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Published: April 5th 2006
Satahip
A local beach for local people!We left early the next day to go and see Claire’s Dad.
Hogmanay
Now, it’s quite a long story. Claire’s parents are divorced and her Dad now has a Thai girlfriend. I should point out, before you jump to conclusions, that they met in the UK and that she is widowed. A lot of Dad’s friends in his provincial English town have Thai wives and it was through this circle that they met. It’s probably not long term though as the girlfriend plans to move back to Thailand later this year.
Anyway, the “mother hen” of the Thai wife circle has organised Hogmanay for us: dinner, drinks and karaoke. They all have homes in a place called Satahip, South of Pattaya which is South East of Bangkok.
That afternoon, we went to the local beach. It really was a locals beach: we saw only one other Farang. It’s interesting that most of the locals swim with T-shirts on. The girlfriend’s daughter (28) lives in the house year round but while her mother is back is expected to do all the cleaning, cooking and driving.
At the evening “do”, we had feared that we were going to be
Satahip
Gents' loos. press-ganged into Karaoke. No fear of that though as there were plenty of Thais more than willing to grab the mic! It was a strange Hogmanay: we didn’t mark the bells exactly. Instead, around midnight, the children in the party let off worryingly large fireworks. However, the main event of the evening was the arranged Farang-Thai engagement.
Now, there were three other Farang men who came out with Claire’s Dad. All had Thai wives, but one of them was single. The mother hen had arranged a engagement between him and her niece whom he had met only a few days before. They took lots of photographs of the “engagement party”. It seems very strange to me: doubly so because the Thai lady has money and does not intend moving to the UK and the British guy doesn’t have any money.
All in all, it was a Hogmanay I will remember!
On New Years Day, I got a lift into Pattaya and said goodbye to Claire and her Dad. I’d heard so much about this place (Sodom and Gomorrah they said) that I wanted to witness it for myself! It really is full of old-ish European males sitting
Satahip
Children letting off fireworks for Hogmanay. alone in bars or with Thai women. I was only there for an hour or so in the middle of the day, so didn’t get into any trouble. Apparently, it’s at night that it comes alive...
I got the three hour bus back to Bangkok and took the new Skytrain back to the same hotel I was at before.
Kanchanaburi
Kanchanaburi is famous as the location of “The Bridge over the River Kwai”. It was made famous by a
classic film starring Alec Guinness. It’s now a location on the Thai Gringo Trail.
The Thailand-Burma railway was built by the Japanese during WWII to allow transport to occupied Burma via their ally Thailand, rather than by a risky sea journey. It was a great feat of engineering, but one that came at a very high human cost and which involved unimaginable cruelty.
Getting to Kanchanaburi proved a little difficult. I’d booked through an agency in the Khao San Road and arrived 15 minutes early for my 7am departure. By 8am, the bus still hadn’t arrived! Apparently, it had left without us. There then followed a slightly surreal scene where we (myself, an Irish couple and a Japanese
Pattaya
Sleaze City. couple) were all bundled into tuktuks and taken to what seemed to be a minibus park. We then sat in a minibus for quite a time more until random Thai people joined us. Then we left. After two hours, we arrived. The couples were on an organised tour to go and see lots of places around. I’d opted just for transport to and from Kanchanaburi as I prefer not to be rushed. As we were delayed, I was worried about how I was going to get back. After a lot of ear bending, the tour guide gave me a phone number to ring and 100B to cover the journey. I bade farewell to the rest of the party. Shame as I’d had some interesting conversations and would have been interested to see what the Japanese thought of the place.
The places I saw in Kanchanaburi were the moving Don Rak cemetery; the tacky and a bit commercial “World War II Museum and JEATH” (deliberately misleadingly named) which featured some very gory exhibits showing the conditions allied POWs lived in; the surviving bridge itself; the original and worthy JEATH museum dating from before the hoards of tourists arrived; and the
more modern museum by Don Rak which was excellent.
Thousands of Allied POWs and even more Asian slave workers died building the railway. The famous film gets a number of details wrong: there was far more to the railway than just this bridge and most workers died building the railway in very difficult terrain up in the hills through dysentery-induced starvation and overwork. The Japanese army treated their workers with callous disregard and contempt but, unlike in the film, there were no daring acts of sabotage and the Japanese engineers were actually extremely competent. Interestingly, prisoners were afforded great respect after they had died.
There were actually two bridges. The first was wooden and has not survived. A later concrete and steel bridge was transported from Java and reassembled. This is still in use although the line all the way to Burma is no longer running: there are a number of reservoirs in its path now. The day I was there was a holiday and there were loads of Thai families. You can go on rides over the bridge or walk. It seems a bit removed from the horrors that happened here.
Back in Bangkok
Back in
Kanchanaburi
The Don Rak cemetery where some of the allied POWs killed in the building of the Burma Railway. Bangkok that night, I tried a restaurant near Siam Square that had been recommended by some people I met on the minibus back from Kanchanaburi. It is a cook-it-yourself buffet. On your table is a bowl of hot charcoal. On top of this is a lid that looks a bit like a giant lemon squeezer. You put solid fat on the top and it drips down the sides. You can then put on raw meat or fish and cook it. At the edge of the lid is water where you cook vegetables.
I sat down before realising what it was all about. My ladyboy waiter and a friendly family helped me out. I’d thoroughly recommend it. I can’t remember what it was called but it’s opposite the Asia Hotel, behind a tailors. It was mainly locals and you pay only local prices.
After that, I visited one of the huge shopping malls in Siam Square. There were still loads of people around at 9pm on a Monday night. Bangkok is very modern. I also saw an appeal for aid to help the victims of the floods in Southern Thailand that brought back memories of my time in the
Kanchanaburi
Graves of allied personnel who died building the Burma Railway. rain down there.
On my last day in Thailand, I had an easy morning (getting a bit tired of travelling now) and had a last walk round the town, including a visit to the biggest Buddha in Thailand at Wat Suthat.
I’d decided to stay at a hotel nearer to the airport. The “
We-Train International House” exists to raise funds for the “Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women” (APSW). In the grounds of the hotel is an emergency home and training centre for abused women.
My taxi driver didn’t know where the hotel was (despite telling me he did but me not believing him anyway - a big problem in Asia is that people think it’s losing face to admit they don’t know something). Luckily I had the phone number and as everyone in Thailand has a mobile nowadays, we found it. The hotel has a swimming pool. I rather fancied staying in a hotel with one which was partly why I went there: it was a bit manky though. I’d recommend the hotel for anyone with an early flight who doesn’t want the hassle of getting there from Bangkok. It’s only 20 mins by taxi,
Kanchanaburi
The "metal" bridge over the River Kwai. but eat before you arrive as there is a very poor selection of evening meals.
I shared a taxi to the airport with an American girl called Mora. She’d just been in India and sold me some rupees (I could get rid of my last USD). She said she’d left India early due to the hassling. Hmm, doesn’t bode well for my arrival there next week...
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