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Published: September 12th 2006
We decided on a grand plan for the rest of Asia. It took a lot of discussion and debate at the time. There was talk of seeing Central Thailand, Koh Samet and Koh Chang, stopping off at Coral Bungalows for a few days, then a week or two in the Perenthian Islands in Malaysia, however as more drinks flowed we managed to whittle it down to a day trip in Kanchanburi, then directly to Coral for a few more legendary Haad Rin parties with a view to heading down to Malaysia at the end of the trip. Rich James and I set about booking our mini bus back to Chiang Mai then catching a sleeper train direct to Bangkok where we would stop briefly and hop over to Kanchanaburi. We said our worried goodbyes to Deano and left him at the mercy of Cake, then began our 3 hour journey.
Rich had already decided to hang around in Chiang Mai to have his stitches out, so on arrival James and I wasted no time in booking our train tickets for that same evening. 7 o’clock rolled round and it was time to leave North Thailand. We did feel sorrow
in doing so, just due to the difference in atmosphere between to two regions. North Thailand in general is a lot more relaxed than the South in a lot of senses. Not sure of the reasons for this, maybe because it is a lot more remote; or doesn’t have such worldwide exposure to tourism; or (and probably more likely) it is the type of person that would visit the North. The south always attracts party-goers - people who want to get as drunk as possible, as quickly as possible, whereas the North is a lot more cultural and attracts the kind of people who respect this culture a lot more. For this reason the locals reciprocate that respect making them noticeably more approachable and willing to help.
We armed ourselves with numerous bottles of Chang and set off. By coincidence we bumped into Anne-Sophie and Maria (the two German girls from Pai) and therefore spent most of the journey getting drunk with them and keeping the rest of the carriage up all night by howling away in a drunken attempt at accompanying James’ guitar playing!
On arrival in Bangkok we said our goodbyes to the girls and loosely
arranged to meet up again on Koh Phangan after their trip to Koh Samet. A short taxi ride later and we were back on Khao San Road, booking into our usual - The Kawin Place Guesthouse. It felt quite strange being back in Bangkok. As it was the third time we had been there nothing really surprised us. Even tuk tuk drivers wouldn’t really bother us too much as they could see that we had shed that bewildered and slightly lost look of a new arrival and no longer saw us as an easy target. In a strange kind of way it was like coming home as it was the only place in Asia that we had visited more than once. Bangkok is the hub of South East Asia and it is almost impossible to travel the region without passing through there at some point.
The main reason for stopping in Bangkok overnight was that we wanted to take a day to visit Kanchanaburi, or more specifically: The Bridge on the River Quai and Tiger Temple. After a brief shop around all of the local travel agents we eventually settled on a price of 500 baht (just under a
tenner) for the day trip. The minibus was due to pick us up at 6am and drop us back at 6.30pm, so because we didn’t want to stay in Bangkok any longer than we needed, we put an insane amount of faith in Thai timekeeping, checked out of our hostel, arranged to leave our backpacks at the travel agent’s office and booked ourselves a train for 7.30pm direct to Surratthani and on to Koh Phangan.
Decided to have an early one that evening, which as we all know by now, is nearly impossible in Thailand, and ended up getting drunk on Chang towers and Sangsom and watching James eat various deep fried insects. Before we knew it 6am was upon us so we staggered to our meeting point, James still prizing deep fried legs and antennae from between his teeth. Slightly hungover and very tired we were praying for a reasonably quiet 2 hour journey in order to catch a few Z’s. At first this seemed quite possible due to the subdued morning faces that joined us, however there is always one isn’t there? The ‘one’ on this occasion was a 60 year old retired American truck-driver along with
his mail-order Vietnamese bride, who took great pleasure spending most of the day illustrating how great his new camera was by showing me photographs of a DIY fence in various different stages of construction that he and his son were building in his back garden……thank god for ipods!!! Crazy yanks aside, the journey was steadily uneventful.
Before telling you about the rest of the day’s events I should first outline a bit of history behind the town of Kanchanaburi. During World War II the town was the site of a Japanese POW camp and is where you will find the infamous ‘Bridge on the River Quai’. During the war, the Japanese decided to build 415km of railway in order to link Yangon on Burma with Bangkok in Thailand to allow the easy transportation of military supplies. To achieve this plan they drafted in thousands of Allied, Burmese and Malay prisoners of war as a combined workforce to complete the project. The working conditions were horrendous and the railway is now known as ‘The Death Railway’ due to the 100,000 lives claimed by its construction.
