Once we finally got on a bus with our stickers on our shirts (we still didn't know what this was supposed to represent) we settled in for a nice long bus ride. We finally got to the Jeath War Museum in Kanchanaburi. Hot, confused and hungry, we walked around the museum trying to figure out where we were and what we were doing there. Originally, we had booked our own place to stay in Kanchanaburi and we were trying to establish a time line for our activities. The man who drove us to this new city left as soon as we got there and some new guy found us (I still have no idea how he knew who we were and what we were supposed to be doing). But we told him we were hungry and he bought us a meager meal near the Bridge Over the River Kwai. We decided to check out the bridge while we were there, not really knowing anything about it. It turns out that it was a major piece of WWII history. When the allied troops came in to bomb the Japanese who had occupied Thailand, the Japanese made the allied POW's stand on the bridge right before it was blown up. It was pretty interesting to check out a piece of history that I never expected to see. Still unsure why we were there, the guy that bought us lunch herded us into a new minivan with new people. There were a couple white people that Dayton struck up a conversation with toward the front and I was in the back with some Asians. When I started to pay attention, I realized I could understand about 25% of what the Asian family was saying and even better, I realized they were speaking Taiwanese! So I asked them, in Mandarin, what part of Taiwan they were from. We became friends instantly. The van ride took us into the mountains where we found ourselves at a very small train station in a very small village. I asked the driver why were were there and he said "To wait for the train". When I asked "Where is the train going?" he said "Stop! Just stop!"
Apparently Dayton and I had already paid for this train ride, wherever it was going. The Taiwanese family I had made friends with had not paid for this train and were required to buy a ticket even though the man wouldn't tell us where it was going or why we were about to ride it. After everyone paid and had tickets we waited in the extreme heat for the train to come. The people that Dayton had met in the van were from Sweden and spoke English really well. We talked with them while we waited and found out that they had some of the same struggles that we had with the TAT office. It turns out the train ride we went on was on the Death Railway. Lots of allied POW's perished while building an extremely steep, dangerous railway. We were only on the train for 30 minutes or so when we got off and were met by the guy that had gotten mad at me for asking too many questions. "STOP! JUST STOP!" 
By then it was later in the afternoon and we were taken to a floating house on the river in a very out-of-the-way place. We were given a room with a/c (supposedly we had already paid for it) Then we sat and watched the sunset with Christian and Stephi. They had a lot of questions for us. They were very curious why I was able to speak Chinese to the other passengers in our van. I told them about serving a mission in Taiwan and our discussion turned to religion. We had a great conversation about religion and different beliefs. The atmosphere couldn't have been better for a spiritual discussion.
Dinner was provided (vegetarian dishes were prepared special for Dayton and I) and we enjoyed the company of our new Swedish friends while we dined. We decided that the hassle we had dealt with in the morning was worth it. We had been given a free room, with a/c and were surrounded by good people. We were looking forward to the next morning when we would be swimming with elephants and hiking waterfalls in Erawan National Park. Even with all the stress and discomfort the trip was turning out to be the adventure of a lifetime.
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