into the madding crowd

Just escaped from the HORDES of tourists at the River Kwai bridge. Lots of chinese, hongkies, koreans. When all the shopkeepers at the other end of the bridge know mandarin (xia lai ma! xia lai ma!) and there are elephants and peacocks ready for photographs, you know its not good... Not to mention the big restuarants and 'night market' selling jade and gold by the riverside. I was thinking of catching the sunset but turns out one of the few trains that pass come along at this time hence the tour buses. Made it very hard to walk across the bridge. And why do i always have to be the one to give way and stand on the very dangerous edge of the track?
 
Also saw the Jeath Museum, various cemetaries/memorials to the POWs, etc.. It's a good change from all the wat-ting I've been doing so far. Some nice epitaphs: "There was no harvest. The armies came and trampled the corn", "he died that others may live", "Your sacrifice was not in vain", "A star shines over a silent grave; of a son we loved but could not save",... lots of very touching ones..
 
I got here about 1-plus. Was lying on my bed (60B only!) deciding on my route for the day when i suddenly thought i got dizzy. Very dizzy. Room spinning round dizzy.
 
Then I realised that a boat just passed and the rooms are on a floating raft. Hope i don't get seasick at night...
 
Transfer of buses from aytheya-supanburi-kanchanaburi was effortless. And i really reccommend PS guesthouse in ayutheya. Bathroom really really sucks but its very personal. On the bus from supanburi a woman got on and sat next to me, tried to speak to me in thai. I exercised my 'phoot thai mai dai" and she proceeded to attempt to talk to (or at) me for the next 1.5 hours in very very broken limited and mangled english.. interesting experience but very tiring cos of the language barrier. At one point i even pretended to be asleep just to get a break. She made me eat some fruit (sala?) and i don't like fruits but couldn't possibly refuse and she even insisted on paying my fare.. ended up exchanging addresses and telephone numbers with her. Hers all written in thai though.
 
Will try to book (a rather expensive but convienient) tour to go the rest of the sites around here tomorrow. Then can go Sangkhlaburi on wed-thur or fri =)
 
And those who want presents/gifts, I'll do it in Bangkok. Shopping lists should reach me by Friday night latest too.
 
Time to look for dinner.. ciao!