Goodbye India, Hello Thailand

So I have arrived in Thailand, actually I've been here almost a week now. When i updated last Eric and I were still in Cochin. He headed back to Delhi and I stayed for another day before taking the train to Mumbai. His last day in Delhi included a Holi celebration which sounds pretty crazy, you can read about it on his blog http://www.dabearic.blogspot.com Holi isn't really celebrated in the south much although at breakfast i did see some young men running around throwing pink powder at each other, but no one else seems to be celebrating. And the next day on the train i noticed that some of the people selling chai and stuff that came by had strange smudges of colors on their hands and faces, haha. My train was 24 hours, but not too bad. I arrived in Mumbai last in the afternoon and was going to try to take the local train into town, but it turns out that during rush hour its totally crazy, people hanging out of all the doors and with all my stuff i decided that was a bad idea. I may have done better braving the train because the cab driver conned me out of 400 rupees, but oh well.
The hotel i booked was described in the Lonely Planet as decent once you got passed the paan stained stairwell that looked like it was right out of a b grade horror film, haha which was surprisingly accurate, but upstairs it was actually alright. Free breakfast, free water, free books on the bookshelf, what more could i need. It also had a good location so i spent my two days wandering around markets, hanging out by the Gate of India on the waterfront and going to two movies. I saw Slumdog Millionaire again and this very strange Hindi horror movie called 13B where there was no English, but it wasn't too hard to follow the basic idea. I also ate more dosas and uttapam in a two day period then was probably good for me, but since it was my last two days i think its alright. My flight was at 5am and since i didn't want to pay for a room and have to leave at like 2am i camped out at the airport. Getting through security and immigration took me almost 2 hours at like 1am, i can't imagine how busy it is at a normal flying time.
I arrived in Bangkok with no plans at all, i didn't book anything in advance so i could get a feel for things and see how it went. It seems like Thailand is especially easy to travel around, its set up well for tourists. I'm not exactly sure what i was expecting, but i was thinking Bangkok would be a bit like big cities in india but maybe a bit less dirty and a bit more touristy. Everything I'd heard about Bangkok suggested that it was big, loud, crowded and not all that pleasant. I was surprised to find a city that more resembles Tokyo then New Delhi. It seemed to me quite peaceful, quiet, friendly, clean, sure there are a lot of cars, but they all drive normal, follow traffic rules and don't even honk much. I was talking to two Scottish girls who were saying how Bangkok was the first place in asia they had been and it seems pretty crazy and different to them, but really compared to India its amazingly calm and easy to get around. That being said for the first few days I missed india more then i expected to, i mean i was excited for Thailand, but I think i will always love india more then anywhere else. India is more difficult and crazy, but its a wonderful place and i was sad to leave it.
I think because i was a bit sad to leave india and because i was on my own for the first time in two months i didn't really feel too motivated to see the sights in Bangkok. I figured that Pieter and maybe Anjali would want to see them all anyways when they arrived so i decided after a few days to get out of the city for a bit. I'm now in Kanchanaburi which is west of Bangkok. The main thing its known for is that it is close to Erawan National Park and it is home to the Bridge over River Kwai. I went to the park yesterday which was pretty awesome, there is a river with 7 waterfalls most of which you can swim in and around which is exactly what i did. I went with a tour group which made it more fun instead of doing it all alone. The tour guide was pretty silly telling us things like don't feed the monkeys or they might end up eating our arms and legs off, and telling us about thing kind of thai drink that if you drink too many you will get a hangover that make you feel like a dinosaur, which he impersonated quite well, haha. I also went to the Railroad museum, which is all about the Burmese Thailand Railway that the Japanese built during World War Two. They wanted to make a supply line into Thailand and they built the railroad by using POWs and forced Asian labor. Out of the people who worked on it, about a third of them died, more then 100,000, due to the horrendous conditions they had to work in. It was a pretty depressing story, but i didn't know anything about it before, so i'm glad i went and got some history. Well I think i have rambled on enough, although i haven't even mentioned thai food yet, but i'm sure i will have plenty of time to do that later.