More about Kanchanaburi

Day 7 continued

Apart from being the 3rd largest province in Thailand, it seems to draw a lot of tourist other than Americans (who go solely for Tiger Temple). Throughout my 7 day travels I pretty much saw only Thai and English on road signs, advertisments, etc. Imagine my surprise when I entered my room at the Bridge on the River Kwai Resort, and saw the following in the bathroom:

Yes, you heard correctly the name of the resort -- and for good reason, it was located on THE River Kwai! Who knew? The dining area was by the water and you could see the bridge down the river. In the background is a Chinese Buddah. I became fairly expert at knowing the difference between Thai, Cambodian and Chinese Temples and their respective Buddah images

When I first heard the name, then saw the bridge, I heard this song being whistled in my head, which turned out to be from the movie. The bridge is still in use (was rebuilt after the war ended) and there is a war museum, war cemetary (for those who perished during the construction of the Death Railway, Hell Fire Pass. This area was a tourist trap -- lots of guided groups and picture taking etc -- so we didn't go any closer than taking pictures

Notice the bombs on either side of the entrance


The last day in Kanchanaburi was spent at the elephant camp and spending time with the monkey families on the side street we found. The elephants were majestic and graceful and you looked in their eyes and everyone was home Such a quiet power needs to be respected, which is why the Thai people consider elephants a lucky symbol. They are on ties, signs, keychains, carved from ivory, wood -- you name, it is represented in some medium.

Monkeys on the other hand are just hysterical. They feed each other, clean each other, fight with each other and just carry on. We were driving back to Bangkok when Kim yelled to Erik that we just passed a street with monkeys on it. A quick u-turn and we were back at the spot. As expected, there was a vendor selling bread, rolls and corn-on-the-cob to feed them (corn on-the-cob is HUGE in Thailand). We fed them, played with them, took lots of pictures, then headed back to the city.

By-the-way the cost to go out to dinner with this group of six and have a table full of food --

$30 US.