Kanchanaburi

I've had a busy few days, or a lot of traveling at least.  I went to Kanchanaburi for the weekend, one of the cities on the Death Railway, and home to the bridge over the river Kwai.

I found a guy on the street who was selling bus tickets.  I thought the trip was going to be in a minibus the whole way but I ended up switching to a larger bus about halfway there which meant that I got dropped off at the bus station instead of in the area where the guesthouses are.  I think it was fate because on my walk I discovered a great little homestay on a side street which I never would've known about otherwise.  It's run by a really sweet Thai couple who speak very good English.  They seemed quite surprised to see me.  Actually everyone on the block did, apparently they don't get many foreigners.

Kanchanaburi was really interesting.  I went on a walk my first day and discovered a Chinese cemetery and a temple / fitness complex where I found a group playing cricket.

The Death Railway museum was very informative and is attached to a project that is researching all of the soldiers who died.  One of the other women in the museum ran a search for her uncle and was able to find information on where he was working and what he was doing before he died.

The museum and cemetery were moving, especially when I walked through the cemetery reading all of the names and ages of those buried there.  Most were only in their 20's.

I visited the bridge over the river Kwai, although the bridge is actually not the original bridge, as that was destroyed by Allied bombing.  Nor is it the bridge from the movie, that one was built nearby and is now completely gone.  Even more surprising is that Kwai is not even the name of the river.  The river is actually called Mae Klong but this section was name Khwae Yai, to sound more like the movie.  

There are two cemeteries in Kanchanaburi, the main one in town, and then a second one across the river and a few km away.  The hospital used to be right nearby and the cemetery was so large they didn't want to move it.  After the war, bodies were exhumed from the many smaller cemeteries and moved into these two.

On my last day in Kanchanaburi the couple that I was staying with had their son drive me to the bus station, but on the way he took me to see a muay thai camp and beautiful Chinese and Thai temples.

I'm going to India!

Kanchanaburi was great, I got into Bangkok yesterday and as soon as I connected to wifi I saw an email from the visa center so I headed back out to pick it up. Traffic, as usual, was brutal, but 4.5 hours later I returned with my brand new Indian visa! Such a relief!
Now I just have to hope I can get out of the country without having to take out anymore baht.

Pictures from Bangkok

Oh look it's Starbu...ng?  I used to suggest to my Starbucks barista friend at home that they should have coffee trucks and he always laughed at me.  But fortunately this enterprising young man has filled the obvious gap.

There is a huge field near the palace that I ran at a few times.  It's almost a mile around!  During the day people relax on the grass and fly kites.

I also found a nice local market where I got a 120 baht ($4) thai massage in a structure made of repurposed metal and old vinyl signs.

I'm all about saving money but... I like the nice sterile feel of a real dentist's office.

Need something?  I'm pretty sure she has it.

Now, I've seen fried insects in markets before, but the only time I've seen scorpions is at markets serving alcohol.  Looks like a dare to me!

I found another great night market nearby.  The best part was that in the two hours that I was there I only saw a couple farangs.  Part night market, part yard sale...

Guitar picks

Hair Straighteners

Halloween props?

Old T-shirts

Hair cuts

Remote controls

Fake nails

Assorted phone chargers

Baby dolls

This is the best I think: cups, you know, the ones you get free when you buy a Jumbo size popcorn at the movies.

 Travel supplies!  Unfortunately the waterproof bag cover wasn't large enough for my bag.

And yes, you can get tattoos and piercings in the market too.

Video games for consoles that haven't been made in 10 years

My friend from Phuket came to visit with her husband. We made friends with a pet squirrel.

I stayed in much cheaper places this time around.  Unfortunately they came with ants and this lovely guy.

I stopped at a mall in the city that looked like a spaceship.

Dessert: coconut milk with various fruits and sweets

Bangkok, Take 2

Oh yes, this is the Bangkok I had heard so much about!

I had the most frustrating transportation experience ever yesterday.  I've been so lucky so far but after that I honestly don't know how this city exists.  People must leave several hours early to get to work.  Maybe that's why I always see people sleeping in they're shops, because they had to wake up at 2AM just to begin their commute.

