Kanchanaburi

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Hello again to allour faithful readers! It's so good to hear your messages and comments!

So before we left Chiang Mai we took in a Muay Thai match. It was quite entertaining. It's very different from our boxing, mainly because you can throw kicks and punches. The rituals that they do in between rounds and in warmup was interesting as well. For example, lifting the boxer up off the ground and shaking him. Maybe shaking bad spirits off? The first weight class was 80lbs! These boys looked quite small to us.

Then we headed to Kanchanaburi. It was a little interesting getting there as we transferred at a town where they just let us off on the side of the road at 4am and said 5 o'clock. Around 6 we flagged down a bus to Kanchanaburi. This town is the site of the famous bridgeover the river Kwai. This bridge was built by the Japanese during WWII. Over 100,000 asians and prisoners of war died building this railway.The bridge was bombed by the Allies. The bridge we are walking on is a reconstruction. We went to a great museum as well as a graveyard where many British, Dutch and Australian soldiers are buried.

Yesyerday we went to see the Tiger Temple. This is a Buddhist nature sanctuary that was started by a Monk caring for tigers wounded by poachers (apparently a tiger is worth over 5000 USD to poachers). As you can see from the pictures, it is now more touristy. We had our pictures taken with the tigers. They say that the tigers are not drugged, that they have been around humans since they were young. Also, the time for pictures, petting tigers is in the afternoon when they mostly sleep, rest. There was many other animals here too, boar, cows, water buffalo, chickens, deer. The villagers can bring unwanted pets here. There is also a little temple, with this sign that I found interesting. We were told that in Thailand, men are encouraged to do at least a few months as a monk to lower and humble them. This is not the case for women, as they are already considered below men.

We met up again here with the Dutch girls that we went trekking with. We've been playing cards and games (along with a few beers too). The only 2 bummers here were:
the occasional cockroach in our bathroom (Grosssss! the first we've seen)
also the 7-tiered Erawan waterfall is too muddy to swim in because of the high water.

Now we head to the South of Thailand to check out some islands!

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Comments

[Teresa]

Bridge on the River Kwai
I put the movie on hold so we will have to have a "Bridge on the River Kwai" Movie night.

[Hailey]

Cool tigers!

[DuaneAndCharlotte]

Hi Hailey
Would you pet a tiger?