Kanchanaburi and around

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Yesterday we arrived at our second destination, Kanchanaburi, the location of the famous "bridge over the River Kwai" movie. The bridge, which is not too much to look at in and of itself is the main attraction in the city itself although there are other nice things around the city.

We got to Kanchanaburi by a minibus from Bangkok. The guidebooks warn against some of these companies and what they warn about also happened to us, but we were lucky and it worked out sort of well. The thing is that when the tickets are sold the agents promise that the minibus will bring you to the bus station. I even asked extra, because I read in teh book that they sometimes do funny things. And the lady said, yes, to the bus station. But when we got to the town the minibus proceeded to make stops only in different guesthouses where some lady would come out and ask sweetly if anybody wanted to look at a room at their beautiful and cheap guesthouse and stay there. Some people that were intersted in going to the town got really annoyed, but did not have too much luck convincing the driver to get them there. One guy did manage to get the driver to drop him off closer to where he needed to go, but not exactly there. For us it was not such a big problem because the minibus stopped at the guesthouse where we wanted to go anyway, the Sugar Cane guesthouse. So we got out and got ourselves a room in a nice bungalow that reminded me of summer camp but much nicer. It was only a bit later when we decided to go to lunch at the 'neighboring' guesthouse that we realized the problem. To make long story short it turns out that there are two guesthouses with teh same exact name, but not the same location. One is located in the town center, close to teh guesthouse where we wanted to have lunch and which was of course our original destination. The other one was located about 2km away from the first, but on the other hand very close to the bridge, about a 10 minute walk. so even though it was not what we expected we were actually very happy. It was cheap, and a very pretty location, close to teh bridge and the food at the attached restaurant was very good and cheap.

After finally getting our lunch we headed to the museum Thailand-Burma railway centre which tells about the history of the railway and the tragedy that it was. I think we have all pretty much heard of the Brige over the river Kwai but I never knew the whole story. The museum was small but very informative, about how and why the Japanese wanted to build the bridge and how they went about doing it. In the end it turns out that for the about 400 km long railway 38 european Prisoners of War died for every kilometer and about 3 times that many asian workers and prisoners of war. All in all the death toll for the railway stands at about 130000 but they do not know for sure because although most of the europeans that died were well buried and therefore identified or at least counted, most of the asians that died were not and so their death toll is only estimated. The exhibit also talked about the mechanics of building the railway through the harsh climate and similar things. It was very sad but interesting. After having a look at the history we went to the bridge itself and had a look around there. That was our first day in Kanchanaburi.

Today we did something completely different and went to the Erawan National Park to see the waterfalls there. There are 7 levels of waterfalls which are spread out over approximately 2 kilometers in distance, dont know how high. You can swim in every level except 6 which is dangerous. We went all the way to the last level which is hard work because it was for one thing pretty warm and also teh way there was not the easiest, especially teh last 2 levels. There were lots of slippery rocks and almost vertical stairs made out of pieces of wood. But we made it and as reward got to swim in the cool (but not cold) waterfall and the little lake that it formed. Also we got to be nibbled on a bit by the fish that live there. It is a very funny feeling, they dont bite because they dont have any teeth but they kind of suck on you. The guide said that if you let them do it for a while you look 10 years younger. When flo told me that the only thing I could think of is that it would be a big catastrophe if I looked younger than I already do. So I did not let them do it for long. After 2 hours or so we headed back down the mountain to have lunch with the rest of the group. At the last level there are monkeys which swing from teh trees and take people's cameras and drop them in the water, so we held on to ours tightly and took pictures instead.

According to the tour we booked yesterday we were supposed to head home after lunch but instead as a surpise it turned out that we were made part of a different tour that also included a ride on the still functioning rail way for about 2 hours. This was a nice suprise because our tour turned out to be cheaper than we thought and we got the railway ride. this was very interesting.

When we got into the train it turned out it was completely full with hunderds of Thai children which were on their way to a camping trip. cute little boys and girls all dressed in uniform and with the same hair cuts. When they saw that we got into the train the level of noise and excitement was unbelievable. While we had to walk through the train to find a place they all wanted to touch our hand and kept asking us in cute english 'what is your name?' We finally were able to find some seats but the rest of the car was still full of the kids. Eventually it turned out that they had some sort of an assigment for english that they had to have a very easy dialogue with someone who spoke english and then have the english speaker write down their answer. After each one of us filled out more than enough of these papers we thought that was that. After a bit of time the group of girls sitting next to me and Flo decided that they wanted to practice their english more with me. And they did. Or they tried. English is very hard for them because it uses a completely different alphabet, sentence structure and they have trouble making certain sounds like l and r, because they only have one that is somewhere between the two. But they practiced and the more they practiced the more of them showed up until they were completely sitting on top of each other speaking english with me. It was very cute and interesting. They even tried to teach me some Thai, but it was hopeless. It is an impossible language. I got told that I was very beautiful and received two bracelets and a Manga drawing as a gift. Then it was time for the kids to leave. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere, teachers that we had not seen the whole 2 hour ride (and the children still behaved almost like angels) appeared and after about 5 minutes hundreds of children in uniform with little bags were standing on the side of teh hill next to teh train. They all waved to us as the train starting moving again, it was a very nice goodbye. This was an experience that one cannot plan or pay for.





Nach langer, langer Zeit habe ich jetzt endlich nochmal die Gelegenheit ein paar Zeilen zu schreiben...

