Hellfire Pass to Sai Yok Yai

Lying in till 8 (yup, jet lag), we woke up in paradise. An expensive paradise, but definitely paradise. After staying with the monks the night before, watching rich fat children shoved into life jackets, taken up the river and thrown in to lazily float down was bizarre so we quickly hit the buffet hard and grabbed ourselves some Thai massages. Utter bliss. Also why aren't hammocks more of a thing in England?

Back to reality, we jump on a bus and head back to hellfire pass. Where the worst of the digging happened, the number of Australian and British POWs who lost their lives here was so great, the Aussie government funds a museum which maintains a large 4km section of the railway. No clambering through the jungle for at least a while! After another insight into the lives and suffering of the prisoners, we took to the pass, where we quickly found ourselves the only ones walking it. Some people just can't handle the El Niño heat! 

As it turns out, only 2.5km of the 4km track is open to the public. The Thai Ministry of Defence has decided to take over the rest of the track an surround wrong area for their own uses..damn it!!! We cracked out the maps and had a look to see what we could do, but alas it was to no avail. Locals informed us that the part we were planning to head towards to get on the train track, was also now military land.

So with distain, we head back onto the 323 highway (again) and wander off back to Sai Yok Yai to find the wat. What a bummer! After many hours and km of walking we turn into the wat, once again looking like we had been dragged through water and dirt and all sorts. I think the monks take pity on us as we look awful every time we stop! But again the monks are as kind as ever and allow us to sleep in the temple. We pitch the tent under a fan (which are so underrated) and crack out the maps to plan our next day. One of the monks seems rather interested and joins in! Now only 3 more days until we get to Thong Pha Phum and have our hard earned rest day!