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Published: March 22nd 2014
Friday I took my first tuktuk ride from the guest house to the sky train saving me a ten min walk. It's amazing where vehicles squeeze thru in the narrow allies. I made it to the mini bus rendezvous with time to spare then waited another 30 mins to be picked up and taken by taxi half way across town to the mini bus. Wow, taxis are very cheap.
Saturday I'm eating breakfast, a tasty soup with rice and probably ground pork, looking across a small canal to a field of sugar cane and the rugged hills beyond. One man is cutting cane by hand. I think all the cane is cut by hand. They were loading it into the trucks late into the night last night.
The other cutters are now returning to work. Some of the fields are burnt but not this one. The countryside is flat, typical cane country and that is the major crop. I first noticed the trucks, loaded to overflowing, then the cutting by hand. It's terrible, hot work and slow. But the knives are sharp. They trim the stalks into one pile and push the rubbish into another. No one
works fast.
I'd booked this place over the net. It didn't have any reviews so I had no idea what to expect. It's very rural and about 10 kms from town. And I'm the only guest. But they are really looking after me. The owner will take me to the sites in his car. He also plays guitar and sings at the bars in town. Last night I had a private show.
The resort is an eclectic mix of cabins set around a pool. Flower petals float on the slightly cloudy water. I spent the afternoon reading beside the pool between taking dips. When I first arrived in BKK, my throat started feeling funny. It gradually became sore and now I have a husky voice. So this is a much nicer place to relax. I can use the push bike (I'll see how energetic I feel) and a motorbike but I don't think I'll chance that.
Last night loud music and bad singing came from the nearby houses. They told me it was a ceremony for monk enlistment (all families want a monk in the family; it gives them brownie points). It lasted till late and started
the evening view
the lights are for the workers in the cane fields loading cane onto trucksagain early this morning. There are also how to vote cars travelling around the districts carrying posters of the candidates and attracting attention with loud music and talk.
Now we are trying to organise site seeing.
Sunday
Well, mine host's car had a problem so he organised other transport for me to visit the local sites. It was an old van with no back or sides. Bench seats down the sides facing each other. I later discovered that this is a common form of tourist transportation. The old driver spoke no English, had half his teeth missing and had really bad nails. Sitting in his cab with the windows down was probably warmer than outside and it was a dripping with sweat kind of day. The front dash had numerous objects glued to it. Several tiny buddhas, 2 cups of liquid, no tops and hanging from the mirror were flags and a box containing some religious object, a golden, high-prowed canoe, which he would steady if we hit a bump in the road. He appeared to find the weather cool as he wore trousers and a light jacket.
We headed back
toward BKK to a temple on a hill; the sign said Wat Nangno but the maps say Wat Tham Khao Noi. I was pleasantly surprised. I climbed the pagoda; I think I was the only one to do that, but was rewarded with fabulous views of the river one side and paddy fields the other. There was a long stair case up to the temple but that was quite interesting also.
The next temple, not too far away, had a huge magnificent dragon coming down the hill but by then I couldn't be bothered.
The cemeteries are quite lovely. Each burial plot is a grassy mound with a curvy low wall cut into the front side. The drive back to town was along the river. Sounds nice but I was trying not to stick to the seat.
The war cemetery in town holds about 6000 of the prisoners who died building the railway. There is also a small museum by the river. Next came the bridge made famous by the film which had fantasy mixed with fact. The film was taken from a book by the same name but the author made a mistake with the name
wife and child
the little girls loves looking at photos on the phone of the river. To fix that problem when hordes of tourists began flocking to the site, the Thais changed the name of the river to Big Kwae. While the Kwae R was renamed to Little Kwai. The little Kwai runs into the big Kwai near the bridge site.
I was so happy to get back and into the pool. The evenings are reasonably cool especially if there a fan blowing the air around. I think the geckos get all the bugs because there are almost none.
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