Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Their name liveth for evermore....
Well, back on my lonesome again. The lads left for the airport 'bout 2 hours ago, hopefully got their okay. Lads : Have a good flight and I'll see you for a FMP re-enactment!!
Yesterday, we went on a trip to Khanchanaburi, bout 2 hours west of Bangkok and is the site of the bridge over the River Kwai and the Death Railway, where thousands of POWs, mainly Thai, Commonwealth and Dutch people, were put to slave labour to build it and where thousands of them died doing so. First stop was at a war cemetery, which I found incredibly tough. Over a thousand people are buried there, most in named graves though there were a few unnamed graves, all with very simple headstones wih just their name, age, rank, force and date of death, and a few had a little inscription on them also. I can't really go into too much more as it's really something that kinda needs to be seen.
Next stop was the JEATH War Museum and the actual bridge itself. The JEATH Museum was a bit of a disappointment and was in a very bad state of disrepair, maybe it's better when they're not building in it. The bridge was okay and still in everyday use, we even had to get out of the way of a train that was about to cross over it!
Then we drove off for a bit to another train station and acually got to travel along the Death Railway for bout an hour. We were sharing our carriage with quite a large group of Thai youths, who must have finished school or something, because the smell of whiskey was overpowering and the songs were coming at a ferocious pace! And it was before midday!! Thankfully, they left the train 'bout halfway along our journey so the last bit was quieter. A bit of lunch was had then and it was off to a waterfall, which looked more like someone had left the tap on! There was only a tiny bit of water coming down it, but the guide said that in the rainy season, it can be quite full.
We only spent a few minutes at the waterfall and then we went off to the Tiger Temple, where there are tigers that are so docile that you can go up and have your picture taken with them, and even have their paws on you!! It was pretty cool, spent bout an hour there, then it was back to Bangkok, which took bout 2 and a half hours.
Most of the time since was spent by the lads gettin their last bits and pieces before going home. I'm off to Cambodia tomorrow morning for probably two nights, going to try and get as much of Angkor Wat done in one day as possible and then back to Bangkok, where hopefully T and Ross may be. Heading out with a group of Germans that we met last night, so should be able to spread the costs around a bit. Last few bits of shopping and sight-seeing and then it'll be time for the Team Thailand adventure to end. But that's not 'til next week so I'll post a few more times before then.
Oh, by the way, "War of the Worlds", the new remake, is possibly one of the worst films ever! Don't go to it!! We went to see it on Sunday night at the cinema in MBK (a big shopping centre near Siam Square) Got to take the Skytrain from the market down which was very cool, as we got to see a lot of downtown Bangkok lit up at night. We also popped into another shopping centre, the Siam Discovery Centre, which was rather upmarket, it had an Armani shop, Lacoste, Habitat, North Face, Diesel, Sony, Hewlett Packard, CK, amd loads more. Needless to say, backpackers were very scarce on the ground there!! The trip to the cinema was cool, and so much cheaper than home! Only 120 BHT and less than 100 BHT for large popcorn and drink! And we didn't even notice the Thai subtitles which was very fortunate, or would've been had the film been any good! But it was a cool experience all the same.
I'm getting tired now, so I'll leave it at that.
Slan
Niall!!
Yesterday, we went on a trip to Khanchanaburi, bout 2 hours west of Bangkok and is the site of the bridge over the River Kwai and the Death Railway, where thousands of POWs, mainly Thai, Commonwealth and Dutch people, were put to slave labour to build it and where thousands of them died doing so. First stop was at a war cemetery, which I found incredibly tough. Over a thousand people are buried there, most in named graves though there were a few unnamed graves, all with very simple headstones wih just their name, age, rank, force and date of death, and a few had a little inscription on them also. I can't really go into too much more as it's really something that kinda needs to be seen.
Next stop was the JEATH War Museum and the actual bridge itself. The JEATH Museum was a bit of a disappointment and was in a very bad state of disrepair, maybe it's better when they're not building in it. The bridge was okay and still in everyday use, we even had to get out of the way of a train that was about to cross over it!
Then we drove off for a bit to another train station and acually got to travel along the Death Railway for bout an hour. We were sharing our carriage with quite a large group of Thai youths, who must have finished school or something, because the smell of whiskey was overpowering and the songs were coming at a ferocious pace! And it was before midday!! Thankfully, they left the train 'bout halfway along our journey so the last bit was quieter. A bit of lunch was had then and it was off to a waterfall, which looked more like someone had left the tap on! There was only a tiny bit of water coming down it, but the guide said that in the rainy season, it can be quite full.
We only spent a few minutes at the waterfall and then we went off to the Tiger Temple, where there are tigers that are so docile that you can go up and have your picture taken with them, and even have their paws on you!! It was pretty cool, spent bout an hour there, then it was back to Bangkok, which took bout 2 and a half hours.
Most of the time since was spent by the lads gettin their last bits and pieces before going home. I'm off to Cambodia tomorrow morning for probably two nights, going to try and get as much of Angkor Wat done in one day as possible and then back to Bangkok, where hopefully T and Ross may be. Heading out with a group of Germans that we met last night, so should be able to spread the costs around a bit. Last few bits of shopping and sight-seeing and then it'll be time for the Team Thailand adventure to end. But that's not 'til next week so I'll post a few more times before then.
Oh, by the way, "War of the Worlds", the new remake, is possibly one of the worst films ever! Don't go to it!! We went to see it on Sunday night at the cinema in MBK (a big shopping centre near Siam Square) Got to take the Skytrain from the market down which was very cool, as we got to see a lot of downtown Bangkok lit up at night. We also popped into another shopping centre, the Siam Discovery Centre, which was rather upmarket, it had an Armani shop, Lacoste, Habitat, North Face, Diesel, Sony, Hewlett Packard, CK, amd loads more. Needless to say, backpackers were very scarce on the ground there!! The trip to the cinema was cool, and so much cheaper than home! Only 120 BHT and less than 100 BHT for large popcorn and drink! And we didn't even notice the Thai subtitles which was very fortunate, or would've been had the film been any good! But it was a cool experience all the same.
I'm getting tired now, so I'll leave it at that.
Slan
Niall!!
# posted by Team Thailand : 11:41 p.m.
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well kelly,we r in sihanoukville in da south at da mo with da creeds n jade,alot of rain which means theres fuck all 2 do so might b headin back 2 bangkok 2mo?im still kinda thinkin of stayin on but prob wont,vietnam sounds class but da lack of cash means ill have 2 head home,when are gettin back 2 bangkok????????????
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