Hammocks and Swings

I’m sitting in the restaurant looking out across what
looks like a corn field, through which a lane carries
old European style cars and rickety bicycles. I feel a
bit like I’m in Ukrainian countryside, like in that movie
with Elijah Wood. That was set in Ukraine, right? But
the illusion gets ruined by the jungle covered mountains
in the distance. I guess the reality is better than the
illusion anyways.

I got picked up from the railway station on Monday by
a man on a motorbike. Carrying my backpack on a bike
is no problem if I’m doing the driving; at least then the
weight of it is supported by the seat behind me. But I
wasn’t doing the driving, and I think I almost snapped
my stomach muscles trying to save myself from toppling
off the back of the bike. Literally ever time he accelerated
a little I thought I was going to die.


The place where I’m staying has a swimming pool. A
freaking SWIMMING POOL! It’s called Thai Garden Inn,
and there are a few bungalows set around a super cute garden,
complete with hammocks and swings. I love it here; I decided
to stay for 4 nights instead of 3, with the intention of spending
an entire day by the pool.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I got up early with the hope of securing
a bicycle; apparently this place has free bikes to rent, and I
had bought a t-shirt a couple of days before with a bicycle on,
so I thought it was a SIGN, and plus I thought I’d look pretty
awesome riding a bike wearing it.

But then I got told that there was only ONE bike, but it
was broken so I couldn’t use it. But I was like, uh well,
I wanna go bike riding. And he was all like, tough, you
can hire a motorbike instead for 250 baht. But I said, well,
I want a bicycle! And we went around in circles for a while,
and he eventually went off and came back 10 minutes later
with a bike pump. Broken my ass. So 5 minutes later he
wheeled out the miraculously fixed bike. I rode it to the top
of the drive and back, and decided I’d walk instead. It was
the shittiest bike I ever saw.

Sooo, I got into town and hired a motorbike from somebody
else, to make a statement about the crappy bicycle. I visited
the Bridge over the River Kwai, and then took off on a
mega road trip

I drove until my eyes watered. Kanchanaburi is a nice place
for driving. There’s hardly any traffic on the roads. On either
side of me was farmland, and beyond that, the mountains. I
had to dodge cows that had wandered on to the road. Well, I
 say cows; they look more like freakishly massive goats with
big floppy rabbit ears.

I stopped at an elephant village, set right on the river. Then
I headed for Nam Tok, where there are a few waterfalls,
caves and the like. After that I drove for AGES until I came
to the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum. I like a bit of culture
after dinner.

It was pretty hard hitting. The Hellfire Pass is a cutting,
made by Australian and British POW’s for the
Thailand – Burmese railway. They were tortured and
starved by the Japanese and Korean’s, and were worked
until they died, of exhaustion, malnutrition, cholera or
tropical ulcers. After looking round the museum, you can
follow a trail along the death railway until you reach the
Hellfire Pass and its memorial.

It was pretty interesting, because I’d never ever heard
of the construction of the Death Railway before, and now
I feel bad about being so ignorant. I drove over 200 kilometres
yesterday. That’s a lot of mileage to do on a bike; my arms
were tingling by the time I got home.

Today is Wednesday, and I had planned to do nothing
except get up late, hang around the bungalow and do some
swimming, but for some reason, and I have no idea why, I
find it completely impossible to stop moving for any length
of time and relax.

So I got up at 7 as usual, went for breakfast at 8, went
for a swim at 8.30, took the bike back at 9.30, walked
all the way over to the Bridge and the markets, visited the
Jeath War Museum, had a couple of strawberry shakes in
a pub with beloved wifi, where I booked a hostel in Chiang
Mai and Pai, bought my Japan rail pass, and then made
friends with a Thai family who turned all Japanese on me
and wanted pictures of them with me!


Then it felt like it was going to start raining so I just headed
back to the guesthouse for some dinner and a nap, before
hopefully heading to a night market tonight!