It is interesting to be part of a world again where computers do not exist. Everything is handwritten in carbon copy triplicate and business is conducted by phone (albeit mobile phone). Nothing is fast. Patience is the key and whilst not quite running on "African" time, schedules and agreed times for meeting are somewhat flexible.
Three hours drive outside of Bangkok we arrived at Kanchanaburi, home to the bridge over the river Kwai and the Death Railway. Picturesque, on the banks of the river, with a bit of night life - perfect! The museum about the treatment by the Japanese Prisoners of War in WW2, and the cemetary, were extremely moving and it was very interesting to hear about the war in Asia/Pacific as we were not taught any of that in school. In fact I don't remember the Japanese being mentioned at all.
Our first tour whilst here saw us walking to the top of a seven-tiered waterfall and swimming in the picture perfect turquoise pools beneath the falling water. What a beautiful introduction to Thailand's countryside.
We were highly amused by the sign that greeted us at the start of the walk that warned of fierce monkeys that would steal our belongings. We saw one such monkey but he didn't look particularly fierce, more cute and cuddly - but it's always the quiet ones!
At the end of the day we rode a train on the railway tracks laid down by the POW's. I would have liked to have some time to reflect on the circumstances that bought the tracks into being but any poignancy was totally lost in the tourism of it all unfortunately. Hundreds of tour groups all jabbering away and falling over eachother to get one more photo out of the window of the train. Hey ho.
We are now trained in the art of Thai cooking and pretty darn good at it, if we do say so ourselves! We were taken around the local market and ingredients were explained, tasted and smelt before heading back to the kitchen to start cooking our 4 chosen dishes. We cooked a Thai salad, Pad Thai and two different curries. Mike cooked the salad which was pronounced "Great" by our teacher, Noi, and I cooked the Pad Thai which also got the seal of approval (actually the Noi said the Pad Thai was "Perfect" - Mike). We then broke for the first part of our lunch and enjoyed the food we had just cooked. It was then back to it with Mike cooking the red curry. This had to be done really quickly and as a result was quite stressful but it tasted good - only half as spicy as the demo one that Noi did which was blow your brains out spicy! The last dish was a bit if a strange one with loads of ingredients and not much sauce, and was really fast too. I let my pan burn and got told off! I don't think we'll be making that one again, but we can't wait to try out our skills when we get home.
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