Hang Hang Hang (In a Bag)

Oh my god you should have seen the state of us yesterday!!! The alarm went off at 7am - Chris and I reckoned we were still a bit tipsy, a very white faced Tracey just looked at me and said 'Oh God......I need painkillers', Jo groaned and refused to let anyone mention anything about last night and Derek was just very very quiet!!

Moon arrived with breakfast.....took one look at us, laughed her head off and announced 'you all Hang Hang Hang today!!' - Chris, Tracey, Derek and I all ate something and had a cup of tea (Jo groaned) then we all filed down to get in the van that was taking us to Kanchanaburi (We didn't do too badly.....we were only an hour late!!). Jo discovered a Garfield cushion in the back seat, lay down and went back to sleep, the rest of us laughed about how bad we were all feeling then either listened to music or dozed!! It was at that point that I was nudged on the shoulder by Tracey 'Quick....I need a bag I'm going to be sick!!' (We had one on stand by..... along with face wipes and mint chewing gum......perhaps I would have made a good girl guide after all......). Whilst we were all teasing her about being sick Jo rose like a vampire from the back seat (honestly I didn't know it was possible to be that white and still alive!!) and asked what she had missed - Tracey raised her hand and said, in the most pathetic little voice, 'I was sick.......in a bag!!' (The rest of the day was spent making 'in a bag' comments). We stopped at a 7/11 and bought a couple of bottles of Hang - this is Thailand's hangover cure, it's full of sugar and caffeine and it really does cure a hangover!! (This is one of their adverts) Jo felt much better after taking it - just a bit tired and Tracey decided, after taking one sniff of hang, that re-hydration salts was the way to go.

We checked in at the hotel, River Kwai Bridge Resort, (which was lovely) had some lunch overlooking the Bridge over the river Kwai and then decided that we would go and visit a couple of temples and that we would do the death railway etc tomorrow. It was a good decision!! We went to Wat Tham Sua and Wat Khao Noi (We decided to give Wat Tham Mangkon Thong otherwise known as the Floating Nun Temple a miss - apparently if you give the Nun enough money she will go and float in a pond and according to the guide book Taiwanese visitors are particularly impressed!!!) which had virtually no tourists because everyone else was only in the area to see the bridge etc. Wat Tham Sua was amazing - it was in the usual Thai style but a little different (as we say here in Thailand same same but different) It had a giant sitting Buddha in the centre and so that your offerings could be put into the giant alms bowl in his lap you put them onto the conveyor belt which ran across him. Whilst we were looking round we could see a section of the temple that we just couldn't figure out how to get to so eventually we gave up and got back in the van.....the driver asked if we wanted to visit the other temple to which we all replied yes......so we settled into our seats as he turned the corner and stopped!! There was a stunned silence then we all roared with laughter.....the section that we couldn't get into WAS the other temple and we could have walked there in about two minutes (It literally was round the corner - I think that this was the point when the driver decided we obviously couldn't be trusted on our own and he followed us round the next temple keeping an eye on us all). The other temple, Wat Khao Noi, was built in the Chinese Style and was absolutely stunning - The guide book said that it was gaudy but if you plan to go don't let that put you off.....go up the tower.....you will not be disappointed!! The views across the valley towards Burma (I can't get used to calling it Myanmar) were absolutely stunning and got better the higher we got.

We then headed back to the hotel, had a beer looking over the river as dusk fell then headed along to a restaurant called Keereetara (The driver dropped us right at the door - even after we had pointed it out to him and told him that we could walk!!). The table we were at had lovely views across the river but only one little candle so we really struggled to see the menu (and the food when it arrived). We ordered waaay to much food (as is our want!!) and Moon entertained us all by telling us that the driver had taken a wee shine to Jo and had been asking what age she was and if she was single and then she went on to tell us that he had also asked if she was attached - this let to much hilarity Jo and Moon were going to be 'fighting fighting fighting' over the driver and we all agreed that we were going to have to keep an eye on whose room he left in the morning. We then had a fish moment!! (now there is something you don't hear every day!!) We were really making an effort to make a dent in all the food we had ordered when the waiter appeared with the ugliest fish I have ever seen (it was cooked and on a plate.....he didn't just arrive wiggling a fish) which we didn't order so we shook our heads and Moon said that we hadn't ordered it......he went away.....the fish reappeared at the table being carried by a different waitress (yeah - as if we weren't going to recognise it!!) and we were told that we had ordered it (probably by mistake!!).....we shook our heads again and Moon, who couldn't think of anything better, told them to take it away as we were scared of the fish......we thought this had worked till a waiter arrived back at the table with the fish.....it was chopped up!!!

By the end of the night my cheeks hurt with the amount of laughing we had all done!!