Author: Grey Gap Year

The Bridge on the River Kwai or not
Took a walk up to the bridge this morning.

There is a small market with food and drink stalls just outside the train station, also some restaurants around the area and some floating restaurants on the river. The bridge is a popular photo hot spot, many people trying to get the perfect instagram shot, especially if there is a train due. There are viewing platforms along the bridge so if a train does come along (only about 4 a day) then you can stand on them until the train passes. You can also take a speedboat or raft ride down the river and visit some sites further out.

Most people congregate around the first half of the bridge, not many actually make it all the way across. It takes more effort dodging all the people stopping to take pics than it does to walk across the bridge,I crossed the bridge and visited the temple on the other side. It is very quiet at the far end.
This is not actually the river Kwai, the guy who wrote the book got his rivers mixed up. The river the bridge was built over river actually called Mae Klong, however once the film of the book came out tourists started to visit the place to see the Bridge on the River Kwai. To stop confusion the Thais decided to rename a stretch of the river to Kwai Yai, which is where the Bridge is,

Small restaurant at the other end sells durian ice lollys if anybody fancies one.

There is also a small monument to the Chinese who died working on building the railway, it is not very well maintained and doesn’t look like it gets many visitors. Basically it is just an open air photo gallery.
The temple on the far side is Chinese, a lot different from normal Thai Temples.#
Set of status representing the Chinese Zodiac, I was born in the year of the pig,
Two monkeys having a chat,,,, who do they remind you of ?
Walked about 5 miles in total and was hitting 40 degrees when I got back to the guesthouse, the last 500 yards seemed to take forever. Suffering a bit from the heat and felt sick so just chilled by the river a bit

Off to the seaside tomorrow so hopefully should be a bit cooler there,
April 28, 2019
War Cemetary at Kanchanaburi
Found out at 8am this morning that the guesthouse only starts breakfast at 9:30, wtf is that all about. Anyway i took a walk up to the railway museum and war cemetary and found breakfast along the way.

It was at The Nine guesthouse, bit more expensive than the Smiley Frog but looks nice and in a quiet area. As you can see they have cat on the menu and it is really fresh.

I settled for egg on toast and a cup of tea.

Made my way to the Thailand-Burma Railway museum, not as boring as it sounds. The exhibits are well laid out and documented, they describe the story of the Japanese invasion and the building of the railway very well. Some of the exhibits are a bit graphic.

£3.63 entrance fee but you do get a drink with that at the end.
Spent about an hour altogether including a 10 minute film of veterans describing their experiences.
Of the 30,000 British pows around 7000 died during the building of the railway, mostly of malnutrion and diseases such as malaria and cholera. The Japanese offered false contracts to asian labourers to also work on the railway, they were treated even worse than the POWs and died in their tens of thousands, some of the Asian labourers had taken their families along on the false promises of the Japanese. There is no record of how many wives or childen would have died along the way.

There are quite a few good films about this period, Bridge on the River Kwai, To End All Wars, the most recent would have been The Railway Man.

Just across the way from the museum is the allied war cemetary,there are actually 3 in the area. Two thirds of this one seem to be British. As far as possible after the war the bodies of those who died in the jungle etc were recovered and identified and then laid to rest at the cemetaries around Kanchanaburi. The ashes of those cremated in the pow camps were also recovered and laid to rest here.

The cemetary is well maintained and cared far, each grave is marked by a headstone with the persons, name, rank, number and corps/ship. There is an index at the entrance which lists all the names, so any living relatives can easily find their graves.

There was actually a Thai school trip while I was here, the children had workbooks to identify various things about the cemetary, e.g youngest age, family name of the school teacher (who was English), which nationalities etc. Nice to see the kids so involved with their countries history, makes me wonder how many of kids in UK schools would know about what went on here.
Cup of ice coffee at Gravite on the way back, small coffee shop but the guy who runs it takes his coffee very seriously. Has no machines in there, he grinds all the beans by hand to order and uses drip feed method through filters. Takes a while but gives a purer taste to the coffee. I had one of the specials of the day, it was a Thai brand from the North. It tasted like just about every other coffee i have ever had but didn’t want to upset the guy after all his hard work.
Chicken Fried rice for lunch/dinner.

