Kanchanaburi/Bangkok, Thailand

Our conference finished the night of February 2nd. The next afternoon we took the overnight train from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok. It was scheduled to arrive early in the morning, so we decided, before leaving Chaing Mai, to catch another train from Bangkok to the city of Kanchanaburi. However, our plans did not take into account Thailand train schedule reliability. This was our departing platform at the Chiang Mai rail station. It was a really nice place and very easy to understand and get around.Here we are, chilling on the train. Jennifer was being productive while Josh was trying to figure out train schedules. The book on the table is "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." Josh decided to take that to read since we planned on visiting the Bridge over the River Kwai.

Unfortunately, our train arrived over two hours late into Bangkok, so we were unable to take the train to Kanchanaburi. However, we had made reservations at a guesthouse and needed to get there before 2 pm. After a restless night on the train, we set out to make our own way to Kanchanaburi. Thankfully, we were approached by a travel advisor in the train station who directed us to a place where we could buy bus tickets direct from the Bangkok station to Kanchanaburi. We were tired, stressed, and just wanted to get there; so we got the tickets which we found out later where way overpriced. Just the thing for tired, stressed tourists. The bus ride took a little over two hours, but we were dropped off right at our guesthouse. We checked in and left our bags before setting out for our first destination.

Kanchanaburi was the sight of an Allied POW work camp during WWII. Thousands of British, Australian, and Dutch troops were forced to do slave labor building a railroad for the Japanese army. So many POWs and native workers died during the railway's construction that it was aptly named the Death Railroad. Kanchanaburi has the largest of three Allied POW cemeteries in Southeast Asia. It was very moving to see the cost of war and the number of young men who were literally worked to death while in the prime of their youth. This was by far the most beautiful cemetery that either of us have ever been to. We were very pleased to see the care that is given to keep this place in such good condition. It is a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives while serving their enemies.
Kanchanburi was really put on the map because of the Kwai River bridge, an infamous portion of the Death Railroad. This bridge has a very interesting history. It not only served as an important point along the supply route from Thailand to Burma, but it was also used to highlight the mistreatment of Allied POWs by Japanese troops in the book "Bridge Over the River Kwai." However, the actual history of the bridge is much better than the book.
While there, we had the opportunity to walk across the bridge. The bridge was destroyed by Allied bombers towards the end of the war, but it was rebuilt by the Thai government several years later. Most of the railroad itself is not the same as was laid in WWII, but most of the bridge has original materials. War damage can still be seen on a few of the lower supports.
Another interesting thing about our stay in Kanchanaburi was that our guesthouse bungalow was actually in the Kwai River. The accommodations were not great, but it was pretty cool to sleep in a bungalow suspended over the river.

After two nights in Kanchanaburi, we were ready to go back to Bangkok. The temperature was a good ten degrees hotter than Chiang Mai, and we did not have air conditioning. Noon our third day, we took a bus back to Bangkok for a lot less money than we spent going out there. We were able to find our guesthouse this time. It was the same one that we were going to stay at on our way to Chiang Mai, but this time we had the address. It was a great place where we met a lot of interesting people. We spent two and a half days there just resting before heading to Beijing.
We hit 7 Eleven (all 8 along our stretch of the street) a few times while we were there.
You can't read the label, but these were Hot Chili Squid Lay's chips. They were not bad, but I doubt they are going to be a big hit in the States any time soon.
Our main outing while in Bangkok was a sky train ride to a mall. I know, "Another mall?" Actually, there were three right next to each other. The one we spent most of our time in was huge. It had the largest book store in Thailand on the fourth floor, the largest aquarium in Southeast Asia on the basement level, and five car dealerships on the third floor, not to mention a department store the size of most malls. It also had a massive food court on the first floor with several hundred choices of food items. We walked around for awhile, but the size of the place was just too much for us.
Bangkok was an interesting place, but we were both happy that we were only there for a few days. However, our hotel was great, and we were able to rest more before moving on to China.