Hellfire Pass

Day 2
We started off the day with a much quieter breakfast without the several bus-loads of tourists that had joined us for dinner the previous night. Our first stop of the day was the Hellfire Pass Memorial Burma-Thailand Railway. This museum is actually run by the Australian Department of Veteran Affairs, and appears to be mostly funded by donations (there were a bunch of Australian 5 and 10 dollar notes in the donation box).

We took a tour of the museum, which was quite similar to the previous days museum at the Allied Prisoners Cemetery. The highlight of this museum is the Hellfire Pass cutting in the side of the mountain made by workers on the Death Railway. We descended down several stairs and ramps to the original railway that had been cut into the side of the mountain, and from there walked 300m to the Hellfire Pass cutting. Unfortunately our tour only allowed time to see the cutting and we didn't get to walk the entire 4km track.

After returning to the top of the stairs (with several stops for Sancha to rest on the way) we continued on by bus to our elephant ride. The farm where the elephants were kept was a little depressing, since we saw a mother and her baby elephant chained to a tree. Our ride took a long time since our mount (non-epic) kept stopping to snack on every bush, tree, and piece of scrub that was edible on the way.

After our ride we were able to purchase bananas to feed the elephant and tip the rider (driver? wrangler? What do they call them anyway?). We then got to explore the farm with one of the little girls who thought it was her job to lead Sancha around by the hand. After a little exploring we got to sit down to a pre-packed lunch prepared by the hotel. It was at this point I broke the cardinal rule of travelling in dodgy countries and ate cold food.

After lunch we got to travel down the river on a bamboo raft with the small farm girl, kitted out in a life jacket, jumping in the river all the way. This was our last activity for the day and we headed back to the hotel to wait for our tour bus to pick us up for the long drive back to Bangkok. Just before we were dropped off we got to drive past more protesters and see their barricades made out of long bamboo sticks and old tires, which is about 500m from our hotel.