The coin landed in favour of Kanchanaburi, so here I am, after a small hassle in Bangkok with the taxi driver taking me from my train station of arrival to the one I needed for the Kanchanaburi train. The guy didn’t know where it was so left me, well, somewhere… (This is rather like a black cabbie in London not knowing where Paddington station is). After a session with a policeman and a tuk-tuk driver I got there in time for my train.
When I was here 2 years ago, I stayed on a raft in the river to the north of town, in the vicinity of the famous bridge on the river Kwai, it was nice but not a lot going on in the area. This time I decided to check out another strip of rafts further south towards town, but they were all rather overpriced and very crappy. Somewhat disappointed, and very hot and bothered as I didn’t sleep well on the train thanks to a small child in a nearby berth who decided it was wake up and play time from 2am onwards, I went into town instead and got a hotel unit with aircon, a good move actually as I spent the afternoon cooling down and sleeping.
This evening I’ve been on a walking tour of town to remind me what’s what, I’d sort of forgotten how cheesy it is in some ways. Thai people, from Bangkok I suppose, seem to use this place as a weekend getaway, so there are lots of tour buses with blasting music driving around, and on the river there are these huge floating restaurants and discos cruising up and down the river. It’s a little like Blackpool but with better weather. Now I’ve walked up to the area to the north where I stayed before and what a transformation! It’s almost unrecognisable and has clearly developed into a traveller’s niche with many new bars, restaurants and guesthouses. Tomorrow I think I’ll move up this way for sure.