Thailand: A death railway, a pass made out of hellfire and large ladies? it's my favorite place in Thailand, kanchanaburi!

I love Kanchanaburi! It's the perfect place to escape busy Bangkok, the vibe is electric and there's a little something for everybody here. Officially three days should be enough but I could easily spend a week or two in this chilled out town. also there's a lot of larger ladies here, I have no idea why and even asking Jeeves didn't get me the answer either but I don't feel quite as balloon like as I do in other parts of Asia.

It's no stay up all night place like Bangkok, Kanchanaburi is more about chill but there are still a number of bars and nightclubs to keep you entertained come nightfall. The bridge on the The River Kwai gets lit up at night to and is well worth a visit.

Erawan National Park 7 tiered falls

Kanchanaburi has loads of natural attractions to visit and one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've seen. 7 tiers of absolute bliss; calm and serene Erawan waterfall is pure paradise. As well as Erawan there's also Chaloem Rattanakosin, Khao Lam, Sri Nakarin, Sai Yok, Thong Pha Phum and Lam Klong Ngu national parks, which feature a variety of waterfalls, mountains, caves and a number of animal and plant species for you to check out. Including the water dog, a rare frog with a croak that sounds just like a dog barking!

Hellfire Pass

It's educational to as there's a lot to learn about here. This was the place where Japan had prisoners of war and slaves build The Thai/Burma Railroad so they could transport  military supplies between Thailand and Burma (now Myanmar) during World War 2. The Death Railroad is still partly operational and you can take a train all the way from Bangkok, through Kanchanaburi, over The bridge on the River Kwai and Wampo Viaduct all the way to Nam Tok. There is a memorial and a number of museums to commerate the dead and learn more about those tragic days. You can also pay your respects at the Chonk-Kai and Don-Rak cemeteries and take an eerie walk along a section of the railroad at The Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum.

Kanchanaburi even has animal parks! Elephant World and Kanchanburi Monkey School where the elephants are free to roam without having to work and the monkeys have been rescued and trained in all manner of things from coconut harvesting to basketball. Also there's the infamous Tiger Temple where you can see and walk with tigers, However, with the exception of Elephant World you'll have to decide if monkeys performing tricks and perhaps doped up tigers are worth the photo opportunities.

How to get here

Air-con/non air-con buses frequently leave Bangkok's Southern and Northern Bus Terminals for Kanchanaburi every 15 to 20 minutes. The journey takes 2-3 hours, costing between 99B-105B and buses run from about 5 am right up until 10.30 pm.

You can also take a tourist minibus from Khao San Road, which costs 120B and takes only 2 hours.

Trains depart from Tonburi Station twice a day at 7:35 and 13:45 and take just over 3 hours to get there. On the weekend and holidays you can take a tourist train from Hua Lampong, tickets cost 75B and the train leaves at 6.30.

Breaking the Law in Bangkok!

I’m an illegal immigrant in Thailand as of today...

Why? Because of my stupid bank, that’s why! After arriving in Laos the first thing I did was check my account online (unusually) and to my horror I was $150 short! I couldn’t work it out, the money had been there this morning! So I panicked and after considering my options and how damn expensive Laos was I decided the best thing would be just to go back to Thailand, where I can stay with friends if need be. So the afternoon after my 23 hour bus journey from Hanoi to Vientiane I was back on another bus making my way to the Thai border to catch a 12 hour train back to Bangkok. At the border I was informed just as he was stamping me into Thailand that I needed to leave by the 29^th October, “You will go before this date?” he asked me.

But my flight to Malaysia is on 31^st!

I just agree and go on my way but inside I’m losing it. What am I going to do? First I double check my flight, yes, it’s the 31^st then I count how many days there is untill the 31^st and it’s 17 days to go so why do I have to leave on the 29^th? I'd forgoten that yes, we get fewer days to visit the country if you enter by land but I’ve always received 17 days in the past but to my horror I now had only 15 days stamped in my passport! Now after a quick Google check it appears tourists now only get 15 days, just my luck that the one time I actually need the full 17 days it’s now 15!  It was also just my luck that 3 or 4 days later the money was back in my account just as it should have been. How very GRRRR! I was really looking forward to seeing Laos as well but guess it will still be there next time. I did consider going back but the lazy side of me decided against it.

I’ve read and been told that as long as I don’t get arrested (but knowing my luck…) before I get to the airport I won’t get in trouble if I pay a fine of 500 baht a day. Having looked at my options this is the cheapest and easiest way to do it as a new flight would have cost me about $50 and catching the bus and train like I did last year was one 30 hour journey I don’t wish to repeat and I'd be paying about the same as the fine. Finger’s crossed I don’t get arrested then! If my blog ends here ya'll know what happened...

I can’t say I’m sad to see the back of Thailand for a while. Lack of money has meant for the last 2 weeks I’ve been stuck in my apartment doing sod all apart from snacking on too many packs of Lays and drinking too much bubble tea. I've been to Kuala Lumpur before but Penang will be something new and that’s always exciting.

Muang Thong Thani: Why I Could Live here

If you're anywhere longer than a few days sharing a room is less than perfect and hotels can start to get expensive, so you'll really need an apartment. I'm staying in a place called Muang Thong Thani, which is about a 20 minute drive from central Bangkok and although it can get pretty boring as it's a place to live in not tourist in, I really like it and felt it deserved its own post. MTT is one of the biggest community projects attempted in the world but is often considered a failure by the people who count in real estate because it went bust during a collapse in the property market in 1992. Therefore, many of the buildings were built, never used and remain empty. It's a real shame to see some of the luxury apartment buildings here falling apart when this place has so much potential! 

