DEATH RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

When I was in primary school I learned about the bridge over river Kwai. Also, I watched the movie and I still can remember the melody from the movie. After many years I decide to see it with my own eyes. I'm going to remind you about history.

         

Railway bridge over the river Kwai is located in Kanchanaburi Province about 130 km west of Bangkok.
The construction began on September 16, 1942. Materials for the bridge have been brought from Java (Indonesia). It was estimated that the construction would take five years to link Thailand and Burma by rail, but the Japanese army forced the Allied POW-s (Prisoners Of War) to complete 415 km railway in just 16 months. So, you can imagine what a brutality was engaged in this project. About 16.000 Allied POW-s died during construction and about 100.000 laborers from Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia also lost their lives. Bridge was in use for only 20 months before the Allies bombed it in 1945.
After the end of World War II, the Allied forces placed the remains of the dead people in the two war cemeteries near the bridge. Every year during the first week of December, there is a light and sound presentation detailing the construction and the bombing of the historic railway bridge by the Allied forces.

              restaurants on the river (photo taken from the bridge)



                

This is very interesting place for Thai people and for tourists from all over the world. Plenty of people waiting to take a ride over the bridge with a small train and of course me :-). The train start very slow because a lot of them walking on the bridge, but later on when we almost cross the river, it start to go quite fast. In one moment I had feeling that something is going to be broken :-). Train is all the time rock left and right, but finally everything was absolutely fine. We went forward and back and that was my unforgettable ride on famous railway bridge over the river Kwai. 

                  war museum (it is not allowed to take photo inside) 


Near the bridge is Museum dedicated to the people that they lost their life's during construction. The Museum was not so impressive for me (to be honest). It is composed of the plenty of photos and articles from newspapers, that shows you how terrible life they had and how terrified was behavior of the Japanese Army.
Death railway bridge over the river Kwai was very impressive for me. It is a part of the history, not just Thailand's   history, it is a part of the Worlds history.

BUDDHISM IN THAILAND

When you come to Thailand one of the first things that you can notice is Buddhism. You can see temples and monks everywhere. Every house and every building have their own house spirit, where the people pray and show their respect to Buda.

 Sometimes Thai people wake up early in the morning to give some food, flowers and water to the monks. They give the food because they will have that food in the next life, flowers to have beautiful skin in the next life and water because everything should go smoothly and they will also have water in the next life. If somebody cooks the food for the monks nobody can eat food before they give one portion to the monk.

The monks help to the people of Thailand when they need it. I remember, the flooding problem in 2011., one Sunday 12.000 monks came to the center of Bangkok to collect the food and money to help to the people whose houses are under the water. Actually they do many good things for the people all the time. That is why the monks have big respect from the Thai people. They are also highly respected for their chaste life, self-restraint, social benevolence and knowledge of spiritual practice.

 About 95% of the people in the Kingdom of Thailand are Buddhists and Buddhism involves almost every occasion such as birthdays, marriages, moving to the new house, funerals, opening business offices...

It is presumed that Buddhism was first brought to the country during the 3rd century B.C.

                                    Grand Palace in Bangkok

There are about 27.000 Buddhists temples across the Thailand. I would like to mention that there is just one White Temple in Thailand placed in Chiang Rai (northern province) and I like it a lot it is beautiful, isn't it? 

 

                                      White Temple (Chiang Rai)


It is a custom for Buddhist males over twenty years old to be monks from a few days to three months. There is a believe that is good to learn how to be good man i the Buddhism way. Every King did this even presently King Bhumibol Who is highly respected from the people of Thailand. 

I will write more about Grand Palace and White Temple in the some of the next articles.

KOH TAO

 Koh Tao is placed in Gulf of Thailand. Far away from Koh Phangan around 1 hour with the ferry. It is a beautiful island with nice beaches, nice restaurants on the beach, tasty food...

You can do many things there (hiking, rock climbing) but the main reason to visit this island is scuba diving and snorkeling. There are plenty of agencies to provide it.
To learn scuba diving you need 4 or 5 days (at least they told to me like that) and the cost is around 9500 Thai baht (around 306 US dollars and around 235 euros during that time) with accommodation and breakfast included.
I didn't try scuba diving, but I did snorkeling.

The price is 850 Thai baht (around 27 dollars and around 210 euros), but if you check on many places you can find it for 600 bath, same as me :-). They pick you up between 8 and 9 in the morning from your hotel and drive you back around 5 pm. I had snorkel in 6 different places. I would like to mention Shark bay where, if you have lucky, you can see real big sharks (don't be worry, those sharks are not dangerous for humans). Some of the bays have colorful corals, colorful fishes, turtles...

In my snorkeling tour I had amazing Nang Yuan island (Koh Nang Yuan) and we stay 1 hour and 30 minutes there. This island is in top 10 in the world for scuba diving and snorkeling and have incredible view point as you can see on the next picture.

                      And off course amazing beach.

If you like scuba diving and snorkeling you must visit Koh Tao. If you don't likes it, but you are already on this island, you must do it :-).   

NATURE IN KOH PHA NGAN

Koh Pha Ngan is a beautiful island placed in the Gulf of Siam. 70% of the island are the mountains and tropical forest. That is what I like on this island, it is not urban like most of islands and I didn't have problem with high temperature. It is still a real nature.

Lot of people stay there a few months to search for the truth of the life, to learn how to live with the nature. Koh Pha Ngan have temple Kow Tahm (Wat Kow Tahm) and that ii a Buddhist temple on the top of the hill that attract people who are learning about the life. Temple Kow Wahm is one of the most famous International Meditation center in Thailand.

Koh Pha Ngan have around 8000 people and 95% of them are Buddhists.

If you like peaceful place where you can really relax and enjoy on the beautiful beaches, with white sand, turquoise water and striking rock formations, you will love this island.

From the other side, Koh Pha Ngan have a famous party called Full Moon Party. As the name says, they organized it every time when is the full moon. For me this party is something amazing, a lot of young people from all over the world have excellent time all night long. There are many stages and you can find the music you like the most.

If you drink too much you can sleep on the beach in the "sleep area" :-).

Beside Full Moon Party there is a Half Moon Festival, Black Moon Culture, Jungle Experience, Shiva Moon Party, Blue Moon Party.

Sea food is everywhere, of course we are on the island :-).

                squid (my favorite sea food) :-)

If you have chance to visit Thailand, you should not miss this island :-).