Our hotel that night bordered on the river and had the duel benefit of being close to the jungle, w/o actually having to give up luxuries like air conditioning and indoor plumbing
The grounds
walkway to the hotel room And at the base of the hill, floating ON THE RIVER was our dwelling for the evening Tethered so we dont float away without paying So it was a restful night drinking beer and induging in that most sacred of guilty pleasures, the drunken cigarette. Yes, they are terrible for you, yes they are addictive, but every once in a while, they complement the taste of beer perfectly. Also, the packaging was cool Marlboro…mmmm….lung cancer
The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Oh, except for that. But dont worry, I did Steve Irwin proud The Josh, crocodile hunter, tiger tamer, friend of monkeys, all around great guy
After departing the train, we caught a van toward sai yok waterfall and hellfire pass. But on the way we happened to pass a place where wild monkeys congregate because they know local thais and tourists will give them food. Now i know what you are thinking-bananas, right?
WRONG!
Our guide told us that since everyone thinks monkeys love bananas, they give the monkeys bananas and the monkeys got sick of it and dont eat them anymore. So we asked our guide what they do like, and she told us they love corn and beans. Leading ward and I to simultaneously come up with the thought- the monkey’s are mexican?
yes yes, that comment was rascist. it was also funny, get over your politically correct self.
So we bought some corn and made new friends A little monkey business
The missing link was…corn!
I should probably mention here that all these wild animal interactions were the awesome to me because not only do i have a love of the zoo instilled in me from my dad, but a desire to make every animal i see my pet instilled by my mom. So all these side trips were totally the best of both worlds.
Then we left to go check out Sai Yok waterfall
And saw some monks on the way…but they were in danger!!! (cue dramatic music)
luckily i was there to save the day
yes, The Josh truly is more powerful than a locomotive
come on ride the train….
Sai Yok waterfall with me and the slowest freaking tourist ever. seriously. i waited like 10 minutes for her to get even that far out of the picture and that was with asking her to move
Next stop, hellfire pass, a 4 kilometer pass carved through solid rock by wwII pows in a ridiculously short amount of time. We decided to hike it, because ward and i wanted some nature time, and Koh is a good sport
Consider for a moment how high and thick that pass is. Now realize it was carved with nothing more complicated than manpower, pickaxes and the occasional stick of dynamite. The name hellfire pass comes from when the POW’s would be working through the night, and the carving would be lit up by lanterns everywhere making them say it was the picture of hellfire
It makes me wonder what it was like for them…
Something like that i imagine
Ward of the jungle
Some crazy bugs we saw hiking (that pic’s for your bug log, ari )
After a refreshing hike,the second day was done and it was time to head out to the jungle river hotel…
The next morning dawned bright and early (as mornings are wont to do…) and while Ward went fishing, Koh and I took a boat ride to the Khao Poom Caves, a former munitions depot for the Japanese during wwII
Houses and a vietnamese temple along the banks of the river kwai. Incidentally, Kwai means buffalo in thai, so we were traveling down the water buffalo river
These are the floating clubs/discos of Kachanaburi. At night, they travel slowly up and down the river playing funky music while people dance, drink, and occasionally swim alongside
education is important for EVERYONE
Koh is in front of tiger mouth cave, so called because it looks like the gaping jaws of a tiger
in this cave the opening looked like a giant nose, so we used that stick to pick it
buddha of the cave
guardians of the area who come to take the dead away
restaurant on the river, and then popsicle break!
It was time to check out the bridge on the river kwai up close
closer…
closer….
TOO CLOSE! TRAIN’S A COMIN’!
So we got all on the train, and climbed in for a ride down the death railway
It was the end of the line, nam tok station. From here we would go visit some monkeys and then hike hellfire pass, as you shall soon see both were even more exciting than they sound
unless you are not into hiking or monkeys, then probably not so much
After seeing the big kitties, it was time to head to the hotel where we would be spending the first night.
Right by the bridge on the river kwai. Some of you may be familiar with this film, and if you are not, you may have still heard the tune that made it so famous
if you haven’t heard the tune or the movie, then you have missed out on a classic part of my childhood. shame on you.
Here is the room, nice and cozy and conveniently located not just on the bank of the infamous river kwai…
but within sight of the bridge itself
So we took a brief walk around and then went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant
Then it was off to bed for the next day we would walk the bridge itself and take a trip into the history of wwII
After departing the floating market with surprisingly few souvenirs, we continued on to the province of kachanaburi where we met Jang, our guide for the next 3 days. We then continued on deeper into kachanburi, heading near the border with myanmar to go visit Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, better known as the Tiger Temple.
