Elephants, Tigers and the Death Railway

Thai Girls
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We have done so much in the last 24 hours in Kanchanburi-this town of 70,000 people located along the River Kwai. Kanchanaburi has always been a important in the history of Thailand as a first line of defense from the nearby Burmese.

Yesterday afternoon, we signed up with local group to ride and swim with the elephants and eat dinner on the river at dusk. It was a short ride on the elephant carriers up and down a hill to reach the river. When we reached the river we stripped to our swimsuits and were able to ride bareback with the elephants and wash their heads! To get the soap off, the elephant trainer (mahout?) would have them fully submerge with you on their backs. I must say I was terrified to try but it was quite fun. This may be what Sonja and Daniel remember the most from Thailand.

Elephant Riding
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This morning we toured the Death Railway train museum and brought flowers to a nearby war cemetery. The Japanese constructed the Death Railway from Kanchanaburi to nearby Burma (now Myanmar) in WWII as part of their grand scheme to take over Asia from East to West and to enter and conquer Burma. They constructed the railway through difficult mountains with POWs and civilian labor. 16,000 POW Allied Forces (mostly British, Dutch and Australians) and 100,000 civilians died(mostly slave type labor from Burma and Malay)from starvation, cholera, and poor working conditions. The original engineers thought the railway would take 5 years to build but it was constructed in 16 months at the expense of the workers who worked 16 to 18 hours a day with few tools. The River Kwai bridge was instrumental is this rail system. We picked up a boot leg copy of the movie Bridge over the River Kwai to watch when we return to civilization.

Elephant Rinsing
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We took a Siesta at the hotel and then went to the Tiger Temples. The Tiger Temples are a rescue group for tigers and it is run by a Monk as his special mission. We were able to get our pictures taken with the tigers. I thought it was a bit corny but is was okay for the kids.

Computers here are a bit slow. I will post pictures to this page upon our return to Singapore.