Been raining most of the evening so stayed at the guesthouse and had a bit of a feast for dinner/tea, spring rolls, pork with fried kaffir lime leaves and chilli, watermelon shake. About a fiver all in, the lime leaves give a really good lip smacking zing to the dish, The guesthouse gets good reviews for the restaurant but I find it only so so, everything i have had seems to be a bit over cooked.

The fruit shakes are good though.

Still raining so Netflix night on the laptop.
April 26, 2019
Next stop – Kanchanaburi
I was going to get the train down to Kanchanaburi but my back is still a bit sore from the fall and didn’t fancy the two hour ride on a rickety old train. Asked the landlady about a taxi as it is only an hour or so by road, 1000 baht which is about £24. Luckily her grandad said he was going that way and would take me for half that – result.

Had my last breakfast of rice porridge and black coffee, princely sum of £1.21 and said my goodbyes. The porridge tastes better than it sounds, it is rice in a seasoned broth with lemongrass, galangal, onion, spring onion, coriander and carrot. There are variations in different regions. Was actually too much and I could not finish it.

The cook came to say goodbye.

I thought we would be in for a wild ride when I got in the pick up, Toyota Hilux, as he said “go slowly, my eye not so good”. Took his sunglasses off and his left eye was swollen and inflammed….. oh well in for a penny in for a pound and at least I saved £12,

The roads were quiet anyway so it was uneventful, but he could not find the right route to the guesthouse so I ended up walking the last half mile.

Staying at the Smiley Frog guesthouse, rooms are basic but it is very clean and has air con, en suite etc. The room is about half the size of the guesthouse I just left but the same price. It is off the main street so it is quiet but close to bars and restaurants.
There is a nice garden at the back overlooking the river, very peaceful there and spent a couple of hours chilling. A few noisy boat tours went up and down but only disturbed the peace for a couple of minutes
Had enough rice for today so had fish and chips for lunch/dinner. Was ok, not sure what type of fish it was. Probably catfish and it hadn’t seen a river in quite a while. All the menu items here were cheap as well, mine cost about £4 including watermelon shake.

Took a walk down the street in the evening, had a few beers at a sports bar and watched Rugby. The street was fairly quiet with about 20 bar/restaurants – Usual mix of backpackers, expats, tourists….

What better to finish the night after a few beers than a ham and cheese toastie from the 7/11 shop. £1.10 with a bottle of water,,,
April 26, 2019
Sai Yok Noi waterfall…
Had a walk out to the waterfall, actually only about 15 minutes from the guesthouse so not too far. It is accessible from the main road so gets day trippers stopping off. Although it was quiet when i was there, mostly thai. A family of four did turn up, sounded like they were Dutch, expect they were on a tour as their guide was hurrying them along.

A few snaps along the way.
Decided to walk a bit further into the park to see if I could find the source of the stream.. but the signs in English ran out. Came to a crossroads but nothing to indicate which way so followed the stream into the bush a bit further…. soon became overgrown so headed back to the waterfall area.
Came across a snakey thing in the bush though..

Looks like they have had trouble in the past with people taking a bath !!!

Nice area to just hang out for a while, a lot of shade and the water keeps everything cool. Although this area is not as humid as say Bangkok it does get very hot and it saps the energy out of you.
Also saw a sign that said “Do not write or etch on the trees” thought it might have lost something in the translation until I came across a clump of bamboo with loads of graffitti.
There used to be a train station here also but it is now disused, there is a train though. Dates from the 1940s and was supposed to have been used by the Japanese.

This is someones house not far from the guesthouse.

20 metres down the road, this is also someones house. There are some ploughed fields around the big house, so guessing the people in the small house work the land for them.

Back to the guesthouse and my well deserved 12p cola ice lolly.
Tea/Dinner of spicy chicken and basil with a large beer, less than £3….

Short video of the falls.
April 25, 2019
Hellfire and Bat crap cave
Landlord drove me around a couple of places today, for a price. Bit expensive but as we are out of the way it is to be expected as not much in the way of transport.. Grab/Uber does not extend to here. There is a local bus that would get me to Hellfire Pass but only runs every hour or so. I saw a couple on the road and they always looked packed anyway.

