Happy All Saints Day!

Finally the sleeping schedule is nearing normalcy, and I got to sleep until nearly 7:30 this morning!   After some fantastic lounging and a light breakfast of toast and a fruit and yogurt shake (Lassi), we set off for the elephants!

Traveling and tourism always bring up a lot of ethical conflicts for me.   So, I asked our driver about how the elephants are treated  and if it maybe wasn’t a very good life for them hauling tourists around the jungle hills all day.   He assured me that the elephants had been previously employed in the timber industry – much harder  work than hauling tourists – and would now be retired without a home if not for the preserve.   I want to believe him!

After some standing around waiting our turn, watching a baby elephant play the kazoo and hula, and having my photo taken with a big male elephant, we climbed the tower to mount the elephants.   We were seated  by twos and threes onto  the elephant chairs where we rode through the jungle up and down the hills for about 1/2 an hour.   The best part of the ride for me was being in the canopy and coming face to face with my FAVORITE tropical fruit – the pinha!!   Never before had I dreamed of being able to identify  just what kind of tree this delicious piece of heaven came from.   MMMMM!!!

After riding the elephants in the hills, one at a time we were allowed to slide down off the chair and ride them “bareback” on our journey to the river.

Elephants do not have soft skin.   It is rough, leathery, and covered with wiry hair.   So despite my joy scratching the elephant behind the ears as we ambled toward the river, I managed (wearing my bikini bottom only) to accomplish  some serious chaffing.   Ouch!   We dismounted while the chairs were removed and rode them one at a time into the river so the elephants could cool off, and of course cool us off in the process.   Fun!

As we were crossing the lawn through a group of about twenty people, several young women in their late teens gave us huge smiles and indicated that they’d like to take a photo of us.   When we said okay, they got really excited and then decided that they wanted photos WITH us.   So, we became the elephants as they all took turns having a photo with us.   We were busy being amused by this bizarre occurrence that it was only on the drive home that we realized we should have gotten out OUR cameras, too!   Our driver explained that they were from a place in Thailand that sees very few tourists and were so eager to take home photos of themselves with a caucasian.   Fun, fun!

Now we’re off to Sukothai – an ancient city north of Bangkok several hours.   Wish us luck on our first overnight bus ride!

So yesterday we landed in Kanchanaburi  (also “Kan”), and I am LOVING it.   The pace of the town is perfect – not too sleepy, but very laid back.   The surrounding area is filled  with national parks chock full of waterfalls, elephant rides, and history lessons.   Kanchanaburi  is home to the Bridge Over the River Kwai  – a key location  in WWII.   Thousands of allied prisoners along with thousands of Asians across the region were conscripted to build a rail line for the Japanese connecting Bangkok with India in the Japanese take-over of SE Asia.

After a few hours on a bus from Bangkok, we arrived yesterday at the bus station (where I used my first Asian toilet, but I’ll save that for my “how it’s different from home” blog).   We haggled a bit with a few taxi drivers and ended up in a tiny chariot pulled by bike that dropped us at the Jolly Frog for 40 Baht.   Probably too much (about $1.15), but oh well!   Our hotel has a great view of the River Kwai, a quaint courtyard with hammocks, a walking path down to the river where there are floating lounges, and a nice outdoor restaurant.

We were starving, so we opted immediately for a place called “Fine.”   All the food here is GREAT, no matter where we eat, and this place was no exception.   After dropping off our duds for a washing (20 Baht – about 60 cents), we strolled through town checking out the scene and looking into cooking courses.   We made reservations for the tour we went on today, and then settled in for another Thai massage.   I was disappointed  to find my masseuse was the old woman who hadn’t returned my smile on the sidewalk in passing two hours previous. Thais are smilers, but she was an exception.   About half the time I felt relaxed and well-rubbed.   The other half was uncomfortable, ticklish, and sometimes painful.   Don’t think I’ll go back there again!

Thanks to Nicole’s (last night of) jet lag, we had some delicious tom yum soup and green curry for dinner and then hit the sack.   We lasted until nine!

The Jolly Frog doesn’t have hot water, which isn’t a huge issue when the ambient temperature never gets below 75 degrees.   It’s a lot easier to take a cold shower in the afternoon when it’s above 85, however!   I ordered a traditional Thai breakfast (rice soup with chicken) and was amused when the waitress tried to bring it to the only Thai woman in the place.

We met our tour guides out front at 8am and loaded up for the ride to Erawan  Falls.   It was about a mile and a quarter to the seventh fall at the top following the  tiered river all the way.   We clambered over tree roots and boulders, crossed slippery pools, climbed and descended rickety staircases in the jungle heat and were greeted  with one of the most breathtaking spectacles of my life.   I immediately stripped to my suit and jumped in the pale blue water.   Weeee!!!

On the way down, I indulged in three more swims (I have dreams about swimming – I love it so much), before we were fed lunch at one of the restaurant stalls – spicy rice and veggies for me!   Then it was on to the “Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum” and to Hellfire Pass itself.

Many parts of the WWII Japanese rail-line claimed thousands of lives, including the construction of  the bridge over the River Kwai.   However, the clearing of Hellfire Pass claimed more lives than any single installation on the rail line.   Because the Japanese didn’t have the skills or technology for tunneling, captured Allied prisoners had to cut down through dense jungle and limestone rock to clear a path for the train. (i.e. they had to clear a tunnel AND everything that would normally be above a tunnel – a mini canyon in the mountainside.) Hellfire Pass, so named for the fires that burned as prisoners were forced to work 18 hours of backbreaking labor at a stretch, is an incredible and shocking place.

