Wed 15 Jan

Viewed the sunrise this morning as we had an early start! We played tourist today, joining a bus group to the Ewaren Falls. There are seven levels to the falls and I was so pleased with myself making it all the way to the top! It was two km to the top and we only had two hours before we had to meet for lunch. Now normally I could do 4k in much less than 2 hrs but this seemed to be all mostly straight up! (And of course I had to fit photos in too!) There were lots of rocks to maneuver around, plenty of stairs, both wooden and concrete, areas that you really had to look for the path, a huge tree to walk across and several shallow streams to cross. In several areas I needed to hang on arial roots to get where I needed. But the scenery was amazing! So very pretty...each waterfall being so different. Would love to see it after the monsoons...it would be spectacular.
Next on the list was the Hellsfire Pass museum, dedicated by the Australians as a memorial to all those prisoners of war and romusha's or Asians who helped build the Burma/Thailand Railway during WWii. We then walked down into Hellsfire pass and were amazed at how deep the cut was into the mountain. They were really worked to the bone and many of them died in the harsh and unrelenting pace of work that the Japanese demanded.
We then took a train ride where the POW's had laid track and finished the day at the Bridge on the River Kwai.
We are both exhausted...we left this morning at 8 and returned at 5:30...the distances between places was long so it was close to 4 hrs of driving. We dove into the shower as we were just filthy...I even washed my shoes from all tracking at the waterfall and Hellsfire Pass.
Early to bed...that will be a first!