Week Two: Dream Worlds and Death Railways

So we're up to week 2 (only three more week to go then I am up to date!) but I can hardly call this a "week" as it started on the Thursday (we were in Chiang Mai till Wednesday thanks to the long weekend). 

Anyway, on Thursday I had my second day of teaching in as many weeks....I can't really remember anything extraordinary happening and the day passed rather quickly. All enthusiasm and excitement was being saved for Friday, a.k.a. my first experience of a Thai school trip, to none other than a THEME PARK. I love theme parks so was thrilled at the prospect of going, even more so because it was called "DreamWorld" (I love sleeping and by proxy dreaming too) and was in the mighty Bangkok.

As a slight derailment to my story, I need to take a moment to talk a little bit about the school day here and what the world "early" actually means in Thailand and how when I mention "early" in my posts/stories, you may understand why I am ranting the way I am (mini rants though, love over hate). So, the school day runs from 8.30am - 3.30pm which isn't too bad really, only half an hour earlier than in Spain. Better yet, I live at school so can literally roll out of bed at 8.20am and still be on time right, right?!?!?!?!!?!!!!

WRONG. My mentor has me be ready for 7.30am each and every morning (even when I don't have class first thing) so I can go and sit by where we have assembly until 8am when said assembly occurs. I don't really mind attending assembly as I guess I am kind of a member of staff lolz as if but getting ready for 7.30am is a bitter pill for me to swallow. When I was in Spain I used to leave the house at 7.40am, a good 10 minutes after here, even though I worked 35KM AWAY FROM SCHOOL IN MADRID AS OPPOSED TO 35M HERE. I know if you adjust the day I'm actually leaving the house proportionally later than I did in Spain but 7.30 is earlier than 7.40 and that's that and I'm a brat and don't currr and I love sleeping SO MUCH you don't understand...

Anywho, after a bright early start on Friday morning, we boarded the coaches to take us to Dream World. The bus was blasting crazy Thai/Western infused dance music out of the (rather impressive) sound system, and I was so bewildered and tired that in other circumstances I may have just as easily been boarding a party bus. Here is a picture of the outside of the coach to give you even the slightest idea of what I'm talking about: 

Imagine the interior

On arrival at Dream World I was given a "teacher ticket" that allowed me to go on 6 rides free of charge, though a few of the bigguns had an extra charge. I had a great day and was basically allowed to just go and enjoy myself, I didn't even have to look after the kids, they were allowed to roam free. I ended the day looking like this: 

Not too clear but I am D R E N C H E D

After Dream World I was taken back to Chonburi (the town where I live at the weekends with 3 other ETAs). We were going to Kanchanaburi the next day so would be having a - very - early start, so we went to bed at the early time of midnight (we will never learn). On waking at 5.30am the next day, we left by van to take us to Kanchanaburi, a province to the west of Bangkok and near the Burmese border. 

We rented a private van for the day which was great as we could fully recline our seats, and I took full advantage of this by sleeping the whole journey. Our first stop for the day was the most famous - and therefore most tourist infested - floating market in Thailand, the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market in Ratchaburi, about 100km west of Bangkok. Locals basically go in boats along the river and sell their produce, from chicken curry to fresh fruit to tacky postcards. You name it, this floating market has it. 

Market in action

After the Floating Market we hopped back into our mini-van and were on the road again. Naturally I slept again and maybe an hour and a half later we had arrived in Kanchanaburi, land of the River Kwai. Seeped in history, I had been very much looking forward to visiting this province, as I am interested in the world wars. During the Second World War the area of Kanchanaburi was under Japanese control, and during the construction of the "Bridge On The River Kwai" (also a very famous film), which was part of the Burma Railway (now Myanmar), almost half of all prisoners died constructing it. Causes of death ranged from disease, accidents, and poor treatment from their captors. 

Our first stop in Kanchanaburi was to the War Cemetery. There are 6982 buried here, mostly from Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands. I'm not really sure what I expected when I saw the masses of identical gravestones lined up next to each other row by row, but I didn't expect it to effect me the way it did. Most gravestones had the soldier's name, rank and where they were from, and also age. I was struck by how young so many of the men were who died, many the same age as me, 21. What was even harder hitting was the personal engraved messages from family and loved ones. Just seeing different "everyday" names (albeit of the time ~1940s) saying how they would miss them and how they loved them really got to me, and there were some beautiful quotes left on them that really made me think. What pushed me over the edge was seeing a newer, shinier plaque on one of the gravestones. On looking closer, I saw the message was from the 2000's, and it was a message from this man's daughters, who had flown all the way to Thailand from England to visit their father. I found it really touching and the message was equally powerful. 

Having read all these messages, my mood changed somewhat for the rest of the day and I felt pretty introspective. We visited the actual bridge and got a train over it before having lunch on a floating restaurant. Finally we went to the JEATH War Memorial Museum before heading home. I may seem a little sombre writing the latter half of this blog entry as it's brought back the memories of the day which really was affecting. Anyway, we soon returned home to Chonburi ready for week 3 of teaching. Here are a couple of pictures of the river and the bridge:

On the bridge

Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy

View of the bridge from the restaurant

All in all, a really interesting, powerful day trip, and one that will remain in my thoughts for a long time.