Kanchanaburi to Sangkhlaburi

May 23, 2007

I uploaded these pictures last week, and then time got away from me - we've been off having fun in New Orleans!

Our one morning in Kanchanaburi had a false start pretty early when I woke up, rolled over, looked out the window, and kicked Husbear out of bed to take a picture of the view.

Then we went back to sleep for a few hours.  You know, until it got just about too hot to do anything.  Otherwise known as 9 AM.  Man, was it hot in Thailand in May.

We knew we had a limited amount of time in Kanchanaburi, because the bus ride to Sangkhlaburi (where we'd be going later in the day) is pretty substantial.  With this in mind, we narrowed down what we'd be doing to just the British war cemetery and the famed Bridge over the River Kwai.  No museums.

First things first - breakfast.  We considered some of the beautiful fruit we passed.

We ended up having something a little more substantial.  Noodly breakfast!

The place we sate at was right across from the war cemetery, our first stop.  This particular cemetery contains the remains of 7,000 of the 16,000 Allies who died constructing what came to be called the Death Railway, from Thailand to Myanmar.

The markers themselves don't have the stark uniformity of the American war cemeteries we've visited in the past.  Many of the markers were topped with flowers.

Most heartbreaking were the inscriptions on many of the headstones, honoring dead fathers, brothers, and sons. 

We spent a good bit of time, looking at the graves of the British, Dutch, and Indian men who died in the area during World War Two.  Then, overheating, we walked back to our guesthouse to gather our bags and charter transportation to the Bridge, which is a couple of kilometers outside of town.

For about four dollars, we got a guy riding a motorcycle with a covered sidecar to agree to take us and our luggage to the bridge, wait for us there, and then take us to the bus station to catch our bus.

Seriously, if you travel to Southeast Asia, bring backpacks.  You may have to fit yourself and your luggage onto a motorcycle with a driver, or into a very small space, and a giant suitcase is going to be a giant headache - even more so than normal.

The driver dropped us off at the end of the tour bus parking area for the Bridge, and we ran a low-key tourist tout gauntlet.  After Egypt, though, it was no big deal.

The Bridge itself is apparently mostly original, though the central span was bombed by the Allies near the end of the war and rebuilt later.

The bridge had no guardrails, and you had to kind of shimmy your way around the other tourists.  Vertigo!

We walked all the way across the bridge to the other side.

Our guidebook says that 16,000 Allied POW's died during construction of the railway, along with 75,ooo Asian forced laborers.  This is for 415 kilometers of railroad; 250 miles.  Depressingly paltry, really.

You can still ride twice-daily trains along the 130 kilometers that remain of the Death Railway.  Trains cross the bridge and go through Hellfire Pass.

In our little sidecar on the way back to the bus station, we passed the Chinese war cemetery.  At high speed.

I wish I could read the grave markers.  I wonder if they're as sparse with the information as the American war cemeteries, or more like the British with inscriptions.

Our sidecar motorcycle driver dropped us back at the bus station, right behind a bus painted "kanchanaburi - Sangkhlaburi."  I thought it was strange that most of the buses we saw in Thailand had their destinations permanently painted on the side or front of the bus - what if they had to run a different route?

We threw our stuff on the bus and jumped aboard, only to find out that 1. the bus wasn't leaving for 45 minutes and 2. it was a non-a/c bus.  Husbear hopped off the bus to see if an a/c bus would be leaving anytime soon, but it appeared that this would be our only option for hours, so we stayed put.

Well, I stayed put but dispatched Husbear to buy leaf-wrapped snacks for the ride from a couple of ladies in the station.

When the bus finally left, it turned out that non-a/c isn't such a bad thing.  All the windows were down, and fans slowly circulated overhead. 

The bus was a terrific cultural trip.  We bounced along on hard little seats at maybe 40 miles an hour.  Whenever he passed a pedestrian, the driver would hit the brakes and honk, hoping to pick up another fare.  The bus even turned into a schoolbus for a little while.

It was so much fun just to look around and see our fellow travelers.  And the bus itself was hilarious - great signage and rainbow-painted fans. 

After a couple of hours, we started to get peckish. We busted open our little snacks.

They turned out to be not entirely delicious.  Rice studded with chicken fat and black pepper, basically.  But they were filling.

At one point, a woman carrying bags of drinks hopped on the bus.  We bought a bag of coffee with sweetened condensed milk and jammed a straw into it.  It was perfect.

Midway through the bus ride, we stopped at a dusty little roadside stand populated by chickens and dogs and home to a little eats joint.

And I'm not employing cliche here to make my point - this was honestly dusty.  Glad it hadn't rained too much that day.