First stop was Hellfire Pass, Kunya cutting, the deepest and longest cutting on the death railway. All cut out of the jungle and granite rock by hand. The prisoners of war and asian labourers worked upto 18 hours a day, at night they used oil lamps and bamboo fires for lighting. The light and the noise from constant hammering, drilling and dynamting the rock seemed like a living image of hell. Hence the name Hellfire Pass.

There is a small museum and an audio guide you can listen to as you move down the pass. It is actually a nice place to visit, beautiful scenery. But for the prisoners suffering from malaria, malnutrition, daily beatings, the heat, monsoon rains, mosquitoes, wasps and other nasty things it would have been hell.
The photo of the rocks and a bowl is the amount of rock each person was meant to move in a day, the bowl contained the daily ration of rice granted by the Japanese to the prisoners, about 370 grams if memory serves. Measure it out and see if you could survive 18 hour work days.
There was a touching photo placed at the cutting of Signalman Jack Thompson, he was in the Royal Corps of Signals. Had a google and he was from Bury and was 22 when he died there in 1943. Nothing to say who placed the photo or any further info about his sister Elsie.
It is Anzac day on 25/4, Australia and New Zealand rememberance day, they have a dawn ceremony here on that day. They light the pass with candles.The Aussies/NZ forces were having a practice when I was there. Sorry about the sound, didn’t turn it down

Not sure how far down into the valley we were but it was quite a drag going back up the stairs, but there wouldn’t have been stairs for the prisoners and they would have had to drag themselves there and back under harsh conditions. So stop moaning Bri and get on with it.
Second stop was the Lawa cave, not sure why I decided on this as the last time I visited a cave it did not go too well.

Truth be known my current body type is not built for caves. True to form this cave was up a steep hill by stairs for about 200 metres, hot and sweaty, but it was not such hard going as the Vietnam one. Had an entrance fee as it is in the national park which was bit steep at 300 baht – £7.24 – but you get a guide with that. It is a school holiday so the guides were all kids about 10 or 11 years old…. they move faster uphill than I do.
Once you get in the cave the first “room” is a Budha shrine.

The next room is where most of the bats seem to hang around, even if you couldn’t see them by the light you would smell them. Very pungent, need smello vision to do it justice. There are thousands, the floor and the hand rails for the stairs are covered in Bat do do.
The rest of the photos didn’t come out very well, the only other visitors were a family. Didn’t realise until I got outside that the lady was actually carrying a baby in a papoose on her chest as well as a backpack. No idea how she managed, dad was obviously in charge of taking the photos and showing their other kid what to look out for.

The boy in blue was my guide, he was a bit shy about having his photo taken but managed to get him when he was playing the organ,
Not really got a clue what the stuff is but I can remember there was a dog and a monkey.

This was a crocodile

All in all it went better than the last cave visit, I only banged my head once and fell down once. An outstanding achievement of which I am very proud. Although it was a spectacular fall and I ended up with a sore knee and back…. wasn’t helped by the guide deciding to turn into a comedian and saying “mind your step” before bursting into a girly giggle. He was a good lad though so still gave him a tip
April 24, 2019
In the Jungle
The mighty Jungle.
The Brian sleeps tonighttttttt

Took the train from Thonburi station to the end of the line at Nam Tok, took about 4 hours and 40 minutes with a few delays. Checked out in plenty of time to get the train at 07:50, the Grab app (same as Uber) said 30 minutes but took nearly 50. Got to the station with 5 minutes to spare, which was enough time to buy a ticket and find a seat. The train left dead on time. The train follows the path of the so called Death Railway, built by the Japanese with the help of prisoners of war and Asian press ganged labourers. The Bridge on the River Kwai is probably the most famous film about this. More on this later and why it should be Bridge on the Not River Kwai.

The fare is the same for foreigners however far you go, 100 baht, around £2.42. Comfortable but basic, there is no air conditioning but there are ceiling fans. The windows and doors are kept open so the breeze keeps things cool if a bit noisy, also gets a bit dusty. There were some grass fires at various points which filled the carriages with smoke a couple of times, much coughing and spluttering. Gets really hot when the train stops, which it does a lot….

Skipped breakfast at the hotel as i thought i would have enough time at the station to get something to eat, there is no buffet car but vendors stroll through the train with snacks, fruit and drinks. Had some mango to keep me going, the pink stuff is sugar and chilli dip. This type of mango is a bit sour and the sugar is to offset it.

