River Kwai bridge

I know there's quite a few posts missing from Cambodia to here in Bangkok, but I had to write this up while it was fresh in my head :)

1500 Baht for a tourist coach to Kanchanaburi (with free lunch)?! Who would get a coach to go and see the bridge over the river Kwai when you can get a train along the actual "death railway" for 120 Baht. The train in question actually goes to the Sai Yok Nei waterfalls at Nam Tok but handily stops at the Kwai bridge en-route. I found this bit of information thanks to the train-tastic Mark Smith over at the ever-informative Seat61.com. As I was one of three farangs amongst two-hundered Thai's I can vouch that it's still a mystery to Westerners. One train departs Hua Lamphong station every Saturday and Sunday morning at 6:30am and another at 13:00. I didn't pre-book and the train was 90% full so maybe out of wet season you might need to.

Not many people got on the train at Hua Lamphong and we set off; a slow winding clik-clak through Bangkok; picking up more and more people at stops along the way for about an hour. Food and drink people jump on the train at every stop. I munch some rice with a fried egg and chicken bits (and a fishy sauce) while shuffle on my mp3 player fittingly plays this. The train squeezes past tiny corrugated metal houses and crosses canals containing a mysterious misty blue water which delights the nostrils but people are fishing and I can see occasional ripples and bubbles so the pollution can't be that bad? Before long the train is picking up speed and the colour outside is no longer concrete and misty-blue but GREEN. Green like you've never see before; a million shades of green! Maybe I've been in Bangkok too long because it's striking; everything is covered! Cotton farms, corn farms, rice farms, hemp farms (I've never seen so many cannabis plants) and trees of every description; bushes everywhere and ivy climbing up anything that's not normally green; it looks like the electricity poles are fighting a losing battle.

Greenery

I'm not sure what you might call him; I hate to say ticket master or guard, or entertainment, though he seems to be all of these things. His name (I hope I have this written correctly as he wrote it down on a bouncy train!) is Rucha Mitrisu and he's the man. I couldn't get an exact gist but he was obviously talking about the atrocities that happened building the railway but also doing quizzes and getting everyone to sing (traditional songs according to the nice lady next to me) and clap; and all through a megaphone! I'm not sure if he works this route every weekend, or even if this is part of his job description but he certainly seems to enjoy it.

Rucha

We stop at a little station where Bangkok studios are filming inside an old army train. There's huge cameras and lights and dry ice coming from inside. As we pull away three western actors dressed in khaki coloured uniforms emerge from the carriage and wave at our train. Now this is most likely my imagination and severely unlikely but the one actor looked exactly like Jake Gyllenhaal. (I shall say it was when recounting the story to friends)

Jake?

We arrive at the Kwai bridge (which isn't actually over the Kwai) around 10:20am and everyone disembarks. On and around the bridge are hundreds of people, café's and souvenir shops; big business.  Rucha says to me "40 minute". Once I'd taken some pictures up and down the bridge and grabbed a coffee I hear the train whistle. Looking at the watch it's 10:40am. The penny drops and I dart back to the train. The whistle blows again, everyone moves off the bridge and we slowly edge on. It creaks loudly and is just wide enough to take the train.

A little further along the line we head upwards, and along a steep ridge to another bridge near Thamkase; this one is a little more breathtaking; again creaking and whining under the weight of the train. Sit on the left side and you'll get the best views down to the river then the hills with giant Buddha's and temples perched. Around noon we stop, then reverse, then stop abruptly with a huge shunt. I guess that we picked up some more carriages.

We arrive at Nam Tok at 12:30pm and everyone else hops into the back of the free trucks to take them up to the waterfall. I've spent a lot of time around waterfalls since travelling so decide to pass on this one and lap up some peace in this tiny village. I have some spicy soup and a pineapple shake then write a postcard to the folks, and another to my old workplace.

Spicy shrimp soup

The train leaves promptly at 14:30 and we clatter back down the line. On the way up I speak to a fellow photographer (and journalist) from the free (ad-based) Thai tourist guide "Tourism Unbound". He's writing a piece on the train tour to the waterfall and decides, as a bonus, he would like to interview me. He brings me a bunch of ngor (rambutan) still attached to their stalks (it's Thai tradition to give gifts to a stranger on first meeting). He writes down some questions for me to answer but the train is so bouncy it's impossibly to write anything coherent! I ask him to email me the questions later and I'll send them straight back before he hands it in next Wednesday. Maybe I'll be a famous farang :)

Aun doing his photographers pose

The rest of the journey back sleepy and a little rainy. We clack past the corrugated shacks in the dark but they're now all lit up allowing a glimpse inside. Lots of smiling faces, delicious looking food, hammocks and sofas and cats and dogs lolling about; but still corrugated houses. I look up over them and can see the Prince Palace glowing; a huge posh looking apartment block. Quite a contrast. We arrive back to Hua Luamphong station at 20:00. I say goodbye to the lovely Aun and wife and head back to the guesthouse to wait for my interview questions.

