Big Changes Afoot!

Kanchanaburi, Thailand
9.30pm

So the biggest news is that we've had a change of travel plans. Originally, we were going to go from Ko Phang Ngan on Jan 2nd and fly to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) in Vietnam, where we'd pissfart around until Jono left us on Jan 11. Then the partying would BEGIN!

But after realising that every single possible route known to humans, plants, and animals back to Bangkok (so we could actually leave the country) was taken up by none-other than the Thais themselves (apparently they get holidays. Who woulda thunk it!), we had to think up an alternative strategy.

So the newer and much more awesome plan is that we're not going north anymore; we're going SOUTH. From Ko Phang Ngan we're island hopping across the country all the way down to the south of Thailand. Here, we're going to crashtackle some Muslim insurgents at the border and then dash off into Malaysia. We'll cruise around Malaysia until we end up in Singapore around the 9th of January, where Jono will fly to Bangkok and then to home and Melinda, and Drew and I will fly to Ho Chi Minh and the Love You Long Time Club.

So while Jono chills with the ladies at home, D and I will go up through Vietnam and Laos, back into the top of Thailand, and Bob's your hermaphrodite uncle! Genius plan! While everyone else in the country goes NORTH, we go SOUTH! We're so smart it hurts sometimes.

Asstastic (18/12/06)

So after arriving in Kanchanaburi on our first day, I suffered from a mild case of Bali Belly. I'll spare you the details, but I will say one word: squishy.

On our second actual day in town (yesterday) we woke up late and organised some travel stuff and sorted out our new travel plan, bought some second hand books for the long days lounging on the beach, then went to the Tiger Temple on the outskirts of town. A group of monks run a wildlife sanctuary there, including 11 tigers all rescued from the wild as cubs as raised by hand. Drew and J loved the shit out of the place and got some photos with tigers. I had some issues with both the tourists around the place and the way it was all presented, so after working myself into a state I suffered what I like to call a GIGANTOR headache.

Ate a place called Apple's Guesthouse that night, highly recommended if you're ever in this part of the world.

Twilight on The River Kwai (19/12/06)
Yeah, I'm lazy and putting three posts into one. So sue me!
We didn't quite make it back in time today to catch sunset at the Bridge on the River Kwai (actually called the Death Railway Bridge, but who cares about semantics). So we got twilight instead.
We've taken to catching local buses betweens towns and to places we want to go. Its cheaper, and its also a lot more of an experience than air-conditioned insulation from the world provided by tour buses and expensive 'tourist' buses.
So we caught the local up to Hellfire Pass for 45 baht. That's $1.50 for you maths geniuses. Had a big nap on the bus cos I was feeling like ass (I'm much better now, thanks for asking!). Checked out the small museum there. Hellfire Pass and the Burma-Thailand Death Railway is, to be honest, an area of our history that I don't know much about, so it was as much a leaning experience as a cultural one.
I can't say the typical phrase of "it was a sobering experience" applies, but the whole deal did make me think. They're better men back in the day than us 'modern' guys who would crack in the first week, let alone 3 months of what they went through. No history lesson here, hit up wikipedia if you're interested.

We walked the entire 4km and back of the track that is open for walking. Hot and hard going at some points, but nothing we couldn't handle. It was hell to imagine how the POWs and local labourers managed though, considering they BUILT the damn thing out of a freakin' mountain.

Back at the museum, we chatted with the manager of the whole area, Bill. He's an Aussie ex-SAS guy working for the Australian Government in Thailand and is associated with the Aussie Federal Police. He's currently the honourary consul of the region, running the museum and looking after Hellfire Pass, training parts of the army (the Pass is reached by going through a military 'farm'), looking after the Governor's security, teaching schoolkids about the history of the railway, and coming down and bailing out drunken Aussies from Kanchanaburi. Busy man! Great bloke to talk to as well. Jono commented later that there's two kinds of Army guys: the ones that talk like there's no tomorrow and are great guys, and the guys that are just complete tossers.

Tomorrow we're off on buses to Bangkok and then down to Chumphon on the coast, there to stay the night before heading to Ko Tao for Christmas. This may be our last missive before the holiday season, cos Ko Tao is quite rustic. Not sure there'll be working internet connections on the island. They turn off the power at 6am for like 4 hours every day, so my hopes for some form of modern technology may be dashed on the rocks of despair. Your Christmas post is above!