We planned a two night three day trip to Kancharaburi through a travel agents as it sounded like we got to do a lot for not a lot of money, and we wouldn’t of been able to organise it all alone.
Floating Market
We got up at 6.30am which really was not ideal as that’s bliming early. We were supposed to be picked up at 7am but had to wait until 7.45am to actually be collected which was annoying. We then waited on Khao San Road until 9am, so we literally hadn’t gone anywhere in two hours.
We should have realised then that the day was going to be a shambles and bit of waste of time, but we just thought they were running late and everything would get better.
Floating Market
After a hell of a lot of cufuffle, we finally made it to the Floating Market. We were all excited to see it as it’s quite an unusual thing, so decided to pay 150 Baht (£3) to have a ride on one of the little narrow boats so we could float around it.
This was a massive mistake.
We got put with the shittest boat driver ever! He literally stopped our boat at the side of the river and stayed there for about 20minutes. SO many other boats went past us to see the market, but our driver decided he wanted to have a fag instead. An absolute idiot!
When he finally decided he was ready to move on, we went past a few of the market boats then he turned off right away from it all and took us on the longest way back through the houses (literally through the wooden shack houses), so we didn’t ge tto see the market properly at all.
There was also a man stood on the side with a massive snake wrapped around him shouting ‘Hello’ at us loudly to get us to have a photo and give him money. Clearly I would never do that in a million years!
Steel Bridge on the River Kwai
We got off the boat so angry as we paid to see the famous floating market, but saw virtually none of it. We complained to our tour woman who said he wasn’t supose to do that and she’d tell her boss. But that doesn’t change the fact that we missed the floating market.
Next we had to get onto another boat, this one had an engine though and wasn’t driven by an idiot. We cruised through all the local houses, which we had seen a lot off from our tour of the ‘floating market’.
It was weird looking at the river houses on stilts and seeing how shabby some of them were. It’s hard to understand how in this day and age there are still people living in what are basically wooden sheds, with literally the basics of everything. It made me feel like I should be doing something to help them, but what can you do?
Having said that, I did see one man sat on a laptop, another woman talking on a mobile phone and there was a very nice car parked the other side of the house, which made me wonder just how poor some of these people really are, and if they’re happy living the lives they do.
This boat ride ended at a place where they have ‘The Most Exotic and Dangerous Snake Show in the World’. Brilliant, just what I wanted.
I thought it was going on in one of the buildings so I went the other way to avoid it all. Little did I know that the whole place was like a snake centre. There was snakes behind glass, a man with a snake, snake statues…the bloody works! I was desperate for the toilet but I just couldn’t go because I was too scared.
The day was not going well at all!
We had to get into yet another bus (this was about the 10th throughout the day) to go have lunch at what I presume was a service station. Food was actually really nice, but we had to use the squatter toilet which put another dampener on the day. Trying to hover over a plastic bowl on the floor whilst not touching anything is quite a skill, and one I am still trying to master.
River Kwai
We arrived at The River Kwai and didn’t have a clue why we were there. We later found out it was built during the Second World War and is one of the most famous railway bridges in Thailand.
Whilst we were there looking around and walking along the track, the strangest thing started happening….loads of Thai people started taking photos of us!
It was like we were celebrities. People were literally walking up to us and taking a picture, and when we asked another tourist to take a photo of us three together, Thai people were standing in front of us and taking photos at the same time. It was very strange. We didn’t know whether to be flattered or scared.
Hanging out of a train!
Drove to ‘The Death Railway’ next, apparently it’s the most dangerous curving bridge in Thailand…oooooooooh.
Once again we didn’t know anything about it, so didn’t know what people were getting excited about. The tour guide woman kept on making us have photos hanging out of the window for some reason. Very odd. After this riveting train journey, we got on yet another minibus to go to our hostel for the night, which was a floating house.
The Floating House
We we’re staying in what looked like a wooden shack which was floating on the river. It was a little scary to think we were actually going to be living there for a couple days as it looked like it was about to collapse at any point.
Our room was absolutely hilarious! There was bamboo/ wicker print lino on the walls, a tin floor in the bathroom, a tap which didn’t ever turn off, a lamp right above my head in bed, a light switch which was hidden in a hole in the wall…the list was endless.
When we were sat on our un-comfy beds, feeling a little sea sick from our room constantly bobbing up and down, bie picked up one of her biscuits to cheer herself up. Two seconds after she put it in her mouth, she started squalling and leaped up from the bed, she basically ran around the room in panic and then went into the bathroom.
We thought maybe it had vodka on it, but then realised we didn’t have any vodka. She came out of our shed like bathroom looking like she was about to cry, she then told us that the biscuit she had just eaten was covered in ants! She ate ants! How hilarious!
I know we’re in Thailand and some of the food is a bit dodge, but there’s no need to eat ants.