This little guy was staring me out for the full journey, but i just stared right on back, He didn’t intimidate me.

Belonged to a young girl and her mum sat in front of me, they were really nice and explained to me in broken English why the train stopped at different points and wether it was safe to get off and stretch my legs.

Expectation

Reality

Clips from the journey

Staying at the Yayee homestay, I did take a video of the room but for some reason I seem to have forgotten to press record, I guess the reason is I am a dumbass. Nice family run place, very friendly, Room is spacious and good value at about £15 per night. The temperature was about 99 degrees F when I arrived.They were supposed to meet me from the train but after 15 minutes and no sign of them one of the vendors at the train station called them for me and they sent the motorbike with sidecar to pick me up. The guy who picked me up said the lady who arranged pick up just forgot and went to sleep, this is Thailand. It is only about 1km from the station but too hot too walk toting a bag.

I say motorbike with sidecar, what I mean is a motorbike with a side cage…. I will grab a photo of it when I can.

I was a bit hungry when I got here so had my usual standby of chicken fried rice, have to say it was probably the nicest one I have ever had. Fresh out of the wok and really tasty. . So hungry didn’t bother with a pic. It only cost 55 baht with a drink of iced tea, £1.33.

I was going to take a walk to Sai Yok Noi waterfall but it started raining so gave it a miss and just chilled out.

The rooms are set around an outdoor central communal sitting area, each room also as a sitting area outside and there is a communal coffee/tea making station (free coffee and tea), there is even a gym (not exactly Bolton arena), a restaurant and reception etc are downstairs.
I even get a room companion to keep me company.

There is a tv in the room with about 200 cable channels, so far I haven’t found any English language ones though.

I had chicken and ginger in coconut milk for dinner, the small aubergines in the soup came from the grounds so were very fresh. I expect the chicken didn’t travel too far either. It was spicy but could have done with a bit more heat, I think they toned it down a bit for me. The landlady gave me a glass of red wine, a return guest had brought it from France for her. She was well into the bottle and insisted I share with her, who am i to say no. The meal was £2.17 with a bottle of coke.

Got a couple of things planed for tomorrow but looks like it will be a another hot one with rain in the afternoon.

Good night.
April 22, 2019
Nothing to see here.

Did pretty much nothing in Bangkok, not sure if it was the heat or the flight but felt really wiped out for the last few days. Had a couple of swims in the pool but did not stray far from the hotel.

After arriving Friday, apart from breakfast each day I only had two meals between then and checking out early Monday morning.

One of those was a McDonalds. The golden arches seem to be everywhere. There were 4 within a 10 minute walk of the hotel.

I rarely go in the UK and that is usually breakfast so not sure if the Angus burger is served there, seems to be a special menu item. As it should be, it cost me £5 for a meal. Was hoping for a spicy pork Samurai burger but it was off the menu. My meal did come on a platter though which is something new to me for McDs.

Sunday I took a walk down to Terminal 1 shopping mall as they have a great food court there, but it was very busy so just went into one of the restaurants, Hawker Chans. The food court is very cheap and is all street food style concesssions from around Asia. You could spend a day there happily munching through all the offerings.

Hawker Chans was good though, fast food Singapore style, Had pork rib in a sticky soy and spicy sauce, The sauce had a bit of a kick, only cost £2.50 including drink. The beans might be mung beans but I am not sure.They added a bit of crunch.

April 22, 2019
Lake, waterfalls and money growing on trees

Took a walk round Elterwater and visited a couple of waterfalls.Bit overcast but the rain held off until about mid day.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Apparently there are quite a few money trees in the Lake District and elsewhere in the country. Idea is similar to wishing wells I think, hammer in your coin and make a wish.

Claptrap if you ask me and if you want to get rid of your change, give it to charity. Contemplated trying to get the coins out to buy lunch but harder than you would think 🙂

Nothing beats a cup of tea with a scone, jam and cream after a long walk.

September 14, 2018
The National Memorial Arboretum

Bit of a mouthful so we will shorten to NMA from now on.

It is the national centre of rememberance, been meaning to visit for a while but never got round to it.

First thing to say is that it is big, with over 300 memorials throughout the gardens. Mainly military but all the emergency services had memorials too. Along with large and small charities.

