Saturday was an early start. We were supposed to meet our tour driver at 7:30 am to start our tour to see the Bridge over the river Kwai (actually Kwae in Thailand), a war museum, and the Tiger Temple. At 7:45 am I had to place a call to the tour company since our driver still wasn't there. A few more calls and some help from the hotel concierge we determined that another person with the first name Katherine left with our driver. Thankfully, her driver and tour guide was still around so we just swapped. A bit of an annoying start to the day but it seemed to work out in the end.
We ended up with a private tour in a new Toyota Camry. This was a nice perk since we would be driving 3 hours west of Bangkok near the border of Burma.
Our first stop was to the JEATH (J - Japan, E - Europe, A - America & Australia, T - Thailand, H - Holland) war museum. It is a small place but has a replica of the prisoner of war huts. It has quite a few photos and pieces of history from the prisoners themselves. If you have seen the movie The Bridge Over the River Kwai you know the story of these POWs from WWII.
What was most interesting to me was that the museum was not protected from the elements and many of the photos are just in normal picture frames.
It is a bit sad that much of the history of this place will likely be gone in the next 10-20 years because it really isn't protected. During WWII there were reported to be approximately 350 US soldiers who died as Japanese POWs. Many of them died due to malaria, dehydration (imagine drinking unclean river water and what it does to your GI system), and untreated physical injuries from the building of the railroad. I am always humbled to see the living conditions of POWs:
Above is a replica of the bamboo huts they lived in. The Thai people I have spoken to say that there are three seasons in Thailand: hot, rainy & hot, and hottest. I cannot imagine living in this hut during that kind of weather. As an aside, cats seem to keep finding me in Thailand:
When I walked out of the museum, I was greeted by a group of school girls. They were on assignment from their school (yes, most schools in SEA are open Mon-Sat) and were practicing English. They asked me a series of questions in English and had to write my answers in English as well. It took all of 5 minutes and it was nice to help out some kids given the hundreds of adults who helped me out as a kid. Thought you might like to see what a group of teenage Thai girls look like.
We left the museum and headed to Kanchanaburi to visit the Bridge over the River Kwai. There were originally two bridges but the wooden one was completely destroyed along with part of the steel bridge. The steel bridge has been rebuilt and trains cross over it daily.
You can actually walk across the entire bridge when there is not a train coming. I got about halfway across and had to turn around and come back. There were no guard rails or sections you couldn't walk on. Instead, if you weren't in the center of the rail tracks you were walking down the side of the track straddling an open drop to the river. Hopefully this will give you a good visual idea of it:
From here we went to the Nam Tok rail station. This is where the Wampo Viaduct runs along the River Kwai. Again, you are allowed to walk along the rail as much as you like. There are no safety barriers and it will be nobody's fault but your own if you get run over by a train or fall into the river. It was kind of nice to have this freedom but also a little odd.
I ventured out a little ways but the good American in me felt there were possibly some unwritten rules somewhere and that I shouldn't go too far. Before I could argue with myself too much the decision was made for me due to an approaching train. It was cool to stand right next to it as it crossed from one wooden viaduct to the next. These are still the actual viaducts and tracks built by the POWs so I enjoyed standing there listening to the wood creak as the train made its way past.
Our next stop was to a place where I we could see tigers up close. It is a Buddhist temple that owns quite a bit of land and has tons of rescued animals running all around. Here is a picture of me with a tiger:
I must admit that I have mixed reactions about this place. The tigers all appear to be very well fed and have quite a few people caring for them. They seem to be very used to having people around them and the caretakers weren't forcing any of them to do anything. They actually were giving a number of them breaks from people and letting them roll around and giving them water. On the other hand, I know there is nothing natural about these creatures hanging out with people. A part of me is very sad that they are in some ways being domesticated. With that being said it was an amazing experience to be so close to them and feel their fur and the rise and fall of their breathing. Like I said...mixed reactions.
They also have a couple of tiger cubs who the monks had out to play with. They were quite clearly being kittens and therefore I didn't get very close. But again, from what I saw they seemed to be well taken care of.
I am hopeful that the money spent to enter the sanctuary is being well spent on all of the animals, not just the tigers.
We left there and started the long drive back to Bangkok. It was a comfortable drive and I have to admit the Thailand countryside surprised me a bit. In my mind I had imagined it to be more like India and more of a third world country. Instead it could have been mistaken for Florida or any southern state in the US. There appears to be good industry in the region and normal stores and garden centers and farm land and other things you'd expect to see when driving in the country. It was quite green since it is the rainy season. I guess the only things that made me realize I was in Thailand were the signs in another language, the roadside food stands, and the spirit houses.
Spirit houses are on just about every piece of property in Thailand. The size of the spirit house is dependent on the size of the actual house or building. The bigger the house, the bigger the spirit house. These are put on the land to honor the spirits that resided on the land prior to the present owner living there. It is said that if you don't have one you are likely to have bad luck - especially a problem if you don't have one and you are running a business. Here is a picture of the spirit house on the property of my hotel:
We made it back to Bangkok at around 4 pm. After relaxing for a bit we headed to the Suan Lum night market. It opens at 6 pm and stays open until around 2 am. We ate a fabulous dinner of traditional Thai food at the market...super tasty! We then spent a couple of hours wandering through the market. There is everything from tourist junk to up and coming designers to household goods...you name it and it is there. This market has actual covered stalls for the merchants. They kind of remind me of the garage units at storage buildings in the US. I realized after I left the market that I didn't take any photos because I was having so much fun looking at everything...next time.
We ended our Saturday by heading to the Sirocco bar at The Dome. It is on the 65th floor of a building near the river. It has excellent views of the city at night. I managed to snap this shot just before getting scolded by the security guard for taking pictures:
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