Deborah's Southeast Asian Adventure

I have totally recovered from my day from hell. On my first day in Kanchanaburi, I woke up and arrived at breakfast all ready to join one of the tours which takes guests to the major sites only to be told that all of the tours started an hour before. I was beside myself and thought 'will my bad luck not end any time soon'?

So I hired a driver by the name of Wisut, a former Thai police officer turned tour guide, who spoke great English with a wicked sense of humour and some great stories and had the best day ever! We visited the famous Erwan waterfalls which are located in a national park and comprise seven levels. We only hiked to the fifth level as it was 36 degrees and way too hot! Next, we visited the very moving Hellfire Pass Museum which chronicles the building of the Thai-Burma railroad by Asians as well as Australian, English and Dutch POWs who were forced to by the Japanese army during World War II. It was horrible. These people worked under slave conditions in jungle conditions first clearing jungle and then solid rock for the rail tracks. About 60,000 POWs and 100,.000 Asians died while building the railway, especially after the Japanese, who had missed three deadlines for completion, implemented "speedo", a fast-tracking of the building process. The museum itself is very moving and includes testimonies from some of the POWs who survived. Apparently, the Thai government initially charged visitors an entrance fee but the Australian government protested and now the museum is free.

Later, I took the famous Death Railway train from Nam Tok to Kanchanaburi over the River Kwai. It was so beautiful and scenic although the bridge over the River Kwai was a huge letdown. Wisut dropped me off at No Name Bar, a local backpackers hangout owned by an Australian where I held forth with a variety of characters for several hours: Patrick, the Australian rock climber surfer dude who lived in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada for a time, Jimmy, a retired guy from Birmingham who tried to convince me that Burma is the "shit-hole" of southeast Asia and that I should never, ever even think of going there, Nick, the brother of the Bar's owner who teaches English part-time while running the bar.

This morning, Wisut picked me up and dropped me off at the bus station where I took two local buses to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. I thoroughly enjoyed the four and a half hour journey on buses that only the locals use - meaning no frills such as air conditioning. Everyone sits jam-packed together and all of the bags, boxes, etc. are thrown in the very back in front of a single row of seats reserved for Buddhist monks. I boarded at the back of the bus and thinking that I should keep an eye on my bag, I plopped down on the back seat beside two monks. At which point, Wisut gasped "don't touch the monks". Which really threw me because I had no intention of touching the monks. I was only planning to sit beside them. I did notice that when I sat down, they squished off to the side. Wisut then suggested I sit in the row in front of them. It was really weird because two men got on the bus and sat down beside them and there was no reaction whatsoever. I will have to ask what's up with that. Later on, I was confused as to where we were and the young monk leaned over to try and explain to me that we hadn't reached my destination yet. The bus journey went smoothly until a guy boarded with a cage full of squawking chickens and for the next 40 kilometres, I kept praying "please lord, please do not let me catch Avian flu on this bus!"

Ayutthaya is an amazing city full of ruins from Thailand's golden period. The ancient temples are really impressive as are the preserved Buddha statutues and chedis. One temple stood out most of all. Unlike the others which were red brick, this one was white. Apparently its base was built by the Burmese army as a victory over the Thai people but they were kicked out and the Thai proceeded to built their own temple on top. So the temple is a mix of Burmese and Thai building styles.

Right now, I'm sitting in an Internet cafe and just chilling. In a few minutes, I will hail a tuk tuk and head to the train station where I'm taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai.

About Wisut - Guardian Angel #2 on this trip. He was born and raised in Kanchanaburi. After 12 years as a police officer in Pattaya, he retired and set himself up in Kanchanaburi's tourist industry. He runs a motorcycle rental agency and gives private tours in his sports utility vehicle. I told him that I felt sorry to see all of these beautiful Thai women with ugly, fat and old foreign men. He laughed and told me not to be sad. According to him, these women have much better lives with foreign men who give them a home, clothes, food and support for their extended families. Plus, he said with a wink, we are getting our money back in one way or another from our British and American colonizers.He also told me that Thai women are exceptionally shy in public but not when it comes to sex. He's the first Thai person to mention anything taboo to me on this trip. If you are even in Kanchanaburi or Bangkok, I highly-recommend hiring Wisut.

Gotta dash. More to come...