Cambodia & Thailand Day 9
Cambodia & Thailand
DAY 9 - December 4, 2003 - Kanchanaburi/River Kwai
Once again we were up at 5:30, long before dawn . Our schedule called for us to be on the River Kwai by 6:30 to see the sunrise. What a surprise to find out that this morning, the breakfast was to be on a river barge, where we had everything for ourselves.
We sat at a table and the flow of the river was very tranquil - it was also a cool morning, probably in the 60's. We began our breakfast before the sun came up and we awaited our two male companions, Bob and James, both from the OAT office.
Anya became concerned and went to check. They had not been given the wake-up call again. They came running and we shoved off from the landing, being towed by a power boat. We went up the river for about 2 miles, saw the sun, life on the river’s edge, and a few birds.
We returned to the Legacy on the River Kwai and were given 15 minutes to get our days belongings and set off. It was enough time for me to download the pictures from Bob and Jim into my computer so they could set out with clean media.
We were back on the bus and set off in a northwest direction toward Hell Fire Pass. We passed fields of rice, sugar cane, corn, fruit trees, bananas, cotton, and lots of manioc/tapioca plants.
We stopped the bus at the Hell Fire Pass Museum and Overlook. We first went through the Museum, dedicated to all the Allied service men and Asians who worked on the railroad over the River Kwai. The museum was created by the Australians and is today maintained by several private groups and the government of Thailand.
We then took the path to see the Hell Fire Pass cut, worked on by the soldiers. This is a remarkable cut through solid rock that the prisoners of war created with limited tools, extensive sickness, malnutrition, and brutal torture from the Japanese - who did not honor the conventions of war.
At the bottom of the cut we walked along the old railroad bed and saw the memorial created at one end of the cut. As we walked across the other side of the cut, we came to our transportation down the mountain.
Two pick-up trucks with seating at the back took us from the 1100 feet of altitude to the River Kwai at about 900 feet. There we were met by two long tailed speed boats for an hour trip down the river.
This was more of a nature trip and our driver stopped at every opportunity to see the birds, wildlife and settlements along the river. We saw brightly colored swallows, flycatchers, sandpipers, kingfishers, hawks, and monitor lizard sunning itself on a huge log over the water. We also saw several hotels on the river bank and two that had their room on floating boats right on the river.
We got off the boats at a small docking area along the river where the bus was waiting for us. We had descended from 900 feet to 500 in our hour on the river. Today is the King’s birthday as well as Father’s Day and a long three day weekend is being enjoyed by all.
There were many families enjoying the water, fishing, and picnicking, on this holiday. It is interesting to note that on this trip we have never backtracked on an area - the bus goes ahead and waits for us or when we are on the bus we take a different route than we took to get there.
We are seeing a great variety of the countryside. Another point of interest, OAT provides antiseptic wet wipes every time we get back on the bus and fresh bottles of ice cold water two or three times a day.
Our lunch was at another open air restaurant (they all are) where we were served our traditional Thai favorites in addition to a vegetable tempura today. It was very good. Everyday for every meal we try to sit and talk to different people.
We are getting to know everyone well and find many things to talk about. Today at lunch, Anya had to hustle us along a bit to catch the train at Nam Tok. The day had become warm so most of us had to wait in the shade for the train to arrive.
Shortly after 2 PM the train arrived and we realized we were on the wrong end of the station as the train would not turn around. We hurried to the far end to get on the first class car and had most of the car to ourselves for majority of the ride to Takilen Station where the bus met us.
The ride was very hot, the windows were open, very dusty, the diesel engine threw back its smoke as well as parts of plants that were along the tracks. We sat on hard wooden benches.
As Anya had told us, on the right side, gave us a view of the countryside, the meandering river and the Thai people who came out and waved at us as we passed by.
We seemed to have made a full circle and we were back within 10 minutes of our lodge. The day was very different as we used many modes of transportation/locomotion. Not only did we walk a bit but we were on a barge, bus, pick-up truck, long-tailed speed boat, and the train.
Our first priority after getting back to our room was taking a shower to take the dust from our bodies, downloading the pictures, writing this log and getting our luggage ready for the early start tomorrow.
During dinner tonight there was a little special celebration to commemorate the King’s 76th birthday. We sat as a group by two TV sets and saw the festivities from Bangkok.
Anya had just gotten my camera from Lift, another OAT guide that had come in late this afternoon. The camera had been taken by UPS to customs, where there was a hefty fee for bringing it into the country, then a fee for UPS to stay open after closing time of 4:30.
All in all, it took Anya and Lift over two hours on the cell phone to get the camera on Thursday. The alternative would have been to get the camera on the last day of the trip. Both of these ladies really went above and beyond. And Tim in Colorado, going to school to get the shipping numbers at 2 AM was above the call. THANKS TO ALL.
Accommodations: Legacy River Kwai
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