Thailand Ramblings

Thailand is a country full of ornate temples and shrines. In amongst the old less maintained buildings are these colourful, golden and impressive palaces. Thre is such an affinity as I said before to the king and a picture of the king and queen are on posters all over Thailand and huge monuments are erected to commemorate past kings.

Singburi is very flat and you can only see rice fields and palm trees for long distances. Where I'm staying is almost like an american bayou of mississippi or louisiana. Lots of dogs roam around too. The water has lots of undergrowth along the banks and you see the water monitors floating in the water or scurrying along the bank. In camp we see lots of ghekos and toads when we walk back to our room from the bar. The roads are much more westernised here, unlike Nepal etc the quality of transport is much better. Today (Sunday) I'm writing my notes for the blog in an air-conditioned luxury mini bus with leather reclining seats and a TV. We;re off to see a waterfall which is a three and half hour journey but at least we have comfort.
Shopping is 'strange' - there is the odd department store, opticians or internet cafe but mostly there are local market type shops/stalls. I've been trying hard to find a stationery store to buy some wrapping paper and postcards but no joy so far. Even some of the tourist places we've visited don't have them.
On our way to the waterfall we stopped at the cemetery of the soldiers who died during the 2nd world war and those who died whilst building the railway over the river Kwai. It was a very moving experience to see how young some of the soldiers were - the average age seemed to be between 23 - 25 and so many of them British. Then we went to see the actual Bridge over the river Kwai (the Black Bridge). We walked down across on the tracks - a bit scary as you could see the river through the gaps in the track. AT one point I looked up to see where I was going and the tourist train was coming straight towards me (not very fast) but I had to side step onto one of the viewing platforms at the side.
We had lunch and did some shopping then off to the Erawan falls which has 7 levels. We got to level 5 but it was pretty steep and we were limited to time so came back down to level 2 to swim in the lake with the fish which nibbled your toes. Had icecreams and then the long drive back stopping to look at the sights from a huge dam - it overlooked the river Kwai and the valley below. A really enjoyable day