Thursday, December 28, 2006

I left the Grand Sukumvit Hotel by Sofitel at 7:00-ish. I found that they had some pastries on sale down in the lobby so I got one so I would at least not go anywhere that morning without something in my stomach. After all, it was only my 2nd day but I already had suffered being broke on the streets of Bangkok. I wasn’t intending on going hungry too. If anyone was wondering, I did bring along my passport today.

I took the metro over to the train station to see where the 7:45 am train left from to go to Kachanaburi. I figured I had seen most of Bangkok at this point so I wanted to get out of town and see somewhere cool. Now I knew that a train left for Kachanaburi somewhere in Bangkok. I naturally assumed it was from the main train station, Hua Lamphong. I was told at the information desk that the train left from the Thonburi station, probably 7 to 8 miles away from where I was. I’m just guessing that distance by looking at the map. It may even be longer considering how far apart everything is in Bangkok. Since it was nearing 7:30 at this point, I knew there was no way to reach it. The desk told me the next best option would be to take a taxi up to the South train station where there were buses that left every hour or so for Kachanaburi.

And that’s what I did. I took a taxi for about B90 and got up there in time to catch the 9:00 bus to Kachanaburi. I was surrounded by Asians. If there was one thing I ultimately decided during this trip, it was that I tended to go where there were no other tourists. I got on the bus and everyone was Asian except the poor little American boy sitting next to the window. I figured that what few tourists there might have been anywhere at any given moment in the country might all be taking the high-class VIP buses from town to town. These are the buses that have soft seats with considerably more comfort than anything else, probably, but they are considerably more costly. In terms of American money, however, it was probably negligible, maybe a couple dollars of difference. It was a little peculiar because the person coming around to clip our tickets actually looked like she pointed me to a specific seat. That I couldn’t understand but I sat there anyway.

The bus took around 2 hours to get to the city where the Bridge on the River Kwai and other monuments dedicated to the POWs who died creating the bridge during WWII. The same woman who clipped our tickets came around and gave us all a bottle of water! Neat! Free purified water! I never thought I would be sort of excited to actually receive a free water. In America, water is a thing that is not cherished simply because it is readily accessible. In Asia, however, you have to careful of where you get your water from and to not pay for it, it was a nice feeling. I had taken the precaution of buying water before getting on the bus but it seems that I was okay.

When we pulled up in Kachanaburi, I thought we had only come like half way or something. The reason was that the train was supposed to take 3.5 hours. I had managed to make it in 2 hours. I began asking around where is the bus that I take to get to Kachanaburi? But I was told that it was Kachanaburi—it was Kachanaburi! How is it Kachanaburi? It only took 2 hours and the train takes 3.5 hours.

There were tuk tuk drivers and other vehicles waiting to pounce on me for me to use their services. They all sold packages deals of a sort. They would take you to the Jeath museum, the Bridge, and some other cool places up in that region that perhaps don’t get visited by tourists that often. As much fun as the Thai people can be, they can sure get to be a hassle.

I chose to walk the one kilometer over to the Jeath Museum. The museum is a simple hut designed after the huts that the POWs had to stay in while building the bridge. It was filled with newspaper articles and pictures showing the pitiful condition that they lived in. It isn’t a very big museum because it’s really just two “hallways” that are about 30 or so feet long but filled with interesting and revealing pictures.

I exited and again, I was sprung upon by the Thais. There were only three of them but the all worked for a company that runs boat trips up around the bridge region. So, for the cheap price of B750, I could see most of the region by riverboat including some of that stuff that most tourists don’t see. If I was made of money, I might have done it. But I managed to get them to just give me the one way ride up to the Bridge and leave me up there for B200, still fairly expensive. I would figure out how to get back to the bus station or train station.

Riding up there on a boat was really cool because I could see all the houses on the river and how they all lived. There were clothes hanging outside most of them that were out to dry. I don’t recall anyone outside swimming or bathing in the water. I’m not sure if you would want to bathe in any river in Thailand though. But people bathe in the Ganges so I wouldn’t be surprised by anything I saw in Thailand.

I got off the boat and walked across the bridge. Twice I had to step off to the side onto the platforms on the bridge so that the tourist train could pass by. It was this small engine pulling about 2 open air cars that people could pay to ride across the bridge with. There is an “official” tourist train that crosses the bridge at around 10:30 am and rides along the entire span of the railway up to the city of blank, about 30 miles outside of Kachanaburi. You have to be sure to get to Kachanaburi early so that you can take it. But it costs B300 for the foreigners aboard, about $9. But they don’t just take you on the railway; they give you some refreshments and nice, comfortable padded seats. Of course, I didn’t take it because I wasn’t there early enough and I didn’t want to spend the nine dollars anyway.

On the other side of the bridge is a very touristy shopping village with an Elephant and locals selling different things. I began to notice a certain theme among what people sold. In each city, there were essentially the same knick knacks being sold at each vendor. Even among different cities, there were usually the same items being sold. So if a person saw something someplace and later was disappointed that they didn’t buy it, I can almost assure you that you will likely have a chance to buy it again somewhere else, maybe even cheaper.

