Daily Archives: July 17, 2005

KanchanaBuri & SangklaBuri Trip – Day 3

Posted on July 17, 2005 by | 8 comments

Day 3 (29 August 2004) KanchanaBuri to SangklaBuri

As I am an early riser, I headed for the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery on the Saeng Chuto Road on a motorcycle. The cemetery contained the remains of 6,982 prisoners of war who perished during the construction of the “Death Railway”. During the Second World War, thousands of forced laborers and Allied prisoners of war suffered and died constructing and maintaining the Burma-Thailand railway.



An air of tranquility exudes in this sacred place

It is sad to note that so many young men gave their lives during the war that had no winners.

The tour van came late. The tour guide, Chan, obviously had more drinks than he could handle the night before. Unshaven and dressed shabbily, I now have doubts whether we would be in good hands for the next 36 hours.

The first stop was at the Hellfire Pass Memorial. The Australian Government constructed the memorial in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand in 1998. Hellfire Pass is a 500 meters long and 26 meters deep section of rock that was dug out by Prisoners of War intended to allow the ‘Death Railway’ to continue its route from Bangkok to Rangoon. Soldiers were forced to remove the rock using no more than picks, hammers and their bare hands. Of the 1,000 Australian and British soldiers who took 12 weeks to clear the stretch of mountain, 700 died.



Hell Fire Pass Memorial Museum

Here I quote the information on one of the plaques of the Hellfire Pass. “The name Hellfire Pass relates to the awesome scene presented at night by the lights from the torches and lamps in the cutting (of the pass)”



A section of the pass which claimed so many lives

The next stop was the Erawan Waterfall, followed by the Sri Nakharin Dam. I managed to climb all the way to the top tier of the waterfall with another teammate, while the rest swam in one of the pools at the lower section.

On arrival at SangklaBuri, we checked into a Guesthouse. Run by SY, a soft-spoken and extremely friendly person, the Guesthouse gave us a sense of staying with friends and family. SangklaBuri is really a nice place to relax



The Guesthouse overlook the lake. Here everything seems to stop

We were transferred to see the Mon village nearby. Taking a motorized boat, we surveyed the coast and the Mon village. There is a Wat that was submerged after the dam was built and the place flooded.



Historical Treasure gives ways to development

Later, we visited a Mon village and tried some of the local food there.



Food here is very much Thai

In the evening, we went to a local eating shop (Ran-Ahan) for dinner. SangklaBuri in the evening is a DEAD quiet place as the streets were dimly lit and the market deserted. We headed back to the Guesthouse after dinner for drinks and chit-chat.

SY is a Mon refugee and besides working in the guesthouse, she volunteered as an interpreter for foreign doctors working in the refugee camps along the Thai border. I was told that the two boy soldiers of God’s Army, a splinter group from the Karen Liberation Army (KNU) were staying near SangklaBuri. It would be interesting to visit them but it could be very dangerous.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/616772.stm

Refugees staying near the Thai border are a source of cheap labor for the Thai company operating near the borders. They were not covered by insurance and when they met with an accident, their livelihood will be jeopardized. SY who had a degree from a Burmese University was trying hard to master her English with the only resource she had – an old, torn and heavy Burmese-English dictionary. While some of us, me included, complained how slow the broadband is in downloading, there are people out there without access to basic information. On my return to Malaysia, I subscribed, via Internet, a year of Reader Digest for SY to be sent to the guesthouse. A little kindness brings a lot of happiness, month after month.

While we sat in the nice comfort of the guesthouse coffee house and complained about how lousy the food were in the Ran-ahan in the town, there were people out there in the refugee camp, struggling to get even the basic meal.

More pictures can be seen on page 2…

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Posted in Kanchanaburi

Dos & Don’ts for Thais going to Farangland.

Posted on July 17, 2005 by | 17 comments

DOS:

>Do arrive at appointments on time, Farangs don’t enjoy having to waste their precious time waiting for folks who turn up half an hour late every time.
>Do get used to being away from your family, you can’t live with your mother all your life.
>Do get in the queue, you don’t need an umbrella around your head if you jump in front of any old ladies.
>Do, even as a customer say ‘thank you’, Farangs are pretty polite in a variety of situations.
>Do get used to saying ‘good-bye I have to go now’ to people and not just walk off halfway through a conversation.
>Do, if you don’t understand some instructions tell the person straight, there is no need to feel embarrassed about such things in Farangland.
>Do, if you drive a car, obey the traffic laws, your influential uncle’s name-card is not going to work with the local traffic police there.
>Do, as a student or worker, ask if a question if you don’t understand something, you are not going to be sympathized with if you make quack-wack mistakes.
>Do get used to the hideous sight of hairy chests in the summer, the locals just love the sun!
>Do get used to the local food, you can’t live on ‘Mama’ noodles for the rest of your life.
>Do get used to the locals constantly complaining, it is their national pastime.
>Do, if you make a mistake say ‘sorry’, Farangs don’t give a darned about who is older than who etc..
>Do, if you don’t know where you are going, ask a local for the way, he will tell you straight up if he doesn’t know and not point you in the completely wrong direction like back home.

DONT’S:

>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘And how old are you?’, that’s his darned business and not yours.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘What’s your nickname?’, as they probably wouldn’t have a clue what you are talking about.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘What is your religion?’, such things are regarded quite personal in Farangland.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘How much do you earn?’, you don’t want them thinking ‘What the heck has that got to do with you?’
>Don’t ask your unmarried Farang lady friend ‘And why aren’t you married?’, she may not feel that she needs a man to survive in life.
>And certainly, don’t ask any black guys to the likes of ‘Where do you come from?’, you don’t need to be on the receiving end of a smack on the nose.
>Don’t take your skin whitening lotion with you, you don’t need to make a right mockery of yourself.
>Don’t use a fork to stick a piece of fruit in your mouth, such acts are considered completely uncivilized in Farangland.
>And don’t put your head halfway inside your noodle soup bowl when eating, Farangs can be quite sensitive about ‘their’ eating habits, just like you!
>Don’t bother talking any fish sauce with you, such things exist in Farangland too.
>Don’t even think about bribing the local authorities when you have done wrong, you don’t need to be made guest of the corrections department for the next three years.
>Don’t complain about the time length of having to wait for your visa, strict regularities have to be met since half your fellow countrymen have fled the scene and did a ‘Robin Hood’ on arrival before.

Well, it seems that we have been concentrating quite a lot recently on promoting Thai values to foreigners so I thought I would do a twist and come up with this. And since a lot of me Thai friends have been having a right laugh at the Farangs’ expense on some of me other ‘Do’s and Don’ts’, I thought a little bit of medicine was called for.

As always, please don’t take me dos and don’t’s TOO seriously, just having a little bit of fun.

This is the tenth blog in me ‘Dos and Don’ts’ series and I don’t know when they are going to end, the rest can be found in me archives.

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Harry Potter in Thailand

Posted on July 17, 2005 by | 11 comments

Ploenta Patiyut holds up the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at a book shop in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, July 16, 2005. Thai Harry Potter fans lined up Saturday morning to be among the first to buy the latest installment of J. K. Rowling’s fantasy series. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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