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Published: March 5th 2009
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Phra Pathom Chedi
The second largest pagoda in Thailand Hello! I am just back from an excellent two day trip to the Kanchanburi area of Thailand. I had a great guide named Rachet and it was just me on the trip so I could ask all the questions I wanted.
Our first stop was at the Phra Pathom Chedi, the second largest pagoda in Thailand. It is 120 feet high and currently undergoing a major restoration so it's entirely encased in scaffolding.
We then went to the JEATH (Japan, England, Australia and America, Thailand, and Holland) War Museum which documents a bit about the history of the Thai-Burma Railway, better known as the Death Railway. The railway was built by Allied POWs and Asian laborers under the Japanese in 1942 and 1943. Over 12,800 Allied POWs and approximately 90,000 Asian laborers died during its construction. It was an amazing engineering feat, but at an unthinkable cost of human life. We also visited the Kanchanburi WWII Cemetery where over 6,000 Australian, English, and Dutch soldiers are buried. During the trip we went to see several bridges over the River Kwae (Quay, not Kwai like the movie title) or its tributaries. There's one wooden bride that you can see and
walk along the tracks of as well as the more famous steel bridge that you can walk all the way across. There were over 40 bridges along the railway and many were destroyed at least once by Allied bombs. The steel bridge in the photo is one of these and the middle (non-curved) sections were given to the Thais by the Japanese as part of their war reparations in order to repair the railway to working order after the war. We also saw Hellfire Pass named for the horrific working conditions the prisoners and laborers were forced to endure as they carved a pass out of a jungle covered mountain. The scenery is so beautiful along the railway and it's difficult and confusing to admire at it while thinking of what happened along the route during the war.
We saw quite a bit of wildlife on the trip, starting at the Saiyok Elephant Park where you can ride on an elephant and sometimes ever pilot one solo! I had a 45 year old mother with a one year old baby. The driver had me climb onto her neck for over half the trip. He took my camera and climbed
off! He then took about 30 photos and asked for 200 bhat (~$7) to give the camera back, 100 for the mother and 100 for the baby. It was fun, but at one point the mother sneezed and there was a back spray of elephant snot that got all over my pink shirt. After the ride there was an elephant demo and a chance to feed the elephants. You give them money in their trunk and they walk over to a stall and buy what they want, either a bottle of soy milk or some fruit. They then walk back to you, hand over the food, and open wide.
We stopped at one spot along the way where there are dozens of monkeys who come to be fed and photographed by the tourists. You can buy bananas and peanuts to hand to them. There were several babies that we soooo cute! There was also one very pregnant female who looked like she was ready to pop at any second.
This afternoon we went to the Wat Pa Luangsta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery which is better known as the Tiger Temple. They have over 20 adult tigers, several juveniles,
and at least four tiger cubs that you can get very close to and even pet. They are cared for by the monks and the cubs will be released into the wild when they are ready. There's debate over whether the tigers are being exploiyed, but they seem to be well fed and cared for. Per Ratchet, there's really no where in Thailand to release them safely. Most have come from the Thai-Burma border area after being rescued from poachers.
I am off to Koh Sumai in the morning for a long weekend at the beach!
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