I shared a kayak with Yosuke, he was steering at the back, and my job was just to paddle evenly to propel us forward. After two hours of our boat spinning sideways instead of going forwards I broke - I screamed to the tour guide like a spoilt child 'I'm not having fun...this is too hard...I DON't WANT TO DO IT ANYMORE!'. We stopped for a break and some guidance.
After the break I got back in the water, this time with Charlotte in the front and me steering at the back. Within a minute of being in the water I managed to steer us towards overhanging tree branches. With both of us unsure of what to do, I burst out laughing and tried hard to paddle, and Charlotte, well, she stuck her leg out of the kayak and tried to push the branch up. The branch won the fight. Our kayak turned upside down, flipping us out.
The current of this river is really strong, so immediately our oars whizzed off downstream. I held onto the tree branch with my legs and the kayak with my arm, with Charlotte at the other end holding the kayak. The kayak instructors made saving us look easy, they flipped our boat, dragged it to the riverbank and went downstream to collect the oars and Charlotte's flip flops. Sadly, I lost my sunglasses *sniff sniff*, but luckily I brought three pairs on holiday.
That night we stayed in a village with an elephant retreat. It's an unusual sight to wake up and see five elephants eating their breakfast.
The next day kayaking was MUCH more successful. We found that the less effort you put into paddling, the better. We didn't go very fast, but at least we went forwards instead of sideways.
After kayaking we went to Hellfires Pass to see the railway carved into the rock in the mountain forests. The memorial is a brilliant and quiet relic - the memorial is the railway and path cut into the mountain rock. The museum contained lots of information, rather than relics, mainly because the prisoners of war and Thai people who worked on this railway had few possessions.
Then it was on to Tham Krasae bridge, the 'death railway' immortalised in the film 'Bride Over The River Kwai'. This is another section of railway built by the POWs, and it is still in use today.
The bridge is wooden, with steel tracks, and has no sides or handrails. Yet we were expected to walk along it. On setting off, the bridge curves around a corner so that you cannot see its' full length at the outset. It takes around minutes to walk along the full length and, as it's on a hill, there is a steep rocky drop on either side. Rather helpfully, a passing tourist informed me that we should hurry up as the next train was due in a few minutes. Walking this bridge was the most panicked I felt over the whole trip so far. It's just so high up and rickety, and as you walk you can see the ground below through the slats. It makes me shudder now just thinking about it! We all made it to the other side though, and lunch was our reward at the other end. Turns out the tourist wasn't right and the train wasn't due for another hour anyway. The photo I've added of the bridge is one from the web, as mine are all on my camera and I can't transfer them on the go.