Our first stop was the Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery. This cemetery was given by
the Thai people in remembrance of the thousands of POWs that died there, the majority of which were British and Dutch. The cemetery was a beautifully peaceful place. This atmosphere was however somewhat tarnished by the atrocities commemorated by its presence. It was a powerful place for quiet reflection and bewilderment at how ruthless and brutal people can be when it comes to power. Reminders of this sort were becoming all too common in this part of the world and were really making me consider how lucky I am.
Unfortunately this tranquility and my deep train of thought were rudely interrupted by the squawking sound of our guide’s voice, who was trying to usher us back to the minibus and onto our next stop. A 5 minute drive deposited us at ‘The Bridge on the River Quai’, made epically famous by the film of the same name. To be totally honest, the bridge itself is really just a bridge over a river (and not even very architecturally interesting at that); however it is all about the history behind its construction. Apparently engineers estimated that the bridge would take around 5 years to build, however the prisoners were forced to
complete its construction in 16 months, paying the price of a massive loss of life.
Next we took a 10 minute train ride along the Death Railway which was reasonably uneventful. A lot of the route was carved into the side of a mountain and unfortunately we sat on the side of the train that looked up the side of the mountain as opposed to down and out across the valley. This meant that the only view we really got was of rocks and bushes and I spent most of the journey trying to dodge a snagging from rogue branches whipping at me as we passed. We decided to amuse ourselves by chatting to an old Kiwi couple that was sitting opposite us. After they found out that we were off to Australia, they took great pleasure in spending most of the journey telling us that “the only problem with Australia is that there are too many bloody Australians there!” hilarious!!
Next up was Nam Tok Erawan (or Erawan falls). This is a multi-tiered waterfall just outside Kanchanaburi. I would certainly recommend it if you are in the area, there are a number of pools to swim
in and it is a very picturesque place. Unfortunately most of my time was spent trying to avoid the retired truckie and his camera. The point that I decided enough was enough was when he began telling me that when you flick through the photos on screen it actually slides the image off one side making it look like you are actually flicking through a pile of real photographs! I know he was happy with his new camera, bless him, but that was too much!
The final stop was the main reason that we did the trip and was set to be the highlight of the day. It was Tiger Temple. Unfortunately for me this turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax. Now when I heard the name ‘Tiger Temple’ and was told that there are Buddhist monks who have reared Tigers from cubs, I had visions of this amazing temple complex where monks and tigers roamed freely together in a spiritual Buddhist harmony. This wasn’t really the case. On arrival we saw that there was no sign of a temple complex and we began walking through what looked more like a nature reserve with the occasional
wild boar or deer roaming around. At this point I was still a little apprehensive as it seemed that the tigers were left to roam free in their wild habitat and hunt their own prey, meaning that at any point one could jump out from behind a bush and take an arm for a quick snack!
We then saw a sign for a place called ‘Tiger Canyon’. Still not sure what to expect, we cautiously made our way down into what looked like a small quarry that snaked its way deeper into the ground. At the bottom was a group of people queuing at the edge of a cordoned off area containing around 15 fully grown live tigers. As we drew nearer I could see that you queued up, waited for a guide to lead you around, while another followed with your camera and took pictures of you stroking the tigers. From a distance it all looked pretty crazy, however on closer inspection it was apparent that the tigers may as well have been asleep! They were all chained to the ground with their heads slumped over a concrete bowl that I can only assume was filled with Opium,
or some form of tranquiliser. Now obviously I understand that they have to enforce some kind of safety procedures, but I just felt it was a bit of a cop out, not to mention a little cruel to the tigers.
We did the walk and got the pictures nonetheless and to be honest it was still a little bit dodgy in places. At one point I was stroking one of the tigers when another one about 2 metres away had a sudden burst of energy, sitting up and snarling loudly before being accosted by one or two of the monks (probably with syringes hidden under their robes!). As you can see from the photo, this put me a little on edge! The pictures were great, but I must admit that I was a little pissed off as the cretin of a guide who was taking pictures of me obviously didn’t know how to use a camera and blurred every shot!
We made our way back to the mini bus and began our journey back to Bangkok and our train to Surratthani. Surprisingly enough we made into the city in plenty of time, picked up our bags and caught
a taxi to the train station with no major hitches. Once again we bought a couple of beers to help send us off to sleep and for the 3rd time in 4 months said our goodbyes to Bangkok.
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Aunty Jane
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Why didn't James share the scorpion with you? Very bad manners. Despite the unkind enviroment, the Tigers look healthy and wow aren't they magnificent.