I returned to the main side of the bridge and bought a bunch of bananas for B10. One of my cousins advised me to buy bananas while I was over there because they tasted

“like candy.” I will admit, they were pretty sweet. There was a pleasant little locals market down the street where they had all sorts of eating materials like dishes and ethnic foods. I wasn’t feeling very adventurous that day (not to mention my tight dollar) so I didn’t buy anything.

I walked back to the POW cemetery which is probably 4 kilometers from the bridge. The walks didn’t bother me because I had a small day pack on my pack. There were some other tourists there but it was a nice serene locations. Apparently, a museum was nearby that I should have looked into. I debated about going into the WWII museum that displayed the weapons that the people used during the war but I figured I didn’t have enough time. I was planning on catching the train that left at 2:30 because the train station was the easiest thing to get to from the bridge. Remember, the bus station was around 8 kilometers away.

Riding the train truly felt like the 3rd world experience. There were hard seats and the windows were all open so everyone on the train would get hot and sweaty. But there weren’t a lot of people on the train so we had our space. I was able to see the countryside this way. We stopped many times for the locals to take the train which is probably the reason it take 3.5 hours to get home. The biggest disappointment was that it still cost about $3 to get back to Bangkok, about the same that I paid for the bus with a somewhat padded seat.

Well, my suggestion to the general public is NEVER RIDE THE TRAIN FROM KACHANABURI TO BANGKOK. The Thonburi station is located in the middle of nowhere, far from the center of Bangkok and from anything worthwhile. I started walking in hopes of orienting myself so I could at least walk back across the river and catch a taxi over there. I had gotten back into town early enough that I could make it to a show called Siam Niramit that was suggested by an American who lives in Bangkok that I was able to get in touch with. It was over near the Thailand Cultural Center which had a metro station nearby.

There were some Thais who said they spoke English. My foot they spoke English. I asked them where the center of town was, or Thanon Sukumvit was. They pointed me in one direction. I began walking that direction but quickly figured they were very wrong. I even began asking store attendants if they spoke English. One even laughed at me! Thankfully, a taxi letting someone out had just flipped on their light that they were available. I knocked on his window before he drove off and he took me back to Siam Square for a lousy B120.

From the square, I took the Skytrain over to Sukumvit and the metro over to the Thailand Cultural Center. B40 later, I stepped above ground to find myself lost in a haze of cars. I found a bridge I was able to walk up to and look around but I couldn’t see anything really recognizable from the map. I had no idea what I was looking for either. I asked someone selling their wares on the street where the Thailand Cultural Center was. They pointed me in the direction of the metro station. I figured that might be what she was pointing to because the exit was named the Thailand Cultural Center exit. The time came to be 7:50 and I needed to be there by curtain at 8:00 pm.

There were some motorcyclists off the road who called out if I needed to go somewhere. Of course, this was a time of desperation so I agreed to take one of them. My driver said “Twenty baht.” I said, “No, ten baht,” because I knew that I was so close that it would be ridiculous to pay that much for riding 10 steps to the front door. He repeated, “Twenty bath.” So I patted him on the back and said, “Okay, twenty bath.”

Well, I drove around in Bangkok on the back of a motorbike with the rest of the Thais. That was insane. He pulled off to the side of the road into a deserted parking lot. He said, “thirty bath.” I was very confused at this point. I looked into the parking lot and thought that Siam Niramit must not have been playing that night. He repeated, “Thirty baht.” And I gave him the agreed upon twenty baht and he drove off. I went and asked an authoritative looking guard at the parking lot if the show was playing. He said, “Are you looking for Siam Niramit?” “Yes,” I said. “Well, it’s over there,” and he pointed to a large building I could see about 200 meters from where I was. The motorcyclist had tried to stiff me! It was now that it was making sense. From that point, I had a really bad taste in my mouth for motorbikes and their riders in general. I just knew that taking a motorbike would probably come back to bite me in the butt.

I ran over there and purchased a ticket at 8:00 pm straight up. But then they forced me to check my camera at the coat check. I then had to run through the large outdoor palazzo in the center of the complex. I was in my seat by 8:04. The show didn’t start for another couple minutes, probably in an effort to get as many patrons as possible. I reached up to wipe the sweat from my face. My shirt came back with black soot all over it from the train! I looked down at my shirt and thought, “I have to wear this more during this trip and now I’ve dirtied it!” I was shocked how much crap was actually on my face. It really was disgusting.

The show was pretty entertaining although it was a little pricey at $40, especially considering I usually see any theatrical show for free by ushering the event downtown. But the use of large sets and interesting theatrical techniques such as flying people and rain really kept my attention. The production really meshed well. As for the story, there really wasn’t much of one. It was simply a show of dance and theater telling about the history of Siam, or Thailand. Aside from the ticket, I had already paid $5 to get there from the Thonburi station. I wish I had just taken the taxi all the way to the Cultural Center but I still hadn’t gotten the hand of Bangkok yet.

I took the trains back to the hotel at the Nana station. I stayed up until 12:30 or so washing my clothes. For some reason, I just thought they would be able to dry overnight. Tee hee. Not in the humid climate of Bangkok…