Ladyboys, Tigers and Beers Oh My!

Thursday --- The van picked us up at 6:30 in the morning for our tour to the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Tiger Temple in the Kanchanaburi Province of Thailand. We were the second ones picked up, so it took a while to grab the other members of our group before driving northwest out of Bangkok. I fell asleep for a bit and when I woke we had arrived at a World War II Cemetery for Allied POW's. We walked around and I noticed how young the soldiers had been at the time they passed. It was pretty depressing. We got back on the van and a short while later arrived at the Bridge over the River Kwai. Our tour price included admission into the war museum a couple hundred yards from the bridge and so we checked that out first. It was fairly interesting and I was anxious to learn more about the Bridge over the River Kwai since I didn't know much other than a movie was made about what happened. Sad but true. I must admit I'm more interested in the European part of WWII even though it was a war that was fought in many parts of the world. Luckily they had some information in the museum so I was able to become a little knowledgeable about the Burma-Siam Railway (aka the Death Railway). The living and working conditions the Allied POWs were forced to endure is considered one of the many war crimes committed by the Japanese during WWII. Approximately 13,000 POWs and 80,000-100,000 civilians died during the notorious Japanese project.

The museum also had a collection of guns and bayonets that I found interesting. They had a Luger which I thought was awesome. Sherry was nowhere to be seen so I headed towards the infamous bridge. Along the way was a food court area and zoo advertisement complete with a baby leopard and a baby tiger and I spotted Sherry checking it out. Normally I would think this is a very cruel practice but I was captivated by the little animals and for 100 Baht you could feed them and get your picture taken. Sold. Along with a piece of my soul. Oh but holding the little leopard was the coolest thing. He/she was so cute and cuddly! I walked over to the bridge after this little distraction and checked out the bridge. It was a bridge. I took some pictures and contemplated a moment then walked back to the museum to find the van. Our group got back on and we headed to lunch upriver on a boat. It was buffet style and pretty disgusting. We started chatting with others in our group who were mostly Australian. They're everywhere over here I swear! Anyway lunch was gross although I didn't expect much, I had had a couple similar experiences in China. You don't go on a sightseeing tour for the food: fact. While we were heading back to the van we heard cannons being fired and looked upriver and saw smoke in the sky above the water. We were told by our driver that it was a funeral. That was pretty cool to see. Not a shabby way to say goodbye. We had one more stop at the Saiyok Noi waterfall that was beautiful. No one brought anything to swim in however so we sat round and then checked out the market by the road. This local kept handing out samples of different local delicacies to which Sherry and I obliged.

Finally we were headed to the Tiger Temple. Sherry likes to be known as the cat whisperer and she was pretty stoked. I was pretty excited too to pet tigers and see monks since monks give me the tiners for some reason! We arrived at the temple and headed to 'Tiger Canyon' in the hot sun. It was boiling in that place. After a short walk we saw several tigers as well as several volunteers. We got ready to take pictures with the animals and were disheartened to learn we had to take off sunglasses, hats and leave our bags behind. The bags weren't a big deal, but sunglasses? No!! It was so hot out and we were all sweaty and nasty I knew that my pictures were not going to be pretty. Gutted. Did the deal anyway and pet the magnificent creatures, cheesy smiles and what not. There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding Tiger Temple, the major one being whether or not the tigers are drugged. Other people in my group disagreed, but my opinion is that the tigers are definitely drugged. Maybe they're not, I'm no expert, but if I had to guess I would say YES. Poor guys. But you also have to realize locals are poaching them when they're in the wild as well, so... Enough of that. We walked over to another area where they had 5 month old tigers and took pictures with them too. There was a monk that was adamant that we kiss one of the tigers and cup the tiger's head in our hands. The suggestion was terrifying but we all did it and I must say it was quite amazing. Our time at the Tiger Temple was short and soon we had to head back to the bustling metropolis of Bangkok. Traffic was a nightmare when we got back but luckily we were second to be dropped off and didn't suffer as much as the others! It was almost 7 though so our tour was roughly 12 hours long.

Back at the hostel we showered and went to the bar and ordered beers. The hostel was having an expat event so the bar and lobby were busy which was great. I met an English girl while I was checking my email who invited us out to Patpong to find a karaoke bar. We accepted and a few beers later a large group of us were headed out into the Bangkok night ready to party. We couldn't find the bar that was researched on the internet which turned out to be awesome because a whole van of ladyboys pulled up, including one with geisha makeup. I had seen several the night before with Dominique but this was rad seeing a whole group walking together a few feet from where I stood. Bad ass! Pretty soon we found a karaoke bar down a narrow street and we all went upstairs into the dining area. We soon realized we were in a gay bar but we had the room to ourselves and ordered dinner and drinks. Sherry and I went outside with a German girl for a smoke and it was amazing that we didn't realize we were in the gay area before! I guess when you are looking for something specific you don't notice the bigger picture? It was funny. Sherry and I were beat after a while and bid goodbye to our hostel friends and headed into Silom for a tuk-tuk. The next morning we would be heading to the country of Malaysia, our final destination the city of Sandakan on the island of Borneo. Jungle time!

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