My trip was wonderful – stunning scenery, clean air, lots of history, interesting people, and not thinking about work… Just what I needed!
After getting up before the sun had come up (5:30!) and traveling for 1hr across the city, I boarded the bus headed for Kanchanaburi. Our 1st stop was a cemetery, built to commemorate the Prisoners of War who died building the Death Railway (see my previous post). I knew that it would be sad, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale of the tragedy or how much it would upset me. Over a period of just 20 months, 13,000 British, Australian & Dutch PoWs and 90,000 Asian civilians died from sickness, starvation or working accidents. That’s over 160 ppl PER DAY – just try to imagine that for a moment…
In the particular cemetery that we visited there were 6,500 graves. The youngest person was just 20. It was especially moving to see how from the gravestones how - even when experiencing such deep grief - the families of the dead were so resolute in both their religious faith, and their belief that there sons, brothers & fathers had not died in vain, sacrificing themselves for the freedom of others so far away. As one in our group later asked, what would these families say now if they could see the mistakes of the past being repeated, and reported each night on BBC News, as we do…?
Next stop was a museum, built next to the remains of the original ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’. Again there was plenty to read and plenty to reflect on, including an account from a Japanese General, one of the supervisors of the project, describing how difficult it was to carry out orders that you knew were so terrible, while knowing also that if you refused your family would be kidnapped and assets frozen. Always interesting to see such a terrible situation from another perspective…
I got chatting with another English guy here, and we ended up being late back to the bus - which meant that our group then missed our train! As a result we had to stand at the station for one hour to wait for the next one (I decided at this point that silence was the most sensible strategy…!) When the train did arrive it was absolutely PACKED with Thai tourists from Bangkok, it was amazing we found space for our group! This train runs on the original Death Railway. After 45mins of bouncing up and down as if we were on a roller coaster, the train stopped at a station and never moved again (we never really found out why, but certainly our guide was not expecting it!) So then we were back out in the midday sun, waiting 20mins for a 2nd train to rescue us!
Next we had lunch at the Elephant Camp that was to be our base for the next 12hrs. The bedrooms and dining room were actually on board a raft, floating in the river. At 1st I was worried that I would spend the whole day feeling sea-sick, but I did eventually get used to it…
Then we went to visit a waterfall. Again it was packed with tourists, so I decided to go to the top of the falls, 800m further up the road. It was really nice to be on my own in the jungle, and to bathe in a stream that was all mine to share with a group of 6-year old Thai children :)
After 4:30 we were free for the evening, to relax in the camp. Because there were several trips all based around the same camp – all with different itineraries sold by different shops, lasting anything from 1-3 days – I had seen about 50 different ppl during that day, and sat next to a different person every time I got back on the bus! We commented several times that it was a miracle we all ended up in the right place at the right time, with no-one being left behind!
There were only 10 of us staying over on Saturday night – 7 English, 1 Dutch and 2 from the US. Needless to say the beer was flowing in no time at all :) We had lots of laughs, good food and interesting conversation. I was actually the only one living in Thailand – of the others, 4 were just on short trips and 5 were planning to travel all around Asia. It was a very special atmosphere to have so many ‘nomads’ together, and to hear their stories and their future plans. And then I realised, this has to be my next step. So I think next summer, when my work here is done, I will take a few months to explore this fascinating continent.
ON Sunday morning we were woken at 7 (some in the group wanted to help washing the elephants in the river – I decided that bathing in elephant poo and the sewage from the camp was something where I could pass!) They seemed to enjoy it though, once they had showered for quite a while. And of course the elephants thought it was great to have someone new scrubbing their back…
Sunday’s activities were ‘rafting’ (I use the inverted commas because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea – there was no white-water, no rapids, no lifejackets and certainly no getting wet; there was a 4m x 2m floating platform made of bamboo, with seats for 10ppl and a roof to cover us from the midday sun, plus our guide who was the only person with a paddle!) and elephant trekking. This was lots of fun, though very unnerving at 1st to be so far off the ground. In case you don’t realise how big an elephant is – it’s BIIIIGGGGG!!! Also, although it may sound obvious, I never imagined how much an elephant’s shoulders would move up and down when it walks – like pistons in an engine. That is, I never realised until I was sitting on those shoulders!
After that we were back on the bus, and by 6pm I was back in BKK – back among the traffic, the street vendors and the annoying tuk-tuk drivers. It was just as though I never left! But inside I knew I would not forget the railway, the elephants or the travellers.
