Temples, Trains and Tigers

I am currently sitting in Ayutthaya, having arrived here this afternoon after another hectic few days, and taking the time to add a quick update as I'm not sure when I will next get the time to do so.

As the title suggests, I have seen many temples in the past four days (it's hard to believe that it has only been that long). Whilst I was still in Bangkok we visited Wat Pho (which houses a large reclining Buddha) as well as Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn, which was more or less directly across the river from Wat Pho. This evening once we arrived in Ayutthaya we also wandered around and saw a couple of the ruins here lit up with a french couple we had met on the floating hotel we stayed at on the River Kwai and then ran into again as we were walking around. As a change from temples, we also went out to visit the floating market on our last day in Bangkok.

On Monday we headed West to Kanchanaburi to visit the POW cemetry and the bridge over the River Kwai. The bridge itself was rebuilt after WWII so later in the morning we took a train along Death Railway and we went over the original wooden bridge over the River. It's really quite shocking to think that thousands of POW's as well as conscripted Asian workforce died to build the bridge. On the second day we visited the Hellfire Memorial museum, from were it is possible to walk down to Hellfire pass where there is a memorial.

We also went to see the Tiger Temple, possibly one of the most exciting parts of the trip so far as I got to see tigers up close and even to stroke some of them! There will be pictures soon, but as the computer I am using currently is finding it hard to keep up with my typing, I don't think it can quite handle uploading photos. It was a very wildlife filled two days as during that time there was also elephant riding - the elephant which Helen and I were riding even played the harmonica to us.

All together a very exciting and busy, if exhausting, few days. I have definitely enjoyed every moment so far, and am still in one piece.