Unexpected Discoveries

Again it's 6 in the morning. Again it's comfortably warm outside around 30 degrees. And again I'm standing under the cold stream of water in my outside-shower admiring the sunrise. But today I don't know what to expect. I booked this day trip to some random place last night around midnight, after some tourist convinced me that it would be worth it and much better than working on a Sunday. He turned out to be right.

So once I was sitting in that mini van at 7, I found out where we are headed to: Kanchanaburi.
During the second world war, Japan took over most of southeast Asia. To ensure the supply for their army forces in Burma, they stared construction of the so called "Death-Railway" between Thailand and Burma. This railway was constructed by war prisoners, most of them from England and the Netherlands.
In Kanchanaburi, this railway had to cross the river Kwai, for which they had to construct a bridge. During this construction that took only 4 month, more than 100'000 prisoners of war died in accidents, of exhaustion, malnutrition or diseases.

graveyard for the prisoners of war

There you are in Thailand. You think of Europe and know how much it was effected by the second world war. And of course you are well aware that this is not it. That there are many other countries that suffered in this dark period of history. But there are certain places in the world where it strikes you when you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a graveyard for war prisoners. This makes it suddenly so very visual why this war is called world war. A feeling of sickness remains. Always.

The Bridge at River Kwai

The trip takes us further to the north by train. By far one of the most beautiful train rides I've ever been on in my life. Not even Oslo - Bergen compares to this. It led us through tropical rain forests, always next to the River, that is big and takes up as much space as it wants, not being forced into a certain shape by human being's constructions like in Europe, and surrounded by beautiful mountains. Now I know that I'm in Thailand. This was the moment where I realized that there is more than just a huge and noisy city with exotic food and language. No, it really is a breathtaking country and a sudden and very intense feeling of affection for this place is growing within me.
Oh, and another unexpected discovery: You would not believe it... This train takes you right through kilometers of marihuana fields! I could almost see Leonardo DiCaprio running half naked for his life... ;-)

View from out of the train window

next to the place where we had lunch

The trip ends at waterfalls where many locals like to spend their weekend with their kids. This was a whole big area full of forest and waterfalls and wherever you would look, you could always see at least a 20 kids playing! It was very entertaining to watch. Here was where Eva (the German girl in our van) and me went for a bit of a walk. Isn't it funny how always when you are abroad you get into conversations about what a cool place Europe is?! :-)