First we stopped off to have lunch with the vetrinarian who takes care of the tigers when they are sick or injured. Then it was down into the Canyon, a former quarry where the tigers spend their day during tourist visiting hours. The remainder of the time they roam freely around the temple with the monks.
You are now going to see a LOT of pictures of me with tigers.
tickle tickle! yes, that is me acting as a pillow for a tiger
and after i left, he wanted to know where his pillow had gone As you can tell, these tigers are somewhat more used to humans so i was able to get a bunch of really great shots some would even pose for the camera
so how do they keep these tigers so calm and docile?
It is not just tigers that the monks have taken in however. All sorts of animals have learned to coexist peacefully at the temple, and they all come together at feeding time in the late afternoon
So by this point you are probably saying to yourself, okay Josh, that is pretty cool, but now that i think about it, really, anyone can sit next to a tiger and take a picture. We have come to expect more from you, you dazzling doer of death defying deeds.
Well then, allow me to commend you on your alliteration and show you this:
So bright and early the next morning, Koh, Ward and I began our 3 day 2 night excursion into the countryside of thailand visiting many a rural and jungly site along the way. Again, in an effort to hold your attention, i will be posting by activity and not by the full day as that many pics per post would take way too long to load.
So the first stop was located in kanchanaburi about 2.5 hours drive from bangkok in morning traffic But what is a floating market you may wonder? In my head, I had visions of hopping from rowboat to rowboat to purchase produce while around me paddled thai people and crocodiles in the middle of the jungle. Then again, we all know i have an overactive imagination. In reality, the floating market of damnoen saduak is a tourist craft market in this day and age, but it was still a very unique one and no less cool for that, and there was still produce to be found. But I digress. lets begin, shall we?
The travelers-and yes I am well aware i look short in said company and no it is not due to any perspective or camera tricks. Koh is just a giant of a man
And our transport to, from, and around the floating market. Can you imagine what it is like to ride in one of those things? Well if not, here you go!
And my obligatory traveling pose All the houses are built on stilts along the river, presumably so they do not float away or get submerged during the rainy season. FYI: Thailand has 3 seasons, hot, cold and rainy. The week i traveled there was the end of the cold season. during which time the coldest temp i felt was 86 degrees farenheit with about 30% humidity. Native Thai people would die in chicago. The morning commute. Cmon, sing with me now. left a good job in the city workin for the man every night and day but i never lost one minute of sleeping, worrying bout the way things might have been vendors keep on rowin tourists, hope their money keep burning cuz we rolling rollin rolling on a river OMG! Snakes on A Josh! Snake Break times 2 Feather Boas are for pussies Ah a good start to the trip. Now to bid goodbye to our driver and set off deeper into the jungle there you have it folks, every asian person is genetically programmed to do this when a camera is pointed at them
Next Stop: Buddhists and Tigers and prayers-oh my!
So back from not just a night, but an entire week in thailand, and in an attempt to not repeat the china debacle (which i still haven’t finished posting about), I am going to be trying to come at you hard and fast with what i got to see and do while i still remember it all
albums of all the trips can be found here, as i post them. However, only the best of the best makes it into the albums as i literally took 941 pictures and video over the duration of a week, and there is no way in heck they will ever all make it online
Associated Album: Bangkok
Anyway after a wonderful 20 hours cumulative flight (and 15 hour time difference from los angeles), Koh, Ward and I made it to bangkok around 11pm at night, checked into our hotel by 1am and wandered the city for a bit before turning in. These photos begin from our first full day 2/12.
The first hotel we checked into was the New World Lodge, a 3 star in the banglamphu district, in old bangkok, about a 10 minute walk from Khao San, the expat road. Although to be fair, everything in old bangkok is relatively close to each other and walkable
This is a shot of the banglampu canal outside our hotel not for nothing is bangkok called “The Venice of the East”
The rama VIII bridge (the current king is Rama IX) which spans the chao praya river, a major thoroughfare of bangkoks waterways. First thing we did was hop a boatbus down the river to check out the sights
Not sure wat this is (haha i made a pun-wat means temple in thai), but nonetheless a nifty looking one on the banks of chao praya
Wat Arun: Temple of the dawn: more of this to come later
This is me on the grounds of Wat Pho, Temple of the reclining buddha.
