22.01 Day 7 Kanchanaburi
Day 7 - Monday 22nd Jan - Kanchanaburi
Genuine linen sheets and proper cushions and pillows ensure a full night’s sleep despite the sleeping arrangement. When I’ve been looking and booking accommodation, plenty of places will let one or two children under the age of 11 stay free if using existing bedding. Here at Sabai@Kan we have made the sacrifice to have one double bed and one single bed to share. Sienna is on the single and Kate, Seb and I lie sideways on the double to at least get some width.
We walk along to breakfast, a buffet in the downstairs corner of the L shape where what previously we would have called simple, but already now call extensive buffet awaits us. Eggs, sausages, along with fried rice and noodles plus toasts and banana bread. And our first sighting of liquid, rather than powder, milk for teas and coffees. On a canteen tray we carry food (over several runs) down to one of the benches in the sloped garden by the pool.
It's as warm as Bangkok but the humidity is definitely lower so that walking ten minutes further up our road is more than manageable. Here we are greeted by a small market where, if you’re in need of a garish Thai tourist shirt, a hat, jewellery or an iced coffee, you’re in luck. This is also our crossing point over the river for our train from yesterday had we stayed on it one more stop - The Bridge Over The River Kwai. Our growing knowledge of this historical episode is patchy at best as we try and relay to the kids the significance of this bridge and how it was built as part of a much longer rail track by Prisoners of War under the watch of the Japanese Army, all in gruelling conditions.
As we walk across the bridge on the rails - no pavements here - we realise the earlier train we could have caught will be passing through shortly. Sure enough most of the people wandering on the bridge like us move off and hop on the train as it pulls up just shy of the bridge at a very basic station.
We however stand on one of the many small juts out over the water and then watch the train slowly approach and trundle past us, filled with passengers leaning out the windows.
We clamber down on the far side of the bridge and whilst rocking on a large swing decide to pop our heads into a Chinese temple next door, drawn in by the bright colours and fantastical figurines. 
Back across the bridge we visit the JEATH War museum (standing for those countries involved in the railway - Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand and Holland), a private collection of war memorabilia which all gets too confronting for Sienna.
With the promise of a swim we head back to Sabai@Kan and proceed to spend the afternoon in and out, and in and out of the pool, about ten paces from our room’s door. I even have my first beer of the trip poolside as a responsible lifeguard. Dinner is a trip down memory lane, it being pizza for the kids and then followed by ice cream, chocolate (Sienna), strawberry (Seb) for dessert (and run & raisin for me).
