Inner City Life

Jon and I finally got to celebrate my birthday for this year! Due to the nightmare of "abscess-gate" we had to postpone my birthday treats (which should have been on 5th Jan), so we decided to celebrate one month later, on 5th Feb.
We checked into a lovely spa on the east coast of Thailand. We had two nights here, I got my nails done and a lovely full body massage, Jon lounged around by the pool, we ate some lovely dinners and celebrated my "birthday" with a six hour bike ride around a National Park (hard work but beautiful scenery) followed by a nice bottle of wine ;o)

After two relaxing days we felt fully refreshed and raring to go again. Our next stop was Kachanaburi, to the west of Thailand near Myanmar (Burma). The main part of our trip was to see the "Death Railway Bridge" which is famous for it's gory history during WW2. The bridge over the river Kwai and railway connecting it was built by thousands of Prisoner's of War, along with hundreds of thousands of poor civilians. They were forced by the Japanese army to work in horrific conditions, in the sweltering heat often with no food or water. They endured regular beatings and lived with many injuries and illnesses. As a result 16,000 foreign men died, along with over 100,000 poor Asian men. It's an area with loads of interesting history so we wanted to visit this on our travels.
We had a long train journey before arriving at Kachanaburi. At first glance it looks like any other Westernised strip... we were horrified, we were expecting to find a place filled with history, instead it looked like it had been taken over by Brit's Abroad! Argh! Thankfully it is only one road that has been ruined by Western bars. It's such a shame, it's a beautiful area, yet you have these bars with cheesy dance music blaring out, one bar is even brazen enough to advertise (actually painted in massive letters on it's wall) "GET SH*T FACED HERE ON A SHOESTRING". Disgusting! Why do people think they can come to a different country and get away with this, I'm surprised the local authorities haven't closed it down.
Anyway, after our initial shock we found a room overlooking the River Kwai in a peaceful area. On our first day we hired out mopeds each and explored the local area. We visited the famous bridge, which as predicted had hordes of tourists taking pictures of it. It was still nice to see a piece of history though. We also visited a WW2 cemetery, which was a very sombre moment for us. This is one of the smaller war cemetery's in the world yet there was still probably over 2000 graves. It was tragic to read the names and ages of the young men who had been killed, barely any of them were over 30, and many had died as a result of building the Death Railway Bridge.
On our second day we ventured even further out on our mopeds. We visited an area called Erawan which is even nearer the Myanmar border. It's a place of natural beauty, and it was a great ride seeing mountains, lakes, forests. It took us about three hours getting there and two getting back. I don't think the bikes were made for such long distances as they were both struggling a bit nearer the end haha! I'm actually amazed me and Jon both made it in one piece seeing as neither of us have ridden a motorbike before. Nevertheless it turned out ok!

We left Kachanburi on 9th Feb and caught a train to Bangkok. This was our first proper time in the big city as we didn't get to see any of it when we flew in by plane. We headed straight to the famous "Khao San Road" which is the most well known backpacker's haunt. It's a cool road with lots of bars and cafes on it. Nearly everyone walking down the road was a tourist, and the Thai's cater for us well - nearly ever bar or cafe is aimed towards Westerners, as are the clothes stalls and the guest houses.
We decided to stay a few minutes away from the madness, in a more quieter square just North of Khao San Rd. We paid slightly more for our room but it's worth it to have somewhere clean and with an attached bathroom.
On our first evening we went to the cinema and watched a film. The complexes over here are amazing, everything is so hi-tech and shiny and new!
On our second day in Bangkok we headed straight for the shopping district. OH MY GOD If I could ever spend my life savings anywhere it's here. Every shop has the most amazing clothes in, and a lot are cheaper than back home. I wouldn't say everything is cheap like I thought in the past, but if you hunt around you can find some great bargains. Jon and I didn't buy anything this time around because obviously we've still got three months left of our travels, but we made mental images of where the good shops were so we can rinse our credit cards in May!
Later on that evening we decided to go clubbing for our first time in ages. We jumped in a cab and told him our destination..... two and a half hours, two cabs, and a tuk-tuk later we still hadn't reached our destination. We'd been dropped off in the middle of a residential area, an Elvis tribute club, and back to where we started (Khao San Rd). The taxi drivers round here have an annoying habit of saying they know your destination and then just guessing it! Finally we made it to the bars/clubs, a lot later than planned.
Now it's our last day here. So far we have done a river tour, and seen the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddah. Bangkok is a great and vibrant city with a lot to do. We leave tonight on a train to the North. We're looking forward to coming back here in May for a few days and seeing some more.