Peace and Nature in Kanchanaburi

First some images from Bangkok that we didn't get up on the last blog. I promise, no more snakes...

The beginning of our short-lived Amazing Race competition with my parents. Negotiating hard with the tuk-tuk drivers. Everyone who comes to Bangkok has to go on at least one tuk-tuk ride.


One of the many wats you can visit around the city. We find them almost too gaudy, and sad to say, we quickly became wat'd and buddha'd out....not very nice, I know...


A look down at typical Bangkok traffic from the safety of a pedestrian overpass:


Dad negotiating the traffic without the luxury of a pedestrian overpass. Is that a smile, or a cry for help?


We spent the last three days away from the noise, grit and grime of Bangkok in a smaller town about 2 hours northwest of the city called Kanchanaburi. There is a lot of history in this city as the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai is located here. One of the many horror stories from WWII happened in this region of Thailand. The Japanese used thousands of POW's (mostly Dutch, Australian and British) and 10 times as many forced local laborers from Thailand, Indonesia, India and Burma to construct a railway from Kanchanaburi to Burma (Myanmar) in order to ferry supplies. They built this railway through treacherous terrain in an amazingly short time, not giving any concern to the well-being of the people working on it. Needless to say there were huge casualties. All told, I think 100,000 men died working on the railroad while suffering miserable conditions - malnourishment, inadequate medical supplies, and abuse. We visited a very nice museum right in town that was quite informative and very well done.

The bridge itself is significant because it was repeatedly bombed by the allies, only to be rebuilt by their own men several times over! War is crazy.

We found a lovely place to stay that was the exact opposite of our lodging on Khao San Road. Stand alone bungalows built in an African theme, a swimming pool, free billiards, tv room with satellite tv (aka BBC news!), a nice outdoor spacious restaurant, and most of all quiet nights! All for only 300 bahts - that's 120 bahts less than in our techno-thumping dive in Bangkok! We spent the first day just chilling out by the pool, rented motorbikes and checked out the town and all the war memorials.

Our quiet, spacious, although slightly dusty hut:


Ahhhh. A pool. No other words necessary.


The next full day we each rented motorbikes and rode out to Erawan National Park (60 km away! Yikes, that was a long ride). But the park was beautiful. The major attraction is the 7-tiered waterfall. You get to the seven steps over 2200 m of trail, but the way the advertisements read, they make it sound like the 7 falls fall over 2200 vertical meters! Thank goodness it was the former. Beautiful falls, turquoise waters, and refreshing pools for swimming despite the pesky biting trout.


Sometimes the translations here in Thailand are missing some key letters.


And sometimes no translation or words are necessary.


We just picked up our visas to Vietnam, and fly out to Hanoi tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM. The visa situation changed our originally planned route a little bit, but we are excited for a new country. So next posting from the northern reaches of Vietnam!

Oh yeah, I got a haircut.....