Hit the Road Jack
Originally uploaded by Shaggy Z. Friday was the Queen's birthday and Mother's Day (Happy Belated Mother's Day, mom). Decided to go back to Kanchanaburi with Nathan, Tim, and Steve. Thursday went by pretty fast. At 9:30 I had to leave with Lindsay, Melisa, Carmen, and Colleen to go to immigration. It was part of the process of getting a work visa, and since my visa expired on Thursday I'm glad I got my extention till September on time. It took an about 50 minutes to get to immigration and then we were there about 2 hours waiting. Finally we were brought into a room and a person looked at us to see if we matched the picture in our passport and that was that. Everything else was taken care of by Kru Mam. Didn't get back till about 1, but was glad to see that my Grade 7's were writing their Math test. Taught grade 8, then had a prep so I packed my backpack, then I had detention supervision. By about 5 we were ready to head out. Traffic was bad so it took about an hour to get to the bus station. Then we had to wait in a giant line to get bus tickets. We got tickets for the 6:50 bus, but the bus that left at 6:50 was the 6:10 bus which confused us a bit. Our bus left at around 7:45 or so. It was during this wait that Steve was run over by a bus (almost run over). We were standing on a packed sidewalk with a bunch of people and a bus began backing up and turning. It kept backing up and backing up. I was sitting on the curb right behind the bus and jumped up and took a step back as the bus continued to back up over the spot I had just been sitting. I thought it would stop backing up but it kept going so I and everyone else had to scramble off the sidewalk. It was crowded and Steve didn't have anywhere to go, so he ended up jumping onto some lady's cart of peanuts. We finally got onto our bus (after Tim almost had his head clipped by the sideview mirror of a bus) and took off for Kanchanaburi. It was crowded since the aisle was filled with people standing. The ride was about 2.5 hours and was fairly uneventful. Upon arrival we rode to the Blue Star Guesthouse (same place I stayed last time) in the back of a pickup taxi. We got there at around 10:15 or so and the check-in window was closed which had me a bit concerned, but the pickup taxi driver rang a bell and someone came to check us in. After dumping our bags into our rooms, we walked down the street to find a place to eat. We saw this nice looking pub/restaurant and went there. At 11 a band came and started playing all kinds of sweet music like The Beatles, Eagles, and Joan Osbourne. Nathan headed back to the Blue Star but Tim, Steve, and myself stayed till the music stopped at 1. We then walked down the street to a different pub with a pool table and this weird drunk English dude named Tony and his Swedish sidekick Max. I thought Tony was just a patron but it turns out he is the owner of the pub and he also owns a fishing pond. We talked to them for a bit and Tony drew us a map to his fishing pond and told us we should come check it out the next day. He said he would fire up the barbecue for us and we could have a few beers. He said we could catch any kind of fish we wanted there, but when I inquired about northern pike he said there weren't any of those. Max said Tony would give us a beer for every fish we didn't catch. At about 2:30 or so we headed back to the Blue Star. We didn't go to the fishing pond the next day. For one thing, the map was an ineligble, drunken mess, and secondly, we had no desire to go. We had much better plans. We woke up at 7 and had breakfast at the Blue Star and then headed down the block to rent motorcycles. After gassing up, we were on the road by about 8:30 or 9. We swung by the Bridge over the River Kwai for about 5 minutes then headed out of Kanchanaburi on Highway 323. It was a nice highway with a nice shoulder and was sometimes four lanes. They highways here seem pretty nice. I guess they stay in much better shape when there is not winter ice to wreck the roads. We road for maybe 20 km then decided to do a U-turn and try a gravel road we passed. As Tim was turning he hit some gravel and wiped out. He and his bike were scratched up a bit but both were ok. We went down the gravel road for maybe half a quarter kilometer then decided to keep going down 323. About 35 km or so out of Kanchanaburi we stopped at the Tiger Temple, but decided we did not want to pay 200 Baht (about $6) to get in so we bought some postcards, told them we might come back in the afternoon and headed back to 323. We checked out a cave on the side of the road which was pretty cool. At around 11 or so it started to rain and continued to do so for pretty much the rest of the day. Sometimes when we went fast the rain kinda hurt as it hit us. We slowed down to maybe 70 km per hour due to the weather. Tim go distracted by a cow on the side of the road and Steve slowed down for a dog. Tim looked up and slammed on his brakes so that he wouldn't rear-end Steve, but then Tim lost control of the bike and wiped out. Once again, both he and his bike were banged up but ok. I think his wipe out startled the cows on the side of the road and the cowherder. It was humourous to see him riding around with a big hole in his shorts and later we nicknamed him Crash. By this time, we were pretty much drenched and we stayed this way the rest of the day. We stopped for lunch at the side of the road when it got to the point that we pretty much couldn't see anything due to the rain. We stayed there for a bit till the rain let up a little then kept going. We stopped to check out the Sai Yoke Noi Falls which were kinda of cool. We then kept going and turned off the highway to go to the Hellfire Pass. During WWII the Japanese made Allied POWs and Asian labourers do slave labour for them and build a railway through Thailand to Burma. This included building the famous "Bridge of the River Kwai" as well as the rest of the railway. In the mountains (I call them hills since I live by the Rockies) they had to sometimes dig their way through to make the railway and the Hellfire Pass is one of these places. Here is a blurb from the brochure:
