Bangkok and Kanchanaburi (Bridge over the River Kwae)

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Bangkok

I spent 3 nights in Bangkok in the famous backpacker district of Banglamphu near Kao San Road. Its basically a backpacker ghetto with lots of bars and restaurants and really cool shopping where you can find dirt cheap clothes and designer replicas...
I was told that the nightlife was crazy here but was surprised to notice on my first night that bars closed at 2am just like back home and then smaller quieter restaurants stayed open later if you wanted to stay up. The best thing to do is wonder the streets, look around at the action, shop and taste all the amazing street food.. BBQ'd corn on the cob, padthai, fresh fruit, fruit shakes...

Aside from that, after 3 full days in Bangkok, I can truly walk away stating one fact assertively: Bangkok is the most amazing shopping city I have ever been to. Huge shopping center's with amazing designer replicas of everything under the sun, and DIRT cheap. You can go to a suit store and pick up 2 custom fitted suits + 2 shirts + 2 ties for.... drum roll.... $180 USD. 1 suit will cost as low as $60 USD. Incredible. I plan to return to Bangkok to do my xmas shopping prior to going home. The wheels were also turning in my head for all the amazing import opportunities there could be here. other amazing examples of cheap stuff:
-packs of 100 earings: $5 CDN
-packs of 10 bracelets the kind you find in the market in ottawa for $10 each: $4
-designer wallets (good replicas): $9
-designer jeans (diesel): $22 CDN
and the list goes on and on....

Aside from shopping, I can't say that anything really stood out for me. I saw the main tourist attractions: Great Palace, the huge laying buddha, Jim Thompson's house (1st american to import thai silk), Siam Square and Night Bazaar. All these were pretty cool. After 3 days though, I felt like it was time to leave, especially since I knew I would come back afterwards for shopping and likely to fly out to Indonesia later on in the month.

My travel buddy Arnold wanted to hit Chianot where he had met a guy who was starting a bird watching Guesthouse and offered him a place to stay. I was fascinated with the history of Kachanaburi famous for the Bridge over the River Kwae. And so, after several weeks of travelling together, we split ways. It was a bit sad as we had gotten to know one another quite well and had become good friends. I am sure we will reconvene in northern thailand or perhaps in Laos.

Kanchanaburi - historical and weird random local encounter.

The bus ride took over 3.5 hours. I thought the bus ride out would give me an understanding of just how big Bangkok is...but the suburbs NEVER ENDED. So the entire bus ride was actually felt like it was driving threw Bangkok suburbs... Bangkok really is amazingly big and sprawling.

Kanchanaburi itself is a small peaceful town right on the River Kwae. I'm staying at a chilled out guesthouse with hammocks right on the water. There are cool floating restaurants along the river. Today I rented a motorbike and decided to do the historical sites on my own rather than pay alot to do a guided tour.

I began at the Railway museum to learn about why the bridge over the river kwae was so famous (all I knew was that there was a movie made about it). Turns out this railway bridge was commissioned by the Japanaese during the second world war as a strategic way of getting supplies from Thailand into Burma while Japan occupied SE Asia. Due to the rough terrain, this railway would prove extremely difficult and labour intensive. To this effect, the Japanese would force thousands of British, Australian and American POW's as well as locals to build it. They would labour in awful conditions with little food, medical attention, and rest. Thousands of POW's died in the construction of the railway (which is now dubbed The Death Railroad) and the worst of this was in the construction of the Railway Bridge crossing the River Kwae. With normal labour circumstances, estimations were that it would take 5 years to complete the railway but with these POW's, the japanese were able to complete it in 16 months, the bridge taking only 6. The bridge was bombed several times by the allies but rebuilt.

So I walked the historical Bridge, visited the museum and also the beautiful Allied Cemetery nearby. I really enjoyed learning about this historical town and also enjoyed the low key vibe.

Then later this afternoon, I encountered the most random thai local woman. I met her while in a shopping center looking for shampoo and soap. She just walking right up to me and asked me where I was from smiling and, I think, trying to flirt with me. I knew this woman must of have been at least 40 but despite this she kept on. I remained polite and answered her questions, thinking, this is kind of cool to be interacting with a local. Then she asked me if I was single. I proceeded to give her my age and tell her I was too young for her. She laughed saying she was 40 but then asked me if I would have a coffee with her. My first reaction was to decline but then I thought, what the heck, I'll put a smile on this woman's face by accepting. Right after I acccepted she bluntly says "Can you pay for me"... oh boy. I say yes sure. We get to the coffee shop, I order a coffee, she tells me she doesnt want coffee and orders herself an expensive ice cream sundae...lovely. I dont protest but thought all this was either a setup or this woman had a few screws loose.

In the end we had a good conversation and I learnt alot about her and she asked alot of questions about me, despite the strong language barrier. She asked for my email and then when she gave me hers, I noticed it ended with her name 1963@hotmail.com. 40 eh??...roight...Then I confronted her about her age and she told me the truth. She was 46. After coffee, I told her I needed to go to the bus station to buy my next ticket, she followed....I started to feel uncomfortable...but turned out she actually helped me at the bus station. Finally I managed to loose her by noticing a backpacker at the bus station and starting a convo with him...that was my first authentic long conversation with a local...random.

Well looks like I'm headed north tomorrow. Sorry if this was a bit of a windbag post.

Pat