Blogs from Western Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 88

Back again today with another entry from Kanchanaburi. re: today's title. Yesterday I mentioned the noise that the long tail boats make when they cruise by our floating accomodation on the river. Well, I forgot to mention these karaoke rafts that also happen by from time to time. They're these big party barges that can't travel under their own power, but are pulled by other boats. Okay, so that was a bit of a redundant sentence. Anyway, the ironic thing is that the Japanese are back on the River Kwai. They were the WWII occupiers and they built the nearby bridge and railroad. Now they're back with karaoke (which I'm assuming originated in Japan) and the Thai students here especially love it. We're not exactly loving it when they float by with some off-key crooner at ... read more

Bridge over the River Kwai Death Railway Museum Chungkai Cemetery I can't write down everything I'd want to talk about with you on these areas. War is an important part of history that we need to know as much as we can about, and as people in all countries believe, with knowledge maybe we won't make the same mistakes twice. For information on WW2, there is a wealth of information in many places. The internet isn't bad. Just one example of a pretty good site, that isn't only about guided tours, is http://www.hellfirepass.com/index.htm It has a lot about Hellfire Pass, the death railway, the bridge, numbers of the dead, and lots more. If you are one of the Australians reading this, you'll (hopefully) know Weary Dunlop (the guy with the donkey if that prompts anyone). ... read more

Although Conrad’s version of our hike sounds like complete hell, it truly was amazing. We started out the day being piled into the back of a pickup truck, 12 of us in all. It was only about 42 degrees, so being squished together was really quite awful. We had a great bunch of people to trek with though, varied from everywhere. England, Ireland, Korea and us from Canada. We drove in this condition for about 2 hours give or take, and arrived at a very stinky market, in which people were cutting up fish and guts were flying everywhere. Phewy. Anyhow, continued on to the base of the mountain where we piled out and were served lunch. Yum. Then it began. From the first hill, I knew we were in trouble. The brochure for this hike ... read more

Not much exciting to report - and that isn't a bad thing. I am just hanging out at the resort, having spa treatments and playing in the pool. The pictures from here aren't great, because it is very humid and grey - but I'll post a few so you can get an idea. The resort is amazingly beautiful. Wait till you see the big water slide - I'm going to try it later today. I thought I'd wait until about dinnertime so that if I squeal like a ninny, there will be fewer people to witness my humiliation. From what I've seen, you get airborne on the bumps. Alas, no riding of elephants on the beach here, that is not at Phuket (where the Tsunami hit) I'm desperately disappointed, but what are you going to do. ... read more

After having spent 10 days at Suan Mokh, a Buddhist Monastery near Surat Tani (which meant getting up at 4.00 am, sleeping on bare concrete, well no, actually on a straw matt on bare concrete, getting no dinner, having to keep absolutely silent appart from the prayer before each meal - (can any one of you imagine that??? No talking at all??) And of course, needless to say: No alcohol, no other drugs and no sex:-)), we were ready to have a beer (or two) along with some funky music and possibly a smoke or something similar:-). So Lisa, Alex, Jonas and I decided to stop over at a major beach resort (not that we like that) on the way to Bangkok, since each of us had either a train to catch, a friend to meet ... read more