war stuff!
today i did the mandatory war-related tourist activities. i went to the museum (one of many, i picked the closest) and learned bunch of things i might have been better off not knowing about the japannese and their war savy, aka, godawful behaviour. i knew about china (nanjing, which was much worst) but knew nothing about how they build the railway into burma (myanmar). anyhow, after all this info i went and strolled the cemetery across the street where just under 7000 pow that died building the railroad/bridges are buried. it felt a little small really, didn't have the grandeur you'd expect that would be needed to hold so many tombstones. the weird thing was though that walking the isles and reading the engravings i got teary eyed and i don't know why, really, but it got to me somehow. some of the people were really young...
after a break and some of the best french fries (french fried, as they call them around here) on this trip, i walked back to the kwai river bridge to see the light & sound show. i could have paid 120B to see it but decided to go the free way because well, it's free but also because i could potentially get myself a seat in front of a hard surface i could use to stabilise the camera. i did find such a seat, but showing up 2h before the show. the show was weird and all in thai, and then there was a lot of fireworks and explosions to show how the british bombed the bridge. it was kinda cool, but it felt like some sort of prostitution of war-time stuff... hard to explain but it felt wrong somehow... like that the thais should feel more shame in having partnered up with the japanese during the war and about letting that kind of pow treatment go on in their country. but whatever!
anyhow, i guess it was a day as happy as they get when one does all that war memorial stuff.
tomorrow i will head back to bkk. i'm heading back ealier than planned because i'm done over here and because that way i'll get more time down south. mountains, limestone cliffs, aqua water, white sand... should be good!
after a break and some of the best french fries (french fried, as they call them around here) on this trip, i walked back to the kwai river bridge to see the light & sound show. i could have paid 120B to see it but decided to go the free way because well, it's free but also because i could potentially get myself a seat in front of a hard surface i could use to stabilise the camera. i did find such a seat, but showing up 2h before the show. the show was weird and all in thai, and then there was a lot of fireworks and explosions to show how the british bombed the bridge. it was kinda cool, but it felt like some sort of prostitution of war-time stuff... hard to explain but it felt wrong somehow... like that the thais should feel more shame in having partnered up with the japanese during the war and about letting that kind of pow treatment go on in their country. but whatever!
anyhow, i guess it was a day as happy as they get when one does all that war memorial stuff.
tomorrow i will head back to bkk. i'm heading back ealier than planned because i'm done over here and because that way i'll get more time down south. mountains, limestone cliffs, aqua water, white sand... should be good!
posted by Magalie at 5:47 a.m.
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