Message Stick

We begrudgingly got up at the crack of dawn and set off to the Khao San Road to start a tour of such epic proportions we still feel exhausted by it now. The trip was sold as a ‘River Kwai Tour’ though a more honest description would have been a ‘Petrol Stations of Thailand Experience’. Thanks to a minivan with a knackered radiator we stopped every 30 minutes or so to douse the engine with water, turning a 3 hour journey into a 5 hour monster. The driver however was determined that we shouldn’t miss out on the full itinerary so we made up time by travelling at break-neck speeds.

We saw and crossed the famous bridge over the river Kwai, rode elephants, visited a series of waterfalls, floated down river on a bamboo raft and re-crossed the bridge by train. A visit to the P.O.W memorial site was particularly poignant for Helen as her Great Uncle died building the same railway line in Burma and we spotted many other graves belonging to soldiers in his regiment.

By the time we got back to minivan we’d been going around 12 hours and were looking forward to a speedy return to Bangkok. Unfortunately after a short way the van finally seized up and we were stranded by the side of the road until the ever smiling driver called his mate to take us home. Back on Khao San and completely worn out we recharged on Red Bull and set off to experience the shadier side of Bangkok’s culture with a visit to a Ping Pong show (if you don’t know what that is please don’t ask). Though quite educational we’ll never look at a birthday cake or a banana in the same light again.