Kanchan what?

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Kan-chan-aburi. It’s a mouthful, and I still can't seem to pronouce it correctly.

Kanchanaburi is one of the 76 provinces in Thailand. It is also the province where the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai, the ruins of Ayutthaya, the Allied War Cemetery, and the JEATH Museum are. The Christian University of Thailand is also there. However, we didn’t spend much time there. We mostly drove through and saw the above places, so I don’t have much to say about it except that the scenery was nice, and the Night Market in Nakorn Pathom (the town Christian University is in) was fun in a small foreign village way. We saw a guy who has a show throwing and making ice cream for customers…another thing we need Stateside! Anyhoo, this is what we did.

What we did/Where to go:

1. Death Railway Bridge: A charming two-hour ride on the real bridge on the river Kwai. The scenery from the train is great. When the train comes to the side of a mountain, you can even see spots on the side of the mountain where POWs stuck chisels in and then keeled over. Simultaneously creepy and cool.

2. Allied War Cemetery: A somber place. Most of the people buried here soldiers from WWII who are British, Australian, French, and so on. I don’t recall seeing Americans, but there could have been some there. The nice thing about this cemetery is that each headstone has a personal message or description from loved ones.

3. JEATH War Museum: This place was hilarious! It's is supposed to be an ominous war museum, but the exhibits were sometimes strangely arranged, mislabeled, and oddly out of place. The really great thing was that in one room, Ben Franklin looked mysteriously like George Washington, and Otto von Bismarck looked strangely like Napoleon. Hmmm...

4. Ayutthaya Ruins: These were one of my favorite things in Thailand. What’s not to like about ruins? They are old, they are what is left of the past, they were part of a grand city, they’ve survived hundreds of years (they date from the Western middle ages), they are large and majestic…everything I find attractive…in buildings. Ayutthaya was the ancient capital of Thailand, and what is left of that era of Thai culture. After several centuries they are still beautiful.

Chiang Mai is next!

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Photos

Death Railway Bridge
I love trains! Even if the tracks are built by dead POWs...

Allied War Cemetery
A quiet place.

Poor guy
He's being held captive by a mediocre war museum!

Ayutthaya
We need these back home.