And here is the reclining buddha himself. Although it can be tough to get an accurate idea of the immensity of the buddha with no people around, but fear not…
Reclining buddha up close
Ward at the buddha’s sole. Fancy foot tattoos, no? And no people, Ward is not jackie chan, though he has been confused for him before.
more wat pho
me being goofy
Stupas, or possibly chedis i am not really sure on the grounds of wat pho
ward and Koh, my traveling companions
yoga position, or offensive statue? hey, whatsamatta u?
Finaly we all got tired of looking at the wat (and if you saw all the pics, i didnt post, you would too ) and decided to move on to the next location. But how to get there?
perhaps a tuk tuk? no, not quite yet, not least because the grand palace was merely across the street
Sharing the grounds with the grand palace was wat pha kraew, the temple of the emerald buddha. Sadly no pictures of the buddha itself were allowed, but i assure you it was quite an awe inspiring sight. Each asian country i have been too has had unique styles to their temples- japan has a naturalistic simplicity and economy of design, china a majestic grandness, but thai people definetily know how to put a razzle dazzle on their places of worship
like this golden chedi here on the grounds of wat pha kraew
and me in front of it
then it was time to find a little inner peace before continuing on our tour
when in bangkok, do as the guardian demons do
a pretty grand palace indeed
Then we hopped back on the boat bus
one of the ferry’s to cross the river, instead of just traveling down it
After a brief lunch of pad see ew and pad thai (pictured in the food album along with food from many other places) we walked up and down some of the alleways for a bit
And then because it was time for me to get a little of my nerd on, it was on to the museum of forensic medicine, pathology, and parasitology. Since the majority of you would not be interested in those pictures, i shall not post them, but it was quite an educational experience for me. As i mentioned earlier, the bodies of several of thailands serial killers are preserved and mummfied, just chilling in the museum. Here is a link to pics of the forensic museum if you are still so inclined. The museum of parasitology only further reinforced my intention not to go swimming in bangkoks rivers.
koh and ward on the riverbus
After another joyride down the river we wandered around on the opposite shore for a while until we came across a small wat and fish market. Thai people were just hanging out feeding the pigeons and fish in the river by throwing them bread crumbs, corn, smaller fish, whatever was available. The best part was at the end of the day, a number of the vendors took their unsold fish down to these steps and just dumped them in the river, presumably to recatch the next day
Getting so late we decided to grab a bite to eat and stopped at a thai indian fusion restauraunt
who could refuse that face?
and then a detour over to khao san road where we had a few drinks and then got thai massages. The place was a fairly reputable massage parlor however, so the only happy ending we wanted or walked away with was the relaxed soreness of our muscles after a long day of walking around.
because the next morning, we would be setting off for the countryside of thailand to see sites of wwII, tigers, and monkeys, and elephants (oh my)…
you people didnt really think i could go THAT long without some connecting to the internets, did you?
I am currently in the hotel lobby waiting to set out for 3 days in the jungles of thailand, rafting down the mekong and river kwai, visitng the tiger temple and who knows what else. Yesterday i maxed my nerd factor, as in addition to visiting several wat’s which i will go into more later when i have more than 5 minutes of access remaining (), we stopped into a hospital to check out the forensic and pathology museums-oh dr szanto would be so proud
fun fact-the thai forensic museum keeps the REAL ACTUAL DEAD BODIES of several serial killers preserved and on display at the forensics museum, along with a host of unidentified vairous organs in a super fascinating study of pathology- i got to see a triple A and a horshoe kidney (non medical students ignore the last paragraph)
other than that, having a blast and taking truckloads of pics. everyone take care, and have a great v day however you spend it
fyi: the song in the last post is called one night in bangkok, it is a super well known 80′s tune, but apparently not outside the us, since none of my friends seem to know it-it is by the group murray head or chess depending on where you look
And off I go to thailand…thanks for the well wishes all!
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don’t know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies — doesn’t seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change — don’t you know that when you
Play at this level there’s no ordinary venue
It’s Iceland — or the Philippines — or Hastings — or –
or this place!
[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you’re lucky then the god’s a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
[THE AMERICAN]
One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother
[COMPANY]
It’s a drag, it’s a bore, it’s really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city
[THE AMERICAN]
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town –
[COMPANY]
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite
[THE AMERICAN]
Get Thai’d! You’re talking to a tourist
Whose every move’s among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
[THE AMERICAN]
Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
And thank God I’m only watching the game — controlling it –
I don’t see you guys rating
The kind of mate I’m contemplating
I’d let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours –
[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
And because i shant be around for valentine’s day,
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