Although it is a place of rememberance, the lives of those who have fallen are represented by trees so it celebrates life more than being just a place of grief. There are nature trails also with small mammals such as squirrels hanging around, plenty of different types of birds too (the ones with wings).

I spent about 2.5 hours just walking around all the memorials and some time remembering my fallen friends. I always try to focus on how they lived and not on how they died.

As it is so large they have land trains that the old, infirm and the generally can’t be arsed walking can use. Not sure of the cost. There also seem to be golf buggy tours and an audio trail.

The centre piece is the Armed forces memorial, over 16000 names engraved into the stones. I believe these names are only for those died since 1948. Bit sobering to see that there is room for a lot more.

There are two outer semi circular walls and two inner semi circular walls. Bit strange acoustics, as the outer walls are concave voices really amplify if you are between the walls. I was just contemplating on some of my friends names when a couple started talking about 20 meters away, sounded like they had turned the amp up to 11. Most annoying.

All the names are in year order and by service but not in any alphabetical order so can be quite hard to spot names.

Paul Holt was the first comrade I knew to die, 1980 in Belfast. He was not Royal Signals but Ordnance Corps, got to know him well over a 4 month tour together. Actually took his own life, had been struggling under the pressure of work we were doing and had also been having problems in his personal life. Bit of a black humour story about how i heard of his death but I won’t put it in print. Ask me. Also had to help with cleaning the inside of his car, big hole in the headrest with plenty of caked blood etc.

Rob Burns and Paul Lightfoot, died in the same incident in the Falklands 19/5/1982. Rob was 23 and Paul was 21. I was 22 at the time. It was freak accident,they were cross decking in an helicopter from one ship to another prior to an operation ashore. A bird strike hit the helicopter and down it went, another 20 souls lost there lives, I knew about 6 of them to say hello to and have a beer but Rob and Paul I knew well.

Not a clear picture but Steve Molyneux is in there, died in 1992 in Namibia of all places. Steve was a career soldier, joined before I did was serving well after I left, from Liverpool and was quite a character. Many stories abound about Steve.

The post office has its’ own memorial too, BT was formed from the GPO. Due to a monopoly position the post and telecommunications were split in the GPO in 1980 prior to formation of British Telecommunications in 1981. Today we have BT (hurrah) and Royal Mail.

Royal Corps of Signals memorial, Jimmy needs a bit of a clean i think

Despite being a grumpy old man I do try to stay humble and modest I am especially still at weekends. I am a tiger, roooaaarrrr.

Airborne forces memorial, chap pulling his kit up the hill is a paratrooper. Up close even the statue looks like a hard tough man.

Army Apprentice college memorial, Harrogate is where it all started for me in 1975.

Few more snaps from around the gardens.

The shot at dawn memorial. This is particulary poignant, it is for all those shot for supposed cowardice or desertion in the first world war. If captured they would be stripped of their rank and military insignia, buttons cut off their uniforms. Hands tied behind their backs and blindfolded they would be shot at dawn by firing squad.There are 6 trees in front of the statue that represents a firing squad. It was only later that shell shock was diagnosed,later known as combat stress and what we understand and know as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) today.

Poppy field, I think the idea is to complete the field up to the monument in the far distance to mark 100 years since the end of the first world war.

Haven’t got a clue what this is.

September 10, 2018
OMG Carpet !!

Got home tonight and confronted by this ….

Yes it is grey threadbare carpet but it is mine, it has been covered in Engie branded plastic sheeting for 2.5 weeks so can only mean the work has finished. Yay, smiley face, hashtag could have put ducting on all the bloody piping. The white ducting you can see only goes up to the hall ceiling, then it is bare pipe all the way upstairs.

But the main event is that the washing machine is in, bit of a tight squeeze and it is at a slight angle (grit teeth and pretend I am not the least bothered by this) but it is in and they have even got round to fixing the shelf under the sink. How lucky am I. No radiator though, nobody has said why yet but I will keep asking.

Just got to hope the washing machine does not start knocking and vibrating against the sides as that will really wind me up.

B4 shot of under sink shelf

Can’t think of anything else they need to do other than give me my key back, so no more strangers annoying me now. I just need to pop the fridge back, do a bit of cleaning and day dream of having a freezer to store chips and ice cream.

Endex

August 14, 2018