying to get home :-) 

It has been a strange few days, fun but filled with a reminder that life is short and we are lucky to be able to experience so much.  I have received 2 emails this week regarding deaths.  Firstly, Fred, a close family friend who was in his late seventies died unexpectantly.  He was stationed in South East Asia when he was in the army and would have undoubtedly known surviving POW's from the death railway.  I had been looking forward to sharing my experiences with him.  Secondly, Glenn, an old work colleague whose wife died of cancer a few years ago was killed in a road traffic accident leaving behind his children.  All this has happened to someone who was a few years younger than me.

Next stop Ko Chang, back to the beach :-) 

The trip to Heathrow was worse than the 11 hour flight to bangkok. An accident on the M25 meant that we were stuck on the "London Carpark" for an extra 2 hours.  4.5 hours in a car isn't an ideal start, so glad my dad talked us into leaving a bit early :-)

It felt good to be back in Thailand, the sights, sounds and smells are strangely becoming homely to us. It didn't take us long to check into our usual hotel (New siam II) and be on the streets enjoying a pad thai and Chang beer.  We even bumped into a street hawker, Wan, a woman from the Karen Tribe who remembered us from our previous visit. Who would have thought she would recall so much about us after we only bought one braclet from her - maybe it is because she took nearly an hour chatting to us for one sale!  It's like getting blood out of a stone making me part with 80 bht :-)

We spent a couple of days in bangkok suffering from our worse case of jet lag so far on this trip before catching a local bus to Kanchanaburi.  Most people haven't heard of this place but many know of the local bridge due to the classic old movie "The Bridge Over the River kwai" (a bonus point for anybody who remembers the name of the lead actor?).  The bus station is just over 2k from the main tourist area so we had our first chance to carry our packs, we had to stop halfway for lunch as we were shattered!  As luck would have it, we had an amzing pad thai from a proper local thai stall.  The cook was really helpful too as when I checked about directions she told us about a shortcut through a Wat (Temple), sweeet!  After helping her cute little daughter practice her english (something very common over here) we set off again.  Whilst cutting through the temple grounds we managed to catch a group of monks (is there a collective name for monks?) chanting/singing.  I must say it sounded superb.  I haven't heard such harmonies from a band of baldies since Right Said Fred!  and yes, the monks were better although it would have been amusing to hear them sing "I'm too sexy for my robes" :-)

We checked out a few places to stay before deciding on Tamarind.  Sharon like the look of one of the rooms which turned out to be the most expensive room, typical. I haggled hard to get it down to 500 bht per night.  It had air con/hot water/cable tv and it also had a beautiful river view.

I'm not going to go on about the history of the "death railway", needless to say, it's an unforgettable story that resulted in thousands of deaths and is something everyone should know about, so find out if you don't know. 

We visited a great informative museum and a very well cared for Allied war cemetary.  We also walked across the death railway bridge avoiding the trains as it's still in use today (after a few repairs from WWII bombings).

We enjoyed relaxing on our balcony, taking in the pleasant river views whilst trying to avoid being eaten alive by the mosquitos!  The peaceful setting was also transformed once in a while by my idea of hell, the floating karaoke!  Apart from that, we had a great time:-)

It’s been fun, we’ve been sooooo busy so our blog has suffered, sorry. Our bodies have been pushed to the limits, excess eating and drinking combined with lack of sleep is taking it’s toll on our ever ageing bodies J We’ve tried our best to catch up with everyone in the UK, sorry if we missed anyone out, remember you are always welcome over to Oz, once we get ourselves sorted!

I’ve put up a selection of photos, family and friends in various places. Thank you all for making us welcome and I hope as many of you will venture out to Australia so we can repay your hospitality.

It’s been emotional...but we are about to set off again, south east Asia here we come, first stop is back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.  

The flight up to Glasgow didn’t start off well.  The night before there was a documentary about lack of security at a UK airport which had the unfortunate effect of Stansted tightening up their security.  This involved full body searches and having to take shoes off to be x-rayed L  We queued for agesssssss and they even made a very small toddler (wearing nappies) walk through the x-ray machine on its own and they took his teddy bear off him and put it through the scanner J 

When we finally got through we were told that the flight was delayed by an hour L grrrrrrrr.  We eventually arrived in Glasgow, picked up the hire car, switched on Tom Tom and we were off. 

We hadn’t booked any accommodation for Glasgow, we were so used to just rocking up somewhere and getting a room.  Well, we checked three Premier Inn places and all were fully booked.  We drove up and down the road for a bit trying to find B&B places and eventually found somewhere just over the road from one of the Premier Inns we went to earlier and hadn't noticed, grrrrr.  They didn’t do breakfast L and they didn’t have en-suite rooms L but we didn’t care as it was getting late and I didn’t fancy sleeping in the car.

We finally arrived at my grannie’s place.  It was lovely to see the family, the youngsters have all shot up and Ben is taller than Chad and I now J 

(This is Chad with Chantelle and Sheila)

We spent a couple of lovely days in Glasgow spending time with the family.

(This is me with my cousins Ben and Chantelle)

(This is grannie with auntie sheila)

We also went to visit my mum in Folkestone which was lovely as we hadn’t met up for quite some time. 

(This is me and my mum with Sinbad)

Although the history was great the weather was not! Jesus! I had forgotten how cold it can feel.  The worse thing was there were still people wearing vest tops and shorts! enjoying their summer clothes regardless, it did make you feel a bit of a wimp when you are wrapped up like a mummy!

We did manage to shelter from the weather in some great pubs and tea rooms. We had a lovely carvery, with all you can eat on pots, Yorkshires, veggies and gravy, all made from local produce and all tasting amazing!!! I managed to get everyone to do a brewery tour and enjoyed some real local ale afterwards. Sharon did manage to get her tea and scones the next day so it’s all fair J

Overall, York has been great.  Next up is a flight to Glasgow to visit Sharon’s family.

We are in the land of fine ale and family, in no particular order J When we arrived the weather was glorious, hot and sunny but not humid like Bangkok. We had forgotten how nice and green England looked and how nice it can be when the weather is good.

Our first mission was to visit the local Morrison’s.  Whilst lazing on the beach, Sharon had spent a lot of time working on her first food shop.  We stocked up on all the things we missed and treated ourselves to a few things that are new to us, we have been indulging since!!

Our next mission was to get Sharon’s hair fixed so we walked into Ipswich town centre, it felt strange to be back.  As the weather was still lovely it was a pleasant walk and fun to notice the little changes. Sharon had her hair disaster fixed and we enjoyed our first drink in England at the local Wetherspoon pub garden, the Cricketers Arms.  Sharon had a rose wine on tap (classy) and I had a pint of local ale.  A pint is sooooo big!  As usual with Ipswich it wasn’t a surprise to bump into someone we knew, once again strange to notice changes with them and hear how life has changed.

We’ve caught up with some of my family, it’s amazing how fast my niece and nephew are growing up, it makes me feel very old.  We also had a great bbq with Mike and Tracey, ex-college and uni mate and his missus.  It was fun to catch up and to hear all the gossip!!  

My dad having broadband has come in very handy, I’ve managed to update my photos (in case you haven’t noticed!) and I’ve also managed to catch up on the Manly games.  How cool is bigpondsport.com!  I’ve been able to download and watch all the full games, sorry Colin but the Eels need to improve some.  I hope you are still watching the games Owen and getting the rest of the Poms into the Rugby League, how good was last weekend’s game against the Storm!

We are going away to York with my parents for a week so I’m looking forward to immersing myself in history. I’m sure I’ll bore you with the photos J