Don Det, Laos

Saying goodbye to beautiful Cambodia we pile into another minibus (which had some strange smoking mushroom graffiti on the windows) and head off to Stung Treng, a nice little border town perched on the Mekong, where we have to wait for the next bus. We have some noodles from a street stall while hanging about for a couple of hours then our minivan turns up. By now there's far more people than seats in the van. Taking up the back two rows are some bags of things heading to Laos; the seats in front of that contain Talitha, another girl and two guys from Denmark; in the front is the driver then me and a Monk sharing the passenger seat. Although not comfortable in any way it was certainly another journey to remember.

We pull up at the tiny border post - there's no-one else at all here, just a few police in small buildings and a few sitting around in the shade. We fill out a quick form and give it, with our passports and two photographs, to the hand in the window. They shuffle the papers about for a while then hand the documents back, gesturing us to the next hand in a window. The visa costs $35 for 30 days. There should be no other charges but they decide they're going to charge us $2 to stamp the visa! Not wanting to pay this unofficial fee out of pure principle I tell them that I only had enough for the $35 entry, so they tell me I should go back into Cambodia! What can you do?? I root about in my pocket, produce $1 in change, put it on the counter in front of the hand and tell him that is all I have. He takes the change and stamps my passport. I head over the border and into the waiting minibus with a ridiculously BLUE roof.

Our Cambodia minibus - Monk having a quick smoke

The Cambodia / Laos border

The customs windows 

Access granted

The BLUE roof of our Laos minibus

On the road again we get settled... for 10 minutes then we stop in a little town. The driver ushers us out to walk but doesn't really explain where we're walking to. The road in the town is under repair, and is non-existent, so we assume we're walking to another minibus at the other side. We dodge the building materials and the residents dodging the building materials, walk a little further and there it is, the Mekong, flowing lazily around 4000 little islands, one of which is Don Det.

Our little long tail boat nips through the islands and lands on a sandy shore framed with quiet restaurants. We jump out and have a quick drink in one of the restaurants, admiring the beautiful Mekong. I'm approached by a tiny kitty when leaving the restaurant, possibly the smallest cat (that's not a kitten) I've ever seen. I name him Oscar and promise to see him later with some food (I never found him again). There's no roads on Don Det, just dusty paths between shops and bungalows down each side of the river bank. You can walk from the eatst to the west side of the island in under five minutes. We look for accommodation on the sunrise side, but find nothing. We find the kind of place we're looking for on the sunset side; two little bungalows right on the river in a resort called Tena, for 30,000 a night. Extremely basic, literally a bed in a hut, mosquito net, a fan and a hammock on the balcony; toilets are in a separate block. Talitha only stays one night and moves to a nicer place, preferring to have a toilet in the room. I'm a tramp, and will sleep anywhere (as long as there's a mosquito net). We dump the bags, have a shower and relax in the melting sunshine. That night we meet a Canadian guy, who's wearing a t-shirt with a logo that later becomes a big part of my life (keep reading for more on this ;) - he's travelling with a half-Vietnamese girl who puts to rest the little mystery of the little question-marks on some Vietnamese characters. We laze about drinking with them for ages. Later we come across a little cinema where you slob out on the floor with a beer and "happy" chocolate brownie; we watch Pineapple Express; which was extremely entertaining! (because of the brownie?). You can get anything "happy" here: shakes, cookies, brownies, pizza - you name it. It just means it's had a liberal sprinkling of cannabis when made. Take it slowly though they're pretty strong; half a brownie each was more than enough!

Everyone out the minibus! walk this way.. 

Arrival at Don Det

Laos Laos (Whiskey) and coke and some mint and lemon drink

I'm going to take you home

This is where is spent most of my time in Don Det

Laos sunsets are spectacular

  The next few days for me are spent reading, writing and relaxing; literally doing nothing. Don Det had a strange effect on me: I'm not sure I've ever been that lazy in my life! Talitha was, on the other hand, in party mode, so she darted off here and there! One day we hired some bikes and cycled to the waterfall on the next island down, paying a small charge on the bridge to cross. The waterfall's not like any I'd seen on the trip so far, it was a powerful Mekong monster crashing over sharp rocks. You can't get particularly near it for the "DANGER" signs! Truly awesome; and this is in the dry season; it must be scary in the wet season. After this we ride over and check out a viewing spot for the rare Mekong dolphins. We didn't see any, despite the many suggestive, badly photo-shopped pictures of tourists frollocking with them, so we head back to Don Det.

That evening we tried a little tubing, with one tube. We tried on the west side of the island, attempting to swim upstream with little progress; constantly aware of the raging waterfall 5km down the river! We leave the water and walk up the north side, hoping we can get into the current at the top point; and float with the current down the west side, to our bungalows. This also failed as the fast current splits on the north west side pushing us east around the side of the island with no places to exit the river. Still, it was great fun splashing about for a while, and at least I can say I did a little tubing in Laos! 

Our last few days together before we part company

The beach a little further down from the waterfall

FROLLOCK WITH THE DOLPHINS LIKE THIS!

Deforestation

 

Totally tubular

Here's the sunset from our final night - no words can describe it, and these pictures certainly don't do it justice.