"In December 1941, the Pacific War began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, and the invasion of Malaya. By mid-1942 Japanese forces were fighting the British in Burma, their ultimate aim being an offensive against India. To maintain their armies in Burma the Japanese needed a more secure supply route than the vulnerable sea-lanes between Singapore and Rangoon. They decided to construct a railway, 415 kilometres long, through the jungle and mountain from Bampong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma. To build the railway the Japanese assembled a multinational workforce of approximately 250, 000 Asian labourers and over 60, 000 Australian, British, Dutch and American prisoners of war (POWs). Work on the line began in southern Burma in October 1942 while at the same time construction also started in Thailand. On 16 October 1943, the two ends of the Burma-Thailand railway were joined at Konkoita in Thailand. Little modern equipment was made available for railway work. Earth and rock were broken by shovels, picks and chunkels (hoes), and carried away in baskets or sacks. Embankments of stone and earth were heaped up by human endeavour. Cuttings were driven through rock by hand; metal taps and sledgehammers being used to drill holes for explosives. Most of the bridges along the railway were timber trestle bridges made from timber cut in the surrounding jungle. From April 1943, the work pace increased greatly as the Japanese strove to meet a proposed August deadline for completion. This was the notorious 'Speedo' period. POWs and Asian labourers worked punishing hours well into the night. At Konyu Cutting the flickering bonfire light on the emaciated workers gave the place its name--Hellfire Pass. The 'Speedo', coinciding with the wet season and outbreaks of cholera, claimed thousands of lives. Between December 1943 and August 1945 some 220, 000 tons of military supplies were carried over the railway. Allied air raids hindered the railway's operation yet the Japanese continued to move supplies along the route. Today, 130 kilometres of the line remains in use, from Non Pladuk to Namtok."
We decided to skip the 40 minute walk to the actual pass cause we were soaking wet and it was late afternoon. We got a worker at the museum to call a guesthouse and make reservations for us. We then headed off to get dry. It started pouring hard again and I slowed to about 40 kph because my glasses were covered with water and I hardly could see anything. The rest took off ahead of me and I had no idea how far ahead they were. Eventually I made it to where we were supposed to turn off but didn't know if they had gone straight or turned. By this time it was probably around 4:30 and I knew it would be dark in 3 hours. I attempted to ask a group of Thai people at the bus stop (basically a bench with a roof over it in the middle of the countryside) if they had seen 3 farang ride by but they hadn't and didn't really know was I was talking about, nor I they. Then Nathan came from behind. Apparently they had stopped 5 km back and I hadn't seen them on the side of the road cause I couldn't see hardly anything and they didn't really see me go by, but Nathan thought he saw something blue go by (I was wearing a blue shirt and a blue helmet) and they decided to send Nathan forward to see if he could find me.) Its a good thing I had stopped, because I was thinking of booking it down the highway as fast as I could to see if i could catch up to them. After we were back together we stopped for some supper at the side of the road. Tim tried to order another plate of food and they ended up misinterpreting us and bringing out 3 more meals. We arrived at the Guesthouse (I can't remember it's name) at around 6. It was an expensive rip off but we were soaking wet and were told we were in the middle of the jungle and that there was nowhere else near (although we went by lots of places to stay the next day). This place's rooms were basically built on rafts that were attached to the side of the Kwai River and floating. I didn't really get much for pictures because it was so overcast and dark, but it was a pretty nice location. Nathan and Steve went swimming in the river (the next morning Steve figured out that the toilets might be emptying right into the river). We went up for some food and were for the most part ignored by the servers which pissed us off. We left the next morning at about 7:30. The "mountains" were covered by clouds so that you couldn't see the tops. By this time we were 100 km away from Kanchanaburi. We