Arriving in Kanchanburi, which is about 120km west of Bangkok and only 80km from the border with Burma, we got settled in another cheap guesthouse.

We took a wall around Kanchanburi and visited the War Cemetary where the POW's who died during the Japanese control of Thailand in the Second World War. Most of the gravestone plaques were un-named.

Onward from the cemetary we arrived at the legendary 'Bridge over the River Kwai' which featured in a film of the same name and was destroyed in the Second World War. We were able to walk across it and there were places to stand if the train did come, although it did go incedibly slow across the bridge.

We took a trip to the Tiger Temple, which is a thai willife rescue project run by monks. The tigers are kept there because most are not fit enough to be sent back to the wild and the ones that are have been domesticated in the past and woulnt survive anyway. We even got close enough to stroke a large adult tiger (and take photos)

The tiger was chained to a tree but if it had chosen to attack it had enough chain to get us (danger danger!!). This tiger in particular was very tame and we were assured that it hadnt eaten many tourists for a while :).

Also at the tiger sanctuary were some other animals including monkeys. There was a really cute, friendly monkey that wanted to hold my hand, it then stretched out and tried to go to sleep with it's head on my leg.

There was also a very vicious monkey in a cage that could reach a good couple of feet through the wire mesh, which I was unaware of until it reached through and clubbed me on the head!

The following day we took a trip to Erawan national park, which has seven levels of waterfalls, the first being 700m from the trail entrance and the seventh 2km up... We trekked to the top and it was well worth it for the views...

On the way back down we stopped off at waterfall level three and took a swim. There were lots of small fish (similar to carp) that sucked at my feet - only little nips, not a blood bath :). We also got to sit on the rock directly under the waterfall to get a natural shower, it was great (a bit cold though).

From Erawan we moved on to Hellfire pass and museum where prisoners of war of the japenese army (including asians and many european and australian troops) had to construct a railway from thailand to burma through the mountains. An incredible 80,000 men lost their lives cutting through hellfire pass which is only about 1km of track.

The whole length of the track would have normally taken 6 years to construct, but the POWs were forced to do it in 17 months. After the war the thai government removed the track and all that remains is the trail where it once stood.

We then drove to the end of the track (back toward kanchanburi) and caught a train which took us along side of the river Kwai and eventually over the famous Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a good journey but did give time to reflect about the what we had previously seen.

The train dropped us off just the other side of the bridge and we were then able to walk back across the bridge...