Back from the trip to Kanchanaburi

Okay so I was completely confused when Ann said we were going to stay
by the water. When She said that I thought -"oh, she must mean
lake"...

Oh no there's no lake, it was the River Kwai (remember the movie?).
We went to a lot of historical sites, saw the big graveyard with all
of the dead Australians and Dutch .. some Americans died there too (
about 3 or 5 hundred). We walked around on the Bridge that crosses
the river Kwai. Kwai means "water buffalo" by the way.. Thai's dont
call the river Kwai the river kwai. They say "Kwaa" .. no i at the
end.

We then got to this place where we hopped on a long tail boat, and
rode for about 25 minutes upstream on the river Kwai. There was very
few house boats... and even less people as we got further up stream.
Finally appearing on the horizon were these houses constructed on
rafts. We stopped here .. it was quite possibly the most beautiful
place I've ever stayed. The mountains were on the horizon and we sat
there and watched the sun go down as we relaxed on handmade hammocks
by the Mon people. The Mon hilltribes live there and they constructed
this quasi hotel. The hotel consists of cabins sitting on rafts. The
whole construct had no electricity so we had to carry around these
little gas lanterns for light. The rooms had a front "porch" where
you could lounge out on the water and really relax. And it also had a
back "porch" just big enough for a hammock. In the rooms were just
two beds and a water hole for a toilet. It was really awesome
though... As the sun went down some mosquitos came out and then came
the entertainment.

At one end of the string of cabins we were able to view some burmese
style dancing. THat was Awesome. They had little kids dressed
traditionally while some people played music and they danced and sang
to lamp light. I took some pictures but they came out blurry because
of the poor lighting.

The next day we went to check out the hill tribe. I wanted to ride an
elephant but it was way too expensive. 800 baht for an hour. About 20
bucks. Too expensive. So we just walked around the jungle checking
out the Mon people. A huge black scorpion came running across teh
jungle path at one point (I got photos) and the guide scooped it up in
a bag to freak out the tribe kids. Those Mon people have it nice back
there. They are totally sustained by this raft hotel that they
constructed. My sister told me that they learn to speak Mon and
ENglish. But not Thai, so noone could really speak well with her.
Really werid considering that they live in Thailand.

I just got back, and need a shower desperately. I probably stink of
river water hehe. On our way back here I got to feed some elephants
some bananas. Those elephants are pretty smart, they knew when I was
out of them and didnt want anything to do with me anymore. One of them
got elephant snot all over me, my shorts have a stain to prove it...
so that's just to let you know how stinky I am right now!!

Tonight, we're going to go out and get dinner. Then tomorrow morning
Ann will come pick us up to go to Ayutthaya (sp?). You would
recognize this temple if you saw a photo. I think that Mortal Kombat,
and the Power Rangers movies were both filmed here. I've never been
there so this will be a lot of fun.

We will come back to Bangkok tomorrow night, and then the next day we
will depart for Krabi island. It's so far away that we have to fly.
Ann's kids can't come and I"m really sad because I love those kids so
much. I want to spend more time with them. They have to go to school.

We had dinner with them before we went to Kanchanaburi (river kwai).
THe restaurant was on the Chao Praya river right in Bangkok. We ate
right on the water. The restaurant was really nice. We could have
eaten on the boat that goes up and down the river but I didnt' want
Ann paying for anything else!!! She's not that well off.. ANyhow the
restaurant had this playground where the kids could play and when I
got up to use the bathroom the kids talked me into playing with them.
They got me on this giant boat swing and kept swinging it so I
couldn't get off. they think it's really cool to trap a foreigner in
a boat swing :) Man I love these kids so much... It's so neat being
an instant aunt!!! :-D

Well, hopefully I"ll be able to update about Ayuthaya tomorrow night,
if not you won't hear from me again for a while... Finding an internet
cafe is really difficult... and Dad's blackberry didnt even work up in
Kanchanburi!

sawadee kha,
Linda