Impact, the largest exhibition center in SEA

I've never seen a place have so much you need to hand, I can grab a midnight snack at 7Eleven (seen 3 so far) and anything they don't sell in 7Eleven I can probably find in Big C, Watson's or Tescos. There's a bunch of mid-range department stores, I can surf the net in internet cafes, there's cake shops, fruit stalls, ice-cream shops, bubble tea shops, coffee shops and a steak house as well as loads of cheap restaurants. I can stock up on my jewellery, DVDs, and magazines. I can get photos developed, buy a new or second-hand phone or laptop, a fake iPad, send a fax, visit the doctor and then the pharmacy. I can get my clothes fixed (and I did for about 3$) and washed, my hair and nails done, my eyes tested and grab a massage and a beer in a bar afterwards and all within a 5 minute walk! It has the biggest exhibition and convention center in South East Asia and just in my apartment block alone I have 2 shops, a laundry service and numerous washing machines and dryers if I'd rather do it myself and it's easy as most of the apartments come attached with a little box outside for drying your clothes in so you don't even need the dryers anyway. It's almost as if you could seriously never leave Muang Thong Thani and have almost everything you need to hand. Ahhhh If only it was like that back home, we don't even have an ATM there lol!

MTT is market mad to and has one every day! It's good during the day but really comes alive after dark and the food court in the middle of the market here is pretty famous, with a wide array of cheap (as little as 25 baht sometimes), healthy (they do great salads, which is a real joy after all the fried rice and noodles) and just awesome food. The portions are small though but I noticed most people get 2 or 3 meals and if you only want one, you might be lucky and get some extra added on your plate like I did :) It's quite common to see people come from outside MTT just to eat here! As well as the everyday market they have here there's also a massive weekly market, selling everything from belts to headphones but the best part is the food! There's just so much choice and so much of it is so beautifully presented, it looks like food art to me!

The cost of living here is so cheap to; you can own an apartment here for as little as $10,000 and I've got Wi-Fi, hot water and a large sitting room all for around 150 USD a month. I never feel unsafe; it's secure where I'm staying as there are security guards and cameras. If you do need to get to central Bangkok it's easy; you can take a taxi but it costs anywhere from 130-210 baht, take a mini-van 30 baht direct to Victory Monument or take a bus, which costs around 18 baht.

There is however, always a little rough with the smooth and here's a little list of my MTT peeves;

• Most people do not speak English in Muang Thong Thani and ordering food can be a nightmare as there are no non-Thai Menus or pictures to point to but learning a language never did anybody any harm and you will learn in a place like this, you have to.
• My apartment is not the cleanest.
• Getting a taxi in the evening can be near impossible after everyone finishes work.
• Access to my apartment building is by key card only but you're not given one for the first month so you're basically stuck in or out until someone turns up who does have one or one of the guards decides to actually do their job and open the door for you but so far only one seems happy to do so without bitching or looking moody. I'm sometimes stuck in or out for up to 20 minutes! I can't get my head around why you have to wait a month before you get a card; it's surely a massive fire risk?
• I'm unable to easily cook in my room, no kitchen and not allowed gas but it's nothing a couple of rice cookers or portable cooking equipment wouldn't fix but with the amount of cheap eateries around (plate of fried rice goes for about 35 baht here) there really is no reason to cook anyway.
• It’s a small community here, I am one of about 4 foreigners in the immediate area so you start to recognise people, they do you and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I quite like being anonymous. 

Bangkok: Can you live off only 500 baht a day?

The land of smiles and I, well me and Bangkok at least anyway have a bit of a love/hate relationship; it's cheap but not always in a good way, you can get around easily on a pretty neat transport system but it can be impossible to simply cross the street, the city never sleeps, however, sometimes you need some quiet and the people are smiley but how many are genuine?  guess I'll be sitting on the fence as Libra's tend to do with this one but lets see what this sprawling city of contradictions has to offer me this time.

Bangkok can easily be done on a shoe string budget and for a person like me who only has 2 months worth of cash, that will be spread over 3 but will worry about running out later it's a damn good thing. You can eat for under $1 and I've heard you can even stay at the infamous Overstay for free. I've given myself a budget of around 500 baht or £10 a day while I'm here. So let's see what an average day looks like for a tourist living off only a tenner in BKK.

I won't be able to visit The Grand Palace or take a posh dinner cruise but I can take in freshish air in BKK's parks, tour markets, window shop in the malls, get lost, take photos, visit temples, and dine on satay from street vendors. I've met some wonderful people while I've been here and that costs nothing at all, one African ex pat tells me all about what life is like for a black man looking for love in BKK (it's not always pretty but it really is interesting).  

There are good things about traveling with less money, being less of a 'tourist' and acting more like a 'local'. You'll find yourself taking more time out to pick up the vibe of a place and really attempt to get a feel for what it's about rather than just heading for the next big touristy spot in your travel guide, one of the things I really enjoy doing here is paying 14 baht to take a boat along the river and just watch the world float by. I find myself making far more effort to talk to people (just smile and say hi!) and some of my best hobo days have been spent with a new friend or two, a beer, just chatting and watching the sun set. Hell you'll be so bored you'll try anything like finally taking a bus rather than the BTS, I heard I'd get lost and I did but I made it and it only cost me 10 baht to! less comfy but much cheaper than the BTS.

So to conclude, yes you can get by with only 500 baht a day in Bangkok but it wasn't easy and a lot of days I ended up spending more than that, however, here's a list of things I really enjoyed on the cheap;

• Corrections Museum

• Amulet Market

• Bangkok Butterfly Garden and Insecturium

Wat Maha Put / Mae Nak Shrine (วัดมหาบุศย์)

Chao Mae Tuptim Shrine (ศาลเจ้าแม่ทับทิม)