Sangkhla Buri and a strict diet of western food!

After a long bus, we arrive in Sangkhla Buri on the Vajiralongkorn Reservoir's northern shore. Whilst talking about how we couldn't possibly eat eastern food for a few days, we stumble upon a western themed hotel! Things are already looking up. We spend a day wondering around the local sites around the reservoir, like the second longest handmade wooden bridge in the world, and decide to hire some canoes!

Heading out over the reservoir, we follow the railways path, metres above it. Temples are often found on hills so we get to float round the roof of a few sunken Wats and even get inside one! It was such a nice change of pace to be able to do something other than walking or getting a bus, which was slowly wearing us down over time. Who dosent love a good ol' paddle?

Finally it's time to start walking again, what was originally meant to be our last day walking, roughly 22km, to the border. We set off early and thanks to our rest we make good time. Nic struggles with the heat and a headache, and everyone is just plodding along knowing that there is a lot of walking ahead.

We reach the famous Three Pagodas in about 5 hours! In all honesty they're slightly underwhelming but we were damn proud of ourselves! Now to taxi back to Sangkhla for a shower and well earned rest! It was rather amusing to us that our 5 hour walk translated to a 20 minute taxi back! Now we have the two days walking we missed due to illness to catch up on and the walking will be over! 

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!

Nam Tok to Hellfire Pass

So the team is seven days in and still severely jet lagged. Other than the hysterical laughter that starts at 4 in the morning when we're all awake beyond the possibility of falling back asleep, the biggest plus is getting to Nam Tok (the end of the still operatinal railway) on the 5:57am train! Unfortunately an entire school had the same idea. The sunrise views were definitely worth it though and we were able to see some of the POWs work going over bridges and through cut outs in the hills, an absolutely amazing experience. It turns out the school was literally on the train to experience the ride, as they got back onto buses at Nam Tok and headed back south!

After a quick breakfast, so began our walk, following the railway through the forest, jumping from railway sleeper to railway sleeper over incredible bridges and only having to leave the track when it was guarded by a massive dog or two! We quickly realised by the 4th or 5th encounter that they were all bark, and thankfully no one was there to witness 3 grown men give some kind of terrier mutt a 10m wide berth while mumbling amongst themselves about rabies.

When the track reached a waterfall we lost it unfortunately and spent the rest of the day on the highway, being cooked from above and below! The worse part was the Thai people passing in their air conditioned cars. At least 3 times a smiling random would pull up offering a lift to 3 sweating, smelly farangs. It was very difficult to say no, especially after the look of horror when we said where we were headed. "Far away!" Killing with kindness! When we stopped for a drink at a small fruit and veg store a kind lady brought us over some local fruits to pick us up as well. These were definitely the people that helped the POWs.

Reaching our intended Wat (temple) quite early, we pressed on for the 2nd. Wandering through a sweet potato field, we found it walled and full of dogs. Eventually finding a monk, we asked to stay and were told to set ourselves up in the main temple. Infront of a set of big golden Buddhas we clumsily put up our tent for the first time and explained our trip. The monks simply pointed out the window, revealing a clear path through the bamboo forest. The railway!

Sam a former monk visiting from Bangkok and his friend the head monk (who's name can neither be pronounced not spelled) took us for a tour, showing us a cave filled with Buddhas and an incredible cliff overlooking the Kwai! They explained the wall around the temple was to protect from the forest fires that sometimes burn through the bamboo forest. The monk suddenly pulls a puppy from his robe, adding that they care for 30 or so dogs that stay at the temple. About an hour later the monks all rushed towards the wall, calling us to help put a fire out! We clumsily gave chase in flip flops (in our defence, they live in theirs so they're pretty agile) but thankfully the fire was small and far from the wall. I'm not sure how we'd have helped but we were ready to!

They insisted we stay for dinner and whilst it was prepared Sam took us for a tour of the area. It was quite sombering to reach the town 2 days walk away in 20 minutes in the car. He even bought us coconuts, despite our attempts to pay ourselves. We returned to a variety of dishes which the monks collect in the morning from the local village as offerings, though only Sam ate with us because the monks only eat once a day at breakfast. Having been in awe all afternoon, at that little tidbit we all privately agreed monk life was not for us.

After treating us so well all day they revealed themselves to be the best kind of hosts, one that knows when their guest is falling asleep at the table and politely lets them retreat to their tent. The fact we were on the floor wasn't even acknowledged, we were asleep in minutes!

Bangkok!

So 2 flights and 15 hours later we are in Bangkok. Right from the get go it almost went wrong, with Cris and Aaron being very close to missing the train from Birmingham the South Wigston. Then the whole team just made it to Heathrow on time for last check in. Hopefully this isn't a trend that will continue through out the expedition. 

Our only obstacle at the moment is the weather. It's rather interesting here in Thailand, never going below 20 degrees at night! But we should all get used to it soon enough, making sleeping on the trek nice and easy.

Tomorrow is a day of floating markets, massages and finding the right maps for the trek, so fingers crossed it should be a nice relaxing day...but before that can happen it's time to get some much needed sleep in!

Aaron, Cris and Nic