went another 20 km to some hot springs. Tim, Steve, and Nathan went in for an hour and a half but I decided I would ride around the country side a bit. I went down a gravel road beside fields of corn. It started pouring again and I got wet fast but oh well, mai pen rai. Eventually, the gravel road turned into a nice paved road that had little traffic. I followed this road for awhile past homes and lots of corn fields. I didn't see much for farm equipment but saw a few people out in the fields. It was a beautiful drive and started going into the hills a bit and was surrounded by luscious, green vegetation everywhere. Before I leave this country I want to go back again, maybe catch a sunny day so I can take pictures. Seeing all the corn made me think about my relatives in Minnesota. My dad grew up on a corn and sugar beets farm and owned a motorcycle for awhile, so I thought he would have liked this part of Thailand. I went back to the hotsprings and then we headed back east to Kanchanaburi. By now the rain had stopped, although it was still overcast and would occasionally spit a bit. This allowed us to make good speed. We basically had our motorcycles going full throttle. The highest I could get my bike to go was almost 130 kph, but that was when I was going somewhat downhill. Otherwise it maxed out at about 115 kph, but we were still being passed by vehicles which was sometimes a bit scary. I was a little concerned when we sped into a checkpoint with a posted speed of 30 (since we don't have international driver's licences and I'm not certain if we were theoretically allowed to by driving), but the cop just told Steve to put a shirt on. We got back to Kanchanaburi by about 2:30 or so. Despite the rain and clouds, I still managed to get a wicked sunburn on my arms, legs, and neck. Tim and Steve had gone ahead of us but got a little lost in Kanchanaburi, so when Nathan and I arrived at our meeting place and didn't see them we decided to find some pizza. We got lost on our way to Pizza Company but finally found it, then went back and met Steve and Tim. We returned our motorcycles and the guy seemed kinda pissed when he saw Tim's bike and was gonna charge us but the lady said "Mai Pen Rai" and let us go. The guy drove us back to the bus station in a pickup truck and we caught the 3:30 bus back to Bangkok. Overall, we drove our motorcycles for over 300 km. The trip back was uneventful and we got back to Bangkok at about 6. After we got back Ajarn Sahat told us he had bought some apartments and that we could move into them. He showed them to us. They are behind the school classroom building next to the tennis court, but can also be accessed on the other side by a small side street. It looked like a nice place. It has 3 floors with 3 bathrooms and 4 large bedrooms. The location is pretty nice and quiet. They are gonna clean it up a bit and stuff and he said we could probably move there in a week or so. It'll be nice to move to a larger room with a window that I can actually see out of. Three of the rooms have balconies. A Thai guy named Goh who works for Ajarn Sahat and for Ajarn Sahat's brother will be probably living with us which will be cool since he's a great guy. Anyways, that was fun news to hear and I look forward to moving there. I had a great weekend, but tomorrow is gonna suck because I have lots of work to do before Monday. Anyways, my favourite Third Eye Blind song is called "Motorcycle Driveby" so I thought it would be appropriate to post the lyrics here:
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"Motorcycle Driveby" ~ Third Eye Blind
Summer time and the wind is blowing,
Outside in lower Chelsea,
And I don't know
What I'm doing in this city,
The sun is always in my eyes,
It crashes through the windows,
And I'm sleeping on the couch,
When I came to visit you,
That's when I knew,
I could never have you,
I knew that before you did,
Still I'm the one whose stupid,
And there's this burning,
Like there's always been,
I've never been so alone,
And I've never been so alive,
Visions of you on a motorcycle drive by,
The Cigarette ash flies in your eyes,
And you don't mind,
And you smile,
And say the world it doesn't fit with you.
I don't believe you,
You're so serene,
Careening through the universe,
Your axis on a tilt,
Guiltless and free,
I hope you take a piece of me with you,
And there's things I'd like to do that,
You don't believe in,
I would like to build something,
but you never see it happen,
And there's this burning,
Like there's always been,
I've never been so alone,
And I, I've never been so alive,
And there's this burning,
There is this burning,
Where's the soul, I want to know,
New York City is evil,
The surface is everything,
But I could never do that,
Someone would see through that,
And this is the last time,
We'll be friends again,
and I'll get over you and you'll wonder,
Who I am,
And there's this burning,
just like there's always been,
I've never been so alone,
And I've never been so alive, so alive
I go home to the coast,
It starts to rain,
I paddle out,
On the water,
Alone,
Taste the salt and taste the pain,
I'm not thinking of you again,
Summer dies and swells rise,
The sun goes down in my eyes,
See this rolling wave,
Darkly coming to take me,
Home,
And I never been so alone,
And I've never been so alive
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