A Very Spearie Family Holiday Part 2

After the monstrous heat and craziness of Bangkok, Kanchanaburi was a welcome respite. We got to the town by late morning and had lunch at a restaurant on the Kwai River. We could make out the steel frame of the bridge over the river kwai. After lunch, we went to the JEATH World War II museum. JEATH stands for Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand and Holland. These were the nationalities of people who were at the Thai front during WWII. This museum was perfectly Thai in that it was not very organized and seeme to be a hodge-podge of materials. Some of the exhibits included a hospital for POWs and a mural depicting the day the bridge was bombed. For some reason, there was also a room with lots of Thai Buddhist sayings such as "To judge an elephant by its mother" (meaning you should judge a woman by her mother) and "To teach a fish how to swim" (trying to teach someone something they already know). Then we went to the actual bridge and walked across it. It was much smaller and simpler than I thought it would be.

We stopped at the Hellfire Pass museum. This museum resembled western museums since it was funded by the Australian government. For those of you who don't know the history, the Japanese needed a railroad to send supplies across Asia (since sea travel was too dangerous and slow). The Japanese forced Australian, British, Dutch and American POWs to work terribly backbreaking hours building this railroad under poor conditions. They also hired on Thai and other Asian workers to complete the work faster. These workers were treated the same as the POWs and were paid very little. Sometimes local Thai people would try to help the POWs by slipping them food and supplies. Many people died in this process. Hellfire Pass was a particularly difficult stretch of land as they had to chisel through a mountain. We walked along the actual pass. It was very sad, but i was touched by the memorials there.

In the afternoon we went to the amazing Tiger Temple. This is a temple where the monks had taken in many sick and stray animals. Someone brought them a sick tiger cub. Kanchanaburi is very close to the border with Myanmar so there is still a lot of jungle and wildlife. Eventually the monks had taken in so many tigers and other animals that they turned it into a wildlife habitat. The place didn't really resemble a temple at all but just looked like a forest with lots of birds, wild pigs, horses, water buffalo and cows running around. In the afternoon, people are allowed to take pictures with the tigers. I asked someone why the tigers did not seem bothered by the crowds of people (i was worried that perhaps they were drugged). The worker (an American volunteer) explained that the tigers are exercised all morning and then are fed just before they let the visitors in. They also do the photos during the hottest part of the day so the tigers are very lazy at that time. It's amazing to see how well the tigers respond to their monk caretakers. We got to spend a bit of time with two little baby tiger cubs. They were so cute. After the photos were finished, the caretakers walked the tigers to their cages and then they fed all the other animals in the place. Basically they just threw tons of food in the middle of the road. The animals must have been expecting it because they all came flocking and there were some scuffles over food. It was truly a feeding frenzy. Unfortunately i don't have too many pictures from this trip because i was using mom's camera. Hopefully she will send me the pics and i will get them up on her. It was quite an amazing experience.

We realized that our hotel was 70 kilometers outside of town. Woops! It didn't mention that fact on the website. But it ended up being for the best because our hotel was very near to some hot springs. That night was went to the hot spring for a little dip. It was located right next to a river so you could do a cold plunge. All the local people (who bathe there everyday) were quite intrigued by the big farangs. Everyone was friendly and it was a nice way to end the day. We went back to our "jungle" hotel to have dinner. It was literally in the jungle and the scenery around was very beautiful. Ryan, Otto and I stayed up having drinks and playing cards.

The next day we went to Erawan Waterfalls. This is a very famous series of waterfalls. There are actually 7 levels. At the first level we had fun climbed a tree and jumping into the lagoon beneath the fall. The second level looked beautiful but we thought it odd that none of the Thai people were in the water. We jumped in and realized right away what the problem were. The pond was filled with these fish that bite your toes. We all screamed and joked. It didn't really hurt but it was quite surprising. The Thai grandma nearby just laughed and laughed at us. The third level was once again full of those fish but we braved them in order to go out to the fall. There was a little niche behind the fall where we sat. Only Ryan, Ot and I made it up to the fourth fall. To see each fall, you had to climb higher and higher and everyone was getting tired by that time. The fourth fall had a rock slider, which is a natural slide made out of a rock. It was very exhilarating to slide down it and i was glad that ryan got to have such an experience. Kanchanaburi was probably the highlight of the trip for me because it reminded me so much of the north. It was in the middle of mountains and there were so many interesting natural sites as well as historical sites. Otto and I hope to go back there again soon.

The Spearie family in from of the jungle resort:


Mom and Dad at the top of Hellfire Pass: