An adventure...we think

So we set off from Bangkok really really early in the morning and headed for the northern train station. We had directions to get a train to one place, a bus to another and to ask in at a cafe to visit the 'amazing' ganesha park.
The station was straight out of a Michael Palin documentary (the old ones where he actually travelled and didnt have everything arranged already), it was full of local Thai people and next to a market and even early in the morning there were so many smells and sounds from the food being prepared for the day. We were in 3rd class (wooden seats and no air conditioning, but all the windows open and some fans), it was so cool, we loved it! We bought snacks along the way like barbequed chicked on squewers with bags of sticky rice and fruit. The scenery was immense! It went from the suburbs of Bangkok to little slums by the river to small villiages to fields (most of them - think of The Beach), to jungle. It was brilliant! Suddenly the train stopped and loads and loads of tourists got on, we were a little bemused until we remembered that we were travelling along the same line that was built by the POWs under the Japanese invasion of SE Asia and we would eventually cross over 'the bridge over the river kwai'. It was bizarre, the train slowed at scenic points for them and then after about half an hour they all disappeared and got back on their tour buses. It became a local train again and we got off at our destination NamTok. Namtok is a small town in Kanchanaburi province, nevertheless, we were pestered by touts as we got off asking us to get in their taxis so they could drive us to their guesthouses in the middle of nowhere and take all our money. It was also pouring with rain and we were soaked with our backpacks on, and we didnt know where the bus stop was and no one would tell us, they just directed us to the touts, we were feeling a bit miserable to say the least!
Anyway, we escaped down a random road and asked some normal local people who directed us to the bus stop (on big lady even offered to tak us on the back of her bike, we didnt think there would be enough room even for one of us, let along with our big bags too!). We got to the bus stop and met a lovely lovely man who wanted to practice his english with us. He helped us to ring our guesthouse (there was no answer) and wrote down our destination (Dawadung) in our book in Thai so we could show the driver, he also told the driver and some other people where we were going, so we had lots of help! He also told us that we were just 1km from the Burmese border and that it was very dangerous in the jungle because there are some minority groups there who are recognised by no one so have to live in no mans land and train their kids up as child soldiers. It was all very interesting. Anyway, we got the bus and got off by the restaurnat in Dawadung. We got there and a French guy greeted us and told us that the owners had just disappeared that morning after telling him to look after the place and that there was little point in us staying more than a night. We were so disappointed as there were supposed to be elephants there! Anyway, we slept in a cool raft house on the River Kwai, in the middle of the jungle, it would have been beautifully peaceful were it not for the kids of the cook (they cooked us heaps and heaps of food) who were so loud and stayed up drinking and diving off the raft all night, there was also the biggest thunderstorm ever! It was crap and soggy, but the next day the french guy told us not to bother paying, so we were happy!
We took the bus to Kanchanburi (where we are now), it was really nice taking the bus again, and again felt very off the beaten track, the locals looked at us strangely and a lady kept giving us sweets, it was nice!