We had the same problem we always did.  We had no idea what to order or how to say "bring us something tasty."  I thought I heard the Thai woman next to us ordering pad thai, so we did the same... but got laughed at.  Then she got some sort of crazy stir-fry and we got pad thai.  I dunno.  It was some of the best we had while we were in Thailand, though, so that was cool.

We did get pretty perturbed when it came time to pay the bill - we asked what we owed for our noodles and bright green pop, and were told "30 baht."  Husbear got out his money, but then an animated conference in which every other word seemed to be "farang" revised the bill upwards to 40.  Perhaps they forgot to factor in our soda, but I don't think so.

Whatever, we're still talking about a dollar here.

The last couple of hours, we stopped several times so the woman in charge of luggage and trash collection on the bus could hop out at roadside shrines and lay wreaths on the Buddha.  We felt like we were along on a pilgrimage.

The bus ride, all told, was 6 hours.  But we got to travel the way the Thais do, and we had a great time. 

We arrived in Sangkhlaburi right about 6 in the evening.  Our bus was immediately surrounded by motorcycle taxis, the only way to get around in town.  Like we needed further confirmation that backpacks are the only way to travel?

We each hopped on our own motorcycle taxi and held on for the ride to the Phornpailin Riverside.

This was actually the most expensive place we stayed our whole trip.  But it was right on the water and nicely appointed - we had our own little porch.

And the views were pretty wonderful as well.

We never did figure out which wat this is, but it was probably built after the old town of Sangkhlaburi was flooded during construction of a nearby dam in 1982.

Sangkhlaburi is just 10 miles or so from the border with Myanmar, and there are occasional skirmishes.  There are thousands of Burmese refugees in the area, and we actually saw a UN refugee truck in town.

Sangkhlaburi's claim to tourist fame, besides the fact that you can take a day trip into Myanmar if you're so inclined (and we weren't), is a 400 meter long wooden bridge constructed by Mon villagers.  It's supposed to be the longest wooden bridge in Thailand.

Here's a bad picture of it.  (We did go to visit the next day and got some good ones - this is just proof that we could see it from where we were staying.)

The Phornpailin Riverside was great - we were happy with it overall, though we did eat that first night at the restaurant and were underwhelmed.

I owe Mia at Nosh (photostream, website) a huge THANK YOU for the recs on places to stay in Kanchanaburi and Sangkhlaburi, as well as her invaluable travel advice!

Thanks, Mia! 

G'night from Sangkhlaburi!  Next day - elephants and rafting and the bridge.  A busy day!

Comments

[amanda]

you guys really are living the dream. i can only imagine how amazing it is to see all of these incredible places.

[RONW]

your "rough guide" has just been enjoyable.

[roboppy]

AWESOOOME ARGHAAGR I love seeing your photos and commentary. They make me say things like, "AWESOOOME ARGHAAGR!" I wish I could be there to see all the fun stuff, besides the long bus rides and...stuff. I wanna walk on that crazy bridge! And eat fatty peppery rice!

[paolaccio]

Just back from Thailand and now it's off to New Orleans, is it?

I want you guys's life...

[Boots in the Oven]

Amanda, thank you. It's definitely been a crazy year, but I think things are about to calm down for at least a little while.

RONW, glad you're enjoying it! It's pretty obvious that we don't know as much about Asia as we did about Italy...

Roboppy, heh - you're hilarious! The bridge was very cool, but I think there are lots of things more delicious than the fatty rice.

Paolaccio, well, we're living just outside of New Orleans for the time being, because that's where my husband's folks live. We haven't spent too much time here before, so it's kind of a treat.

[Andrea]

MAN! I was only looking up different types of bananas on google images when I came across your page. I went to a Chinese grocery store earlier in the day and I didn't know what these weird bananas were called or how to cook them, so i was hoping that in your information i would figure out more about them. I started from the top of the page and unfortunately i didn't find what i needed. but it didn't seem to matter anymore about the bananas. I couldn't stop reading until the end. I admire your adventure so much and i hope i can experience the same thrill sometime in my life.

Sincerly,
the most random reader

[Rachel @ boots in the oven]

Thank you, Andrea! Sorry we weren't more help with the bananas. :-) I'm glad you enjoyed reading about our trip! The thing is, most of the cost is in getting over there - if you can find cheap tickets, the day to day living is not that expensive. Thanks for the comment!

[Han]

Hi, Andrea

I enjoy reading the entries in your blog. If you would take closer snap shots of Chinese tombstones, I would be able to tell you what is written on it. Chinese tombstone differ quite a bit in terms of information carved on tombs, architectural designs and size according to the deceased's social status and country he was buried in. Do email me if you decide to do so.

Han