BANGKOK Pt2

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Wednesday 19th January

Our last day in bangkok is shaping up to be a good one.
An early pick up from the hostel followed by a trip to nearby China Town where we picked up more passengers. Another stop and another few people and its not long before we are leaving the city in the 12 seater minibus.

Our journey takes us about 100km West towards Amphoe Damnoen Saduak which is a floating market around the town of Damnoen.
The central town is most famous because of its floating market held every day till noon on a khlong (canal). However as it has become a prime tourist attraction of the Bangkok vicinity the market has lost its authenticity.

Our guide leads us off the bus and onto a waiting long tail boat which takes us in groups of four along the Khlong Damnoen Saduak, which connects the Tha Chin River with the Mae Klong River. Its a strange sensation speeding along the canal towards the markets as we are actually passing by residential areas and people are out doing their chores like washing and cleaning as we merrily sail by.
Its not long before we pass the 'Damnoen Saduak - Floating Market' sign. We enter along side a jetty where we clambered off the boat and walked nearer to the market areas. Once in the thick of it you can either walk around the indoor markets or pay £3 to hop on a paddled boat for the hour for a closer experience.
We wasted no time a took the boat trip which was great fun as you are instantly caught up in the jam of boats, sometimes 4 abreast, across the narrow canals. The sights, sounds and smells are what its all about here. People haggling for cheap nik naks, vendors playing little instruments to attract your attention and the smell of incense in the air all adds to the flavour of the market.
The boats are constantly bumping into each other and its very important to keep your hands inside the boat as your being paddled along. We passed under a couple of footbridges and theres some crafty sellers under there who'll jam the boat to give them that extra few minutes of punting time!
Locals are sitting in their boats eating lunch or chatting with friends and are totally oblivious to the chaos around them.
We left the busier part of the market and circled back to our starting point passing some very nice stalls and shops on the way. They are selling wooden and metal crafts and there's some real nice stuff on offer like handwoven clothes and hand sewn fabrics.
We grabbed lunch from a small paddled boat as it drifted by and it was really fine but we were wary as the bellies gave a couple of groans not long after. We survived to tell the tale and were soon back on dry land.

We hopped back on the bus and travelled a couple of miles down the road to the Saduak wood carvers factory which was pretty cool! There's locals sitting about carving intricate designs of pictures, sculptures and furniture. We walked around the factory and around the shop and its quite a spectacle seeing some of the furniture that they have in there. It was a brief visit to the wood factory and it was not scheduled in our tour so we're not sure how we ended up there to begin with.
We travelled another hour and stopped for lunch at a canteen type restaurant where we got our free lunch of various stir fries and rice. You can tell why its free as it was total rubbish not to mention there was barely enough to feed a family of four let alone the ten of us that sat down. Thank god we ate at the floating market!

We have driven another short distance and have arrived at Kanchanaburi where the River Kwai flows past and its near here the famous film is based apon.
We entered the museum and were shown the remains of the old bridge and various artefacts. There's lots of information on the significance of the Kwai bridge.
In 1943 thousands of Allied Prisoners of War and Asian labourers worked on the Death Railway under the Japanese army in order to construct part of the 415 km long Burma-Thailand railway. This railway was intended to move men and supplies to the Burmese front where the Japanese were fighting the British.
The prisoners lived in squalor with a near starvation diet. They were subjected to captor brutality and thus thousands perished. The men worked from dawn until after dark and often had to trudge many kilometres through the jungle to return to base camp where Allied doctors tended the injured and diseased.

We walked around the war museum and then onto the bridge itself whilst whistling the song from the film. I was whistling while getting jabbed in the ribs from Jill as she's telling me to hush! You cant help yourself...trust me. 😊
You can either cross the bridge on foot or by train which crosses every fifteen minutes. The train track stops on the other side as the bridge is no longer in use commercially so its a quick walk over and back.

We stopped and had our photo's taken with a baby leopard beside our bus stop which was a vicious little bugger. We got to hold her while she fed on a milk bottle while the mother leopard was sleeping next to us. A nice wee bonus to get us warmed up for the big cats later on!

Our bus tour guide comes and collects us all and we're whisked back into the van and off to the tiger temple just down the road.

We are still in Kanchanaburi area when we stop at the Tiger Canyon where the Tiger Temple compound is. We're not sure what to expect as we know that this place allegedly has a bit of a reputation for mishandling tigers and dealing in the trading of them so we venture in with open minds.

We walk through forest tracks and eventually arrive at the Tiger Canyon where a guide explains some rules to us and what our options are etc. We opt to get up close to the tigers for photos so one by one we are led into the tiger canyon.
The tiger canyon has about a dozen or more tigers tied to poles or being held with handlers. The excitment builds up as your are led through them towards the photo stops. Some tigers are fast asleep and are maybe drugged or full after a good feed as they are fast asleep where as others are a bit more perky but pose no threat.
The tigers look very healthy and under no stress, so far!
My handler takes me around most of the tigers for photos and it appears that none of the tigers show signs of being mistreated which is good. But its sad we are exploiting them this way and I am a bit hypocritical saying that as I am here as a paying tourist.
Once Im done with my photo's its Jills turn and its not long before we are both heading off out the canyon and around to the younger tigers enclosures round the back. We see Bhuddist monks fully clothed in orange sattire walking tigers on leads about the place and its now that we see the discipline that's installed into these beast at an early age.
There's a Buddha being rough with an young energetic tiger as he's poking the tiger with a stick to keep him pinned to the floor as people walk by. We passed a little hut which had three little tiny tiger cubs in there and they were really cute but far to young to be away from their mother.
I have heard that illegal trade goes on with tigers in Thailand, i.e they swap older tigers for younger ones once they have fulfilled their usefulness which is sad if true.
Curiosity brought us here and we had to see for ourselves what this place is all about and we're still in two minds whether its a good thing to keep tigers safe in this way or let them be hunted out in the wild. In a way its not any different from a zoo/circus so bear this in mind before you visit.
We got our photo taken with a older and very large tiger and her monk handler before setting off through the woods towards the car park. We passed lots of cows, buffaloes, antelopes and wild boars on our way out, so now we know what they feed the tigers with.

Its a long haul back home to Bangkok that evening and we manage to sleep most of the way until we were woken by the sounds of tuk tuk engines passing us by. We've arrived in Bangkok! We headed into Patpong later for dinner before heading home to pack our bags for the flight to Singapore in the morning. We will be back in Bangkok before we head home and I'll look forward to coming back.

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