Southeast Asia

Alarm went at 6:30 this morning so that I could get ready eat breakfast and leave by 7:10. Got a taxi to the southern bus terminal on the other side of town for only 100B. Had no problems finding the correct bus to Kanchanaburi and I was on it by 8:00. Of course the bus didn’t leave until 8:40 and the next 40 minutes were spend with people walking up and down the aisles trying to sell lollies, drinks and magazines while being forced to watch a terribly bad Asian soap opera. My taxi driver had offered to drive me to Kanchanaburi for 2000B (US$60) but the bus only ended up costing 78B (US$2.5). It was clearly a public bus because we stopped at least 40 times on the 3 hr ride and at one stage it was so packed we made sardines look like they have legroom. I was surprised that in the whole 3 hr drive we never really left the city. The density of houses and shops decreased, but thee were never areas of wide open spaces or anything. Every minute or so the driver would honk the horn at the up coming bus stop to see if anyone wanted to flag him down, in doing so he would slow down just enough so he could stop if necessary but if no one was waiting he’d hit the pedal and we’d take off again, this made for a very bumpy and noisy ride.

Arriving at Kanchanaburi I went to the TAT office and got a map and directions to the tiger temple before visiting the bathroom. Today was my first experience with squat toilets, it could have been worse I suppose, it was really quite clean. The bus from Kanchanaburi to the tiger monastery was 25B, had no air con and was packed solid. The drive took over an hour and the bus driver beeped the horn at anyone walking along the road in the hope to pick up an extra fare. I was very impressed with myself for spotting the stop to get off and telling the other 8 tourists on the bus to get off. Maybe I’m not a completely incompetent traveler. The walk to the monastery was 2km. Entry to see the tigers was 300B, but I donated an additional 500B. The tigers were amazing and so beautiful; I couldn’t believe how docile they were. Was talking to a guy who worked at Florida zoo and he was shocked that people were allowed so close to such dangerous animals and yet there had never been a serious injury. I took heaps of photos.

Took the 2 km walk back to the road and was waiting for a bus when a couple I had been talking to at the monastery offered me a lift back to town. He was European but he lives in Thailand with his wife and they visit the monastery regularly to donate money. We spoke for quite a while about the Tiger Foundation and all the work they are putting into building the new enclosure. They dropped me off at the Kwai River Bridge. The bridge, which was a strategic part of the death railway to Burma and attacked and rebuilt during WWII, was swarming with tourists (ironically many of the Japanese). There were also young boys jumping off into the water. I walked the bridge and part of the railway and took a few photos.

Next I went to the Jeath War museum to get a bit more background info on the bridge. It was a good museum, however they were renovating and many things were poorly labeled. Grabbed a motorbike taxi back to the bus station which was heaps of fun.

The bus back to BKK was only 62B, had far less people and only took 2 hours. I was however subjected to watching the drivers choice in TV which happened to be Thai stand up comedy. Of all the things to watch in a foreign language stand up is the worst because you have no idea what’s going on, but all of a sudden its extremely funny and the old Thai man in the seat next to you is elbowing you as he laughs. The driver obviously loved it too because he kept taking his eyes off the road to watch it. Noticed driving into BKK that all the fairy lights were gone, pity because they added a lot of atmosphere to the city.

When I finally got back to the hostel at 9:00 I went and got dinner with Dave and Derek, then we all stayed up drinking until 2:30, met another Aussie girl traveling with her father, they had just come from India. When I finally went to bed I died of exhaustion.

PS: give me a break on the typing, this is an Asian keyboard and I’m trying to do it in the least possible time so as not to be charged a fortune in this very expensive internet café.
PPS: I have not worn high heels for a whole week. I don’t think I’ve done that since I was about 12.

Tags: Thailand

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