The story of the trip so far....: Filth, Falls and fury in Kanchanaburi

Well, the raft was a little disappointing, though my room was ok, no bathroom unless I shared with a girl who didn’t want to share with me either. If you got a bathroom, the actual room wasn’t as nice. The loos/ shared bathrooms were pretty grimy...

Lots of people were very cross as (they had paid a lot more than me through travel agencies and hotels. My trip had cost just under £100 for 2 nights 3 days.. But some had pad more for just one night) and were absolutely horrified by conditions. No hot water either obviously, and everything including the sheets was a bit..... gritty. Much arguing and shouting. Not from me, which was unusual...Luckily I was well prepared for roughing it with my sleep sack, and after much wheedling and then threatening (I hadn’t actually paid yet) I was promised I could have a room with a bathroom the next day.

Anyway I slept well and a trip to the loo in the middle of the night wasn’t filled with the fear and trepidation I had expected, despite having to navigate rickety stairs and an even more rickety bridge between rafts. I also had my torch. Very useful again!

An early start to the Erewan falls.

WOW. A 5k trek up steep muddy rooty rocky path took you to 7 different levels of falls.

Absolutely beautiful ... and there were monkeys in the trees around and snakes and all sorts! Never made it to the 7^th, as we didn’t have time and you had to go up a very unsafe looking bamboo ladder, but I did get to swim on the amazing pools , shower under waterfalls and SLIDE down one,.. Something I’ve always wanted to do ever since seeing Baloo doing it in the Jungle Book when I was very small.
It was amazing – no sound on this, but please take it that I am making the appropriate whooping noises here and rushing out t do it again!! There when lots of fish in the pools who nipped at your legs, at all your dried skin, which was a bit disconcerting at first, but otherwise quite useful too..... free pedicure!

Got very sweaty and muddy on the way up, so a dip was brilliant, but then after lunch we had to carry on to the “hellfire pass” memorial which seemed a little inappropriate to be so dirty.

Still, we looked around the exhibition all about how the POW’s had to create a cutting for the railway up to 25 metres deep at one point with pure manpower and basic tools. As mentioned before 12,000 allied POW’s died in the railways construction but also 90,000 local workers lured, and then drafted in with promises of well paid work, who were eventually treated worse than the prisoners... it was horrific stuff hearing about the suffering that went on, but also the amazing camaraderie, there was no such thing as every man for himself, everyone shared, everyone supported and helped the sick and injured.....

And then we walked the pass itself.

You can still see some of the original sleepers of the railway – it’s said a man died for every sleeper laid along the track.

This tree obviously grew after it was made ...it sounds odd perhaps, but this tree, growing straight and true from the bare rock right in the centre, the deepest point of the pass,

seems rather befitting of the memory of the men many of whom survived through the pure comradeship of their fellow workers; men who carried the sick and weak back to their base at night after working punishing 18 hour days on nothing but 2 small meals of rice and salted vegetables, whilst being beaten and threatened, starved and deprived of dignity, yet still maintaining it..

So many images of emaciated workers wearing nothing but loincloths as their clothes rotted away on them on the humidity...To hear the stories of survival were just as moving as those of deaths..How these men survived these conditions and achieved this is a testament to strength of spirit I am not sure I even possess. You can see the size of this tree and therefore how deep this pass is....