24th Jan 2015 – To the West

Up nice and early and Saovanee, Wanna, Nuttasorn, Raj, Shoba and I all packed onto a van for our next trip to Kanchanaburi Province. Woke up early and caught van to Kanchanaburi Province. We stopped at the River Kwai Bridge and Hell fire Pass museum. I’ve been to both before with my parents. This was the busiest I’ve seen the bridge. I suppose there can’t be too many people on it while the train is crossing it!

From left to right: Nuttasorn, Shoba, Saovanee, Raj and I

 

Unfortunately the van broke down, so we waited at the garage while they fixed it.

Leave it to the experts…

Once it was fixed it was on-wards to Sangkhlaburi. It’s a winding trip around the outside of the three lakes, which are surrounded by mountains. For beauty, this has been my favourite place so far!

Snapped this quickly while in the van

After checking into the hotel, we were off again, to tour some of the temples. First to Wat Wang Wiwekaram. This temple was built around Luang Phaw Uttama, who passed away in 1983. This temple consists of a few different temples, the main one is where his remains are in a coffin.

The decorations adorning the main hall where Luang Phaw Uttama’s remains lie

 

The next temple we visited is called Buddhakaya Chedi. This one has stalls set up, to benefit from the tourists. It’s still under construction but no less impressive.

 

The next stop was the 400m long wooden bridges that span across the Vajiralongkorn Lake. From here you can reach the Mon village “Wang Kha” with the Thai and Karen parts of the town. You can also catch a long boat for 300 baht to the remains of old Sangkhlaburi, which is a stone temple, the bell tower and home for the monks. When the water level is high, the boats can go through the temple, but were able to walk through.

The boat ride reminded me of being in Renmark, with my cousins and uncle. A beautiful memory to be reminded of. The lakes and surrounding greenery were so lush, and completely unjustified by blurry photos, so I haven’t included any.

Nuttasorn loves photos, Shoba hates photos, Raj is afraid of boats and not being able to swim!

 

We ‘docked’ at the Mon Temple, Wat Samprasop and carefully balanced our way off. Don’t let the photos fool you. There were many more people here, but I was lucky to take some without all the selfie sticks.

 

It was almost sunset by now, so we headed back. Walking across that bridge revealed the ingenuity of it’s construction. It’s strong enough to hold all those people, yet built to conform to the wakes of boats coming and leaving their ports. A little bit of swaying underneath your feet never hurt anyone, though I was glad to be on solid ground afterwards.

The driver took us to the Saturday Night Walking Markets, which were quite small. While they ate at a restaurant I had a wonder through the stalls. It’s quite interesting to see the difference in handicrafts within the difference provinces of Thailand. So far, I have actually seen more things that I like in Chiang Mai. Coincidentally as were leaving, some children started a performance. They were from La Salle Bamboo School, which we will be visiting tomorrow. We also met Bro. Victor, who works there.