Where we left off...

So we left Phunphin for Bangkok via the overnight train. We bought tickets for an air-conditioned sleeping berth--so it was pretty sweet--you can see how much Isaac is enjoying his top bunk!

We arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in Bangkok at 6 am and immediately caught a bus to Kanchanaburi (west of Bangkok).

We quickly found a room at one of Kanchanaburi's many river guest houses--on the famous River Kwai. One of the distinctions of this town is that it is a popular vacation spot for Bangkokians--especially teenagers. As a result, the river supports a wide variety of floating discos on weekends and holidays --sadly, we only heard one of these floating fiestas during our stay.

So the first order of business was visiting the "Bridge over the River Kwai" seen right. The bridge is the center of much tourist activity in Kanchanaburi--there are a few War Museums in the area that we decided to skip.




To complete our afternoon/evening, we decided to check out the infamous Tiger Temple. Although the Lonely Planet strongly recommended avoiding this attraction, we couldn't resist. To our defense, the description of the Tiger Temple is that it is a Buddhist Temple turned rehabilitation center. The story goes that in 1996, a baby tiger was rescued from a poacher near the border with Myanmar and (for reasons unknown) brought to the temple. One thing led to another and now they have quite a collection of tigers and other wildlife. Ok, so basically, they are breeding tigers so they can sell tickets to tourists who are dying to know what a tiger feels like. Some of the tourists, so we hear, found out what a tiger's teeth and/or claws felt like--thus we signed a waiver. (The pictures say it all).