Wir sind gestern in Kanchanaburi angekommen, das liegt westlich von Bangkok am Kwai. Hier steht die beruehmte "Bruecke am Kwai". Die Stadt selber ist eigentlich recht langweilig und auch eigentlich auch keine richtige Stadt. Das Ding ist ca. 5km lang aber dafuer nur 500m breit.Und die Sachen wo man hinwill sind natuerlich auch an beiden Enden der Stadt.
Wir sind in einem Minibus direkt aus Bangkok gekommen. Die Organisation ist sehr geil hier. In Bangkok war es schon merkwuerdig, bis wir alle eingesammelt hatten die mitfahren wollten. In Kanchanaburi angekommen ist der Minibus alle Hostels abgefahren. Jedesmal kam jemand raus und hat in den besten Toenen seine Zimmer angeboten und (mindestens 10x) gefragt ob jemand dort bleiben will. Wir sind dummerweise im falschen Hostel ausgestiegen, das Problem war naemlich, dass das Hostel wo wir dann geblieben sind den gleichen Namen hatte wie das wo wir eigentlich hin wollten, nur lag das hier viel weiter ausserhalb der "Stadtmitte". Das haben wir aber erst gemerkt, als wir nahezu verzweifelt sind, als wir versucht haben nach unserer Stadtkarte und demvermeintlichen Ausgangspunkt etwas anders zu finden. Und natuerlich sah dort alles gleich aus und es gab nichts woran man sich orientieren konnte...! Aber natuerlich haben wir das auch souveraen gemeistert und das Hostel war sehr ruhig und schoen gelegen, wir haben in unserer Bambushuette 5m vom Fluss gewohnt. Am Nachmittag haben wir uns ein Museum ueber die Thailand-Burma Railway angesehen und natuerlich die Bruecke ueber den Kwai. Sehr beeindruckend war die aber wirklich nicht.
(Fuer alle die das nicht wissen hier ganz kurz zu dieser Railway: Im 2.Weltkrieg war Thailand zum Teil von Japan besetzt und das oestlich angrenzende Burma ebenfalls. Allerdings gab es keine ausreichenden Verbindungen um genuegend Nachschub ueber Thailand nach Burma zu liefern. Daher beschlossen die Japaner eine Eisenbahnverbindung zwischen Kanchanaburi und Burma zu bauen. Diese Strecke wurde von Kriegsgefangenen unter unmenschlichen Verhaeltnissen gebaut, da das Gelaende unglaublich bergig und unwegsam war und das Klima zudem fuer die Arbeiter unertraeglich. Man sagt fuer jeden Kilometer dieser ueber 400km langen Streck mussten ca. 38 Arbeiter sterben!!!)

Am naechsten Tag haben wir eine Tagestour zu den Erewan-Falls gemacht, das sind sehr schoene Wasserfaelle, ca 1h von Kanchanaburi entfernt, die sich ueber eine Strecke von ueber 2km in 7 Stufen unterteilen. An fast jeder Stufe kann man schwimmen. Wir sind bis zur letzten Stufe gegangen und als wir oben waren war es echt ein Segen, als wir endlich in das angenehm kuehle Nass springen konnten. Man konnte richtig filmreifim Wasser unter einem Wasserfall stehen. Eine recht lustige Sache dabei war, das es in den Becken viele (mehr oder weniger) kleine Fische gab, die einem die Haut gereinigt haben. Unser Thai-Fuehrer meinte, danach sieht man 10 Jahre juenger aus...
Danach wollten wir eigentlich wieder zurueck, aber irgendwie sind wir dann irgendwo im Nichts gelandet. Wie sich dann herausstellte sind wir einfach in eine andere Tour gesteckt worden, die noch die Besichtigung einer Hoehle und ca. 2h Fahrt mit der Kwai-Railway beinhaltete. Aber das war ok, da wir natuerlich nur den niedrigeren Preis fuer unsere Tour bezahlen mussten und die Einzelkosten der Dinge deutlich hoeher waren! Ausserdem haben wir dann eine Erfahrung gemacht, die ich wohl mein ganzes Leben nicht vergessen werde. Eigentlich kann man das garnicht beschreiben...:
Wie viele andere Touristen haben wir normal auf den Zug gewartet. Der war dann aber zufaellig mit hunderten Kindern gefuellt, die mit der Schule zum Camping gefahren sind. Als die gesehen haben, dass dort westliche Touristen warten haben die uns zugejubelt wie Superstars! Das war unglaublich! Da so viele Kinder im Zug waren mussten wir durch den halben Zug laufen um Plaetze zu bekommen und in jedem Wagen haben die gerufen und und weiter gejubelt und wollten alle anfassen oder noch besser die Hand schuetteln! Wie unser Thai-Fuehrer uns spaeter geasgt hat war das fuer die Kinder auch ein grosses Erlebniss, weil wir fuer die natuerlich auch ganz anders aussehen und was besonderes sind. Das lustige war, dass die wohl so eine Aufgabe bekommen haben, mit den Touristen zu sprechen, und zwar auf Englisch. Und obwohl die allerhoechstens zwoelf waren sprachen sie alle wirklich gutes Englisch ohne grossen Akzent!! Fast alle hatten so einen Zettel mit ein paar einfachen Fragen (Name, woher man ist,...), die sie den Touristen stellen sollten. Deswegen durften fast alle so einen Zettel ausfuellen :-) Die ganze Fahrt hindurch wurden wir von Kindern "belagert", die versucht haben mit uns zu sprechen und uns am Ende Bilder geschenkt haben. Als ihre Station erreicht war (wobei der Zug einfach nur im Nichts angehalten hat) haben sich alle ganz artig mit kleiner Verbeugung verabschiedet.
Kurz danach wa unser Trip auch zuende. Und morgen gehts weiter nach Ayutthaya!

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