I had my heart set on taking a Muay Thai class and started out almost two hours ahead of time which is at least twice as long as it should take.  The gym is less than 7 miles away but the buses here can be unpredictable and the traffic is terrible as I learned firsthand.  I waited at the bus stop for half an hour with no sign of either of the buses I had looked up.  I finally gave up and just got on another bus that was going in my direction.  Then on my second bus we got stopped at what has to be the most frustrating and poorly planned intersection in the world.  I'm not even sure how many streets came together but we were stopped for at least 15 minutes while we waited for three trains to pass right through the center of the intersection and the opposing traffic had several green lights while we got nothing.  The bus apparently doesn't follow the same route I found online so I ended up being much farther away than I had planned but was hoping that if I took a motorbike taxi the rest of the wayI might just make it.  Normally the drivers won't stop yelling trying to get fares but when I asked two guys in taxi vests they told me they wouldn't take me.  And when I found a guy who seemed moderately more interested in making money he spent ten minutes talking to the first two trying to figure out where I was going even though I had showed him the route on google maps, or perhaps they were just debating how much they could gouge me because he gave me the most ridiculously inflated price.  By the time he was ready to leave I would have been twenty minutes late so, feeling angry and disappointed, I turned around and took the subway and a bus back to my accommodations.

It's been raining here nonstop too.  I walked outside last night and there was a small river flowing down the alley that connects my guesthouse to the main road.  The wind from the air conditioners and the rain from the adjacent rooftops made it seem like a hurricane.  It rained through the night and most of the day today too although now at least it is light enough that I don't really need an umbrella, but this morning when my alarm went off for the floating market I looked out the window at the downpour and thought better of it.

I did go to a close muay thai gym called Sor Vorapin though and took an afternoon class.  I was glad that I'd done the training in Phuket because the instruction wasn't nearly as good and I would've been totally lost.  We did a LOT of shadow boxing and a couple rounds with the trainer and on the bags but Tiger was definitely better.  It was a decent workout though.  I was so sore afterwards I went for a massage.

I had to laugh when one of the masseuses brought her little baby to the massage room.  Childcare seems to be nonexistent here.  People bring their kids everywhere.  The other day I was on a bus and noticed that they driver had a stack of blankets between him and the window.  It was odd but I didn't think much of it until a small child popped up and then started walking around the bus.  And it's not at all uncommon to see young children out at 3 or 4 AM while they're parents sell food or other items.

Perhentian Islands

I spent my last few days in Malaysia on a beautiful quiet beach on the Perhentian Islands, off the East coast, with two people I met at the hostel in KL.  I wish I was still there!

We took an overnight bus (which was unusually comfortable) to the pier and then took a speedboat to the island early in the morning.  We opted to stay at a secluded resort called D'Lagoon, instead of on the main beach.  It's not completely cut off, as there is a (poorly marked) hiking trail, and there are water taxis that take people between the beaches and to other close islands, but it was nice to have a quiet place to relax without all the noise and craziness.

D'Lagoon was great, we were able to get a room with three beds for not much more than we were paying in KL, and they have a dorm and several bungalows as well.  There's a restaurant with pretty good food and they also have diving trips and rent out snorkeling equipment so it was really convenient.

We were surrounded by water and jungle and the monkeys and other wildlife would come right into the resort.  I always had to keep and eye on my stuff to make sure they didn't take anything!

The view from our window

Monitor lizard

We spent a few hours relaxing at Turtle Beach, which was completely empty except for one couple. The beach was mostly shards of coral and it was hard to get out in the water far enough to swim but it was pretty and a nice quiet place to read by the water.

We hiked over to Long Beach, which is supposed to take about 45 minutes but took us about twice as long because the trail is confusing and we got lost.  We hiked up to the top of the island by the wind mills and solar panels that supply power to the island.  The view was great!

Long Beach was nice, kind of like Koh Phangan but smaller and less crazy.  The beach is lined with restaurants, bars and dive shops and wasn't very crowded.  We walked to the other side of the island to watch the sunset, one of the strangest ones I've seen.  The clouds were bright green!  After dinner we took a boat taxi back to our beach.

One of the women at the resort has trained a jungle cat to come to the main building every night and she feeds it fruit.

They have several games, including the Malaysian version of Monopoly.  

I definitely could have spent a few more days on the island reading in my hammock, listening to the waves and enjoying the sunshine!