Adele woke me up this morning at exactly 6.30 to make sure that I was having breakfast at 7 ready for the off at 8am prompt. Breakfast here consisted of bacon, egg, pineapple and watermelon with juice and coffee to wash it down. Egg is served a lot here.
We left the hotel just after 8am and picked up a young italian called Daniel Very Nice who would be spending the next couple of days with us, followed by an austrailian couple who were along to mainly see the hellfire pass memorial and a young lady from London who was over here teaching and was just having a short break away from Bangkok. The last 3 would not be joining us on the trek later.
Our first stop was a waterfall. My hopefully not long lasting memory here will be looking up towards the falls and seeing a mans behind in lime green trunks that were far too small smiling at me sideways. Nice waterfall but nothing out of the ordinary. I was happy to leave.
We then moved onto the Hellfire Pass war museum, which tells the story of that section of the railway nicknamed because of the hellish imagary that could be seen on the rocks as prisoners and labourers worked by flame lit torches. The museum itself houses a good selection of artifacts, articles and displays but it's when you make your way down to the area where the track was constructed that you are aware that what is not conveyed in any photo's is the complete lack of air. Apparently the first workers on this stretch of the railway started during the hot dry season which would have been tough, but later when the wet season came, conditions worsened and death rates rose thanks in no small part to the outbreak of diseases such as dysentery, maleria and cholera. The walk we took here was relatively short, but it was interesting to see first hand just where and how this railway was built.
After this we stopped for lunch, Very Nice declared the food was very nice so we moved onto our next stop, the hot springs which I was happy enougn to leave.
Clara, Sarah, Very Nice and I were then abandoned into the hands of our guide who would be leading us on a 3 hour trek through the jungle to a stay in a bamboo hut for the evening.
The first part of the trip was a bit bruising, the four of us were driven along bumpy mud trails for 10 minutes folded up in the back of a toyota 4 wheel drive. Things weren't going to get easier. As we started walking our guide informed us that we could take photo's of our shoes if we wanted, as tomorrow they will be only good for the rubbish.
We walked for an hour througn the undergrowth, along and off of light trails, the guide occassionally showing us spiders, plants to avoid and telling us that we would maybe see pig, but not tigers or monkeys. During this first hour I gained a few small cuts from a light fall which the guide applied dissinfectant to and covered to stop infection. He needand of bothered. Within another couple of minutes I had niceley grazed my right shin and carried on picking up damage for the duration of our journey. I was also swatting bugs like King Kong swatting biplanes. We walked through rivers and mud, sweated hard and dripped blood over the next couple of hours.
Just before sun down we arrived at our electricity free village. Here there were small hillside bamboo huts on stilts in which light cloths covered the floors where we would later bed down, an open sided communal hut used for eating and a shower hut with a pipe fed directly from the river which you had to cross thigh deep each way to reach. By dark we were all showered and sat round the table and we were treated to a banquet cooked for us made by our guide from completely fresh ingredients while a villager played and sang thailands number 1 tradional hit.
Sometimes you only need the 3 notes.
After I had spilled a load of food over myself we decided it was time for bed. Me and Very Nice shared a hut and I walked barefoot by torch light through the wet grass up to the cabin accompanied by the overpowering music of the nightlife that surrounded us.
My shoes cooked slowly on sticks by the fire.
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