The memorial museum was enlightening and shocking, but the audio tour walking down hellfire pass was truly illuminating.   Listening to the testimonials of the prisoners as the sharp stones underfoot pressed into my sandals, I could vividly imagine the horror of being forced to work barefoot and starving, with festering jungle sores all over my mostly naked body carrying heavy rocks for hours while guards beat me at their whim.   Oh. my. god. I also learned what Cholera is today, thanks to the tour – a nasty, horrible, and terrifying disease.   Moving on, we visited a cave along the rail line that was used  as a base camp for the Japanese Army and then rode the “Death Train” along tapioca fields before being bussed to the bridge over the River Kwai.   The bridge ended up being un-inspirational, after spending so much time before I left reading about it.

It’s been highly commercialized, and its steel structures and concrete pilings make it seem like far less a task than the awful Hellfire Pass. We returned to our hotel sweaty and still slightly damp from the falls.   After a shower, we dropped off our laundry and headed out to dinner at a fantastic Indian restaurant (hey – you can’t eat Thai EVERY night!).   Before coming here, we booked our elephant trekking and swimming trip for tomorrow.   Can’t wait!!

What a jam-packed day in Bangkok!   Nicole, thanks to her jet-lag, was up at 3am, 5am, etc wide awake (since it was respectively 3pm, 5pm in Omaha).   I, however, slept soundly until 7am, at which time we launched our busy day.

The hostel breakfast is adequate (bread, croissants, banana muffins, toast, jelly, butter, (some weird green spread the texture of pudding) watermelon, pineapple.

First stop was the Jim Thompson house.   At first, I wasn’t interested because it didn’t seem like Thai culture.   Really, it is.   My Grandma J. would have loved it.

Jim Thompson was an architect and soldier who stayed in Thailand and helped grow and connect the silk trade to the rest of the world reaping great economic benefits for the Thais.   He also collected Asian artifacts (the part my grandma would love), and his traditional Thai house is filled with 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th century paintings, statues, imports, and more.   It was incredible!

I learned, among other things,: 1) Why no shoes: The Thai take their shoes off often when entering buildings (in fact, I had to take mine off to come into this internet cafe) because traditionally they eat sitting in a circle on the floor.   For this reason, it is very important to them that the floor stays clean. 2) Thai Buddhas (different from the Chinese Buddhas most Americans are used  to) have long ears because it symbolizes long life. 3) Traditional Thai construction of doorways dictates that you step over a threshold about 12 inches high.   Originally, this kept babies from crawling out of the house when houses were always located on the river and the baby could drown easily.

Conveniently, it down-poured while we were on our tour in the house.   Afterward, while it was sprinkling, we had some delicious business (rice and veggies with lots of good sauce) from a street vendor before hopping   back on the skytrain  to our next destination – Wat Pho.   Wat means temple, of which there are several, probably about 40 large ones, in Bangkok.   Wat Pho is the biggest and has the biggest reclining Buddha (indicating the exact moment of enlightenment) in all of Thailand. We had to take a river taxi to get there, which was less charming than I had hoped.   I pictured a quaint river surrounded by jungle canopy.   Nope.   Just a big rushing slur of muddy water with lilies floating everywhere and skyscrapers right up to the  cement banks.   C’est  la vie!   The taxi was fast and much cooler than a city bus or walking!

The single most remarkable thing about the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho is its size!   Incredible!   After taking our shoes off, we were allowed to walk around the perimeter of the Buddha, almost half a football field in length!   The intricate painting of the walls was remarkable as well.   On the wat grounds, we saw hundreds of other Buddhas.   The intricate detail on everything from the roofs to the windows, the walkways, etc. was really amazing.

After we were wat-ted out (I can stare at mountains forever, but human-made objects hold my attention momentarily), we headed to the backpacker district.   We had chosen not to stay there because it is far away from all the public transport.   We walked the streets, bought some pineapple from a street vendor, window-shopped, and then headed inside for our first Thai massage  (by this time, Nicole was exhausted, it being 5am in Omaha).

The massage  (and the opportunity to rest for an hour) was wonderful.   It was different than  what you’d picture in the U.S.   Here, massages  are given in a roomful of mattress-sized cushions with your clothing on.   We got half reflexology  (foot) massage, and half Thai massage laying side by side on a raised platform.   The reflexology  was nice (and sometimes painful) – your basic foot massage.   The Thai massage is about pushing and pulling and poking and pressure points.   The move around your body a lot, but are always sitting next to you, between your legs, under your head, etc.   A lot of it was the kind of massage I am accustomed  to.   Some of it, however was surprising – like when the guy had me sit in front of him and somehow worked me from that position  to being face first up in the air on his feet like some kind of circus act.   It felt good, though, and it was fun!

We headed back to the river afterwards, but decided to stop at Chinatown to make the most of our all-day boat pass.   Big mistake when tired.   It was dirty, heavily polluted (diesel fumes hanging in the air everywhere), smelled awful, dark, dirty, dirty, dirty, and gross.   After a mile lap around the neighborhood, we hopped our final  boat back to the skytrain and rode back to our hostel.   After some quick “Pad Thai”   (spicy noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, shrimp, egg, cabbage, lime, and peanuts) from a street vendor, we couldn’t help but collapse into our beds (yes, at 8 p.m.!)   I’ll try not to get used to getting so much rest! 🙂