Kanchanaburi

I've been in Thailand for a week now! After several days exploring the city, it felt like it was time to head out and see somewhere else. The destination was Kanchanaburi, a city about two hours (without traffic) west of Bangkok by van. Apparently these vans have a tendency to make frequent stops for gas, snacks, or random errands, but we made great time. We were at the hostel with time to spare before watching the sunset. The Jolly Frog Backpackers Hostel was definitely a budget hostel, but it was relatively clean and right on the river with a great restaurant and lots of space. And cats. An absurd number of cats. Cutest form of pest control.

The next day we ventured out to Erawan National Park to see some waterfalls. The park is about an hour outside of the city by bus. It had amazing blue water, similar to the falls on the Havasupai Native American Reservation in Arizona. These were not quite as tall, and much closer together. And they definitely had fish in them. These fish were not afraid to nibble at your toes or feet. It's one of the more bizarre feelings in the world.

After dinner on Tuesday, we wandered out to the road with most of the backpackers bars. We found some live reggae to listen to. Reggae in Thai is pretty cool.

On Wednesday, we headed up the river 2 km to a famous railway bridge called the Bridge over the River Kwai. This is a section of the 258 mile roadway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma that Japan built during World War II. The labor used to create this railway consisted of Asian civilians and Allied POWs. About 90,000 laborers and 12,000 POWs died during its construction due to sickness, maltreatment and starvation. This specific bridge is famous because a fictional book was written (and later adapted to film) about the construction of this bridge. The book received criticism because it simply does not portray the conditions as horribly as they actually were.

In addition to the bridge, there is a very beautiful and relatively new (as far as I could tell) Chinese temple on the river. It was incredibly peaceful to walk around. The temple was colorful and so well cared for. This past week I have been reading Buddha by Karen Armstrong. It is a somewhat biography of Siddhatta Gotama and a very good introduction to Buddhism. If anyone else has read it, I would love to hear your thoughts. A majority of Thais are Buddhist, and it has been very helpful to have at least a beginners knowledge of the philosophy.

It started raining soon after we got back to the hostel, so we spent the evening hanging out at the hostel. After a much slower van ride today, I arrived back in Bangkok just ahead of the afternoon rain.

Sorry, I had to.