Tis hot hot hot

Kanchanaburi is about 2 hours from Bangkok by bus and is the hottest place that I have visited since I left Dublin in September. And I mean hot in the temperature sense and not in the Paris Hilton sense, in fact in the Paris Hilton sense it is probably one of the kitschiest places I have ever seen.

Kanchanaburi is on the river Kwai, and this is where the movie about the bridge was erroneously placed, that movie was actually about a bridge being built across the Mekong, and when you are here the size and scope of the bridge can disappoint. It's definitely not the grand structure that Alex Guinness and his men blew up at the end of that movie. Before going to the bridge I visited the war cemetery where there are the graves of about 50000 British and Dutch servicemen who died during the construction of the Burma to Siam railway. As with all overseas British museums this cemetery is a oasis of pure good taste, immaculately kept and understated. The bridge is not.

There is the much flaunted Jeath museum, which shame on you lonely planet is a disgrace, i didn't know whether i could laugh or cry. The Japanese built the bridge? Really the dead guys down the road that was just an accident? You see the big problem that the Thais have here is that they collaborated with the Japanese during the war and they also get a lot of Japanese tourists and they are trying to keep everyone happy but with the tacky toy train that now goes over the bridge, the t-shirt sellers and the really crappy museum you leave thinking, shit this place is awful. Imagine going to the poppy fields in Belgium and them having pretend trenches you could get your photo taken in? It's just weird.

Anyway I was glad to get out of Bangkok, and I was going to knock it out of my top 10 favourite cities but it wasn't it's fault that I was sick when I was there. So I will give it another chance. I went down to visit Khao San road the other night. A tourist hub, the best place is SE Asia to get started on your travels or a human zoo, a ghetto for Alex Garland readers. It wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, to my disappointment on-one shouted titty titty at me and no-one tried to sell me drugs. Instead I saw families with children, bewildered tourists, one guy with his entire face tattooed and lots of Thai people making a quick baht. It was great. Fun and enough.

Tomorrow I head to the tiger temple where apparently the tigers aren't drugged but you can put your hand in their mouth??? We will see.

I asked the lady at the train station to get me accommodation somewhere on the river, now in Irish speak on the river means beside the river, but in Thai speak it means on the river. I have a little hut on stilts on the river, it's cute, and pretty but has lots of bugs and reptiles. I have my repellent so I should be okay.

I checked the drugs that the doctor gave me for my vertigo and the side effects include drowsiness and dizziness (what the F#$k, that's what they are supposed to be stopping). I felt like I was walking around stoned out of my head and not in a good way, and I am supposed to take one 3 times a day. I also had the problem that my sleeping pattern has gone completely out of kilter, so I have decided to use the pills as sleeping tablets also and only take them at night just before I go to bed, hopefully that will cure all my ills. Talking of pills, Britney Spears would love this place i have never seen so many pharmacies in my life, and they all have names like, Happy Drug, Funny Drug, Boots, Crazy Drug, Family Drug, I don't know, oh I got served my morning coffee by a lady boy. I didn't guess until (s)he asked me in a husky George Clooney type voice was that hot or cold I like ...