Having been in Bangkok for about 5 days, I would say its a frenetic city, where east meets west. What i've loved about the stay in the city is everyone is friendly and welcoming, I know its a cliche, but its true. The people who live here are happy enjoying all trappings of big city life, bars, great shopping, good transportation, decent wages. However their lives still revolve around their Buddhist religion, there are temples and small shrines everywhere.
Its a great big melting pot, everyone just rubs along fine, getting on with their busy lives. Having been here by myself for most of the time, I have not once felt uncomfortable or threatened. Certainly females travelling around here, would find it a completely different experience to say Egypt or Tunisia.
On Monday, Sharon and myself headed to Thornburi Stn, in the west of Bangkok, and picked up a local train to Kanchanaburi. It was 3rd class, just us and mostly locals. The journey took 3hrs and it was a great way to see the country outside of the Bangkok fishbowl. As we started to get closer to our destination, we started to pass through stations with names that were familiar to anyone who has read the stories from the death railway.
On arrival at Kanchanaburi, we were picked up and taken to our accomodation at The Oriental Kwai Resort
www.orientalkwairesort.com Wow, we were blown away, a small set up owned and run by Thai/Dutch family, its about 10kms from the town, set in lush jungle alongside the Mae Klong River, visually its stunning and it really does take your breath away. It is very small with only 10 cottages, so the service is top class. The accom costs about £60 a night per cottage(with breakfast). The food and drink are very cheap, by uk standards, although you will find cheaper in the area. They have access to their own cars, and a round trip to the town will cost 400bht(about £8).
On Tues, we hired up a Longtail Boat and sped down the river to The Bridge Over The River Kwai. The journey took about 30 mins, and it was a great way to catch that first glimpse of the bridge as we snaked around a river bend. The main pillars of the bridge are still standing, clearly showing the bomb damage from another era. The bridge itself was badly damaged, and had to be rebuilt using some of the metal spars etc.
At the moment Im reading "The Railway Man" by Eric Lomax. He was held and tortured in Kanchanaburi by the Jap Secret Police. Its seem strange to visiting an area frequented by tourists that in a previous life meant so much suffering to British and Allied soldiers. One of Lomax's torturers later overcome by guilt opened a Buddhist Temple next to the bridge and funded a lot of charity work. Lomax later met him at the bridge, some of you may recall the documentary. Anyway the book brings everything sharply into focus, and allows you to see beyond the tourist sites.
Later in the afternoon, we travelled to the Allied Cemetery and the adjoining museum, where over 7000 unfortunates are buried. We spent the afternoon photographing a decent sized number of graves for Forum Member "Memorialman". Its seems a strange thing to be doing on your holiday, but it was actually very satisfying for both of us.
