Bridge on the River Kwai...and another look at Bangkok

When I was just out of high school a movie was released that over time became a classic...it was the Bridge on the River Kwai....Alec Guinness won an Academy Award for his work and it was best picture for that year.  It was based on a true story of a Japanese POW camp constructed to build a railway bridge across the Kwai River to facilitate the World War II effort for Japan and move troops and supplies across the river from Burma to Thailand.  However the POWs were unaware that the allies were planning on destroying that same bridge once it was built.

One can only imagine the work....in jungle conditions and with temperatures probably in the 100s every day.  The bridge was 415 KM mostly in Thailand but 25% was in Burma.  The work began in September of 1942 using 30,000 POWs from United States, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland.  There were 200,000 labourers from India, China and other Asian Countries.  Of all these men...16,000 POW and 100,000 impressed labourers died as the result of disease, starvation and lack of medical supply.  

The Japanese estimated it would take 5 years to complete....but the Japanese Army forced prisoners to complete it in only 16 months.....here is what the bridge looked like....

A war museum with a reconstruction of the type of huts used by the POWs and many artifacts from the camp is also at the location...however no photography was allowed inside the museum.

The cemetery where many of the POWs were buried was open to the public and is quite beautiful and very well kept.  The graves are clearly marked as shown below in the photo of a POW who died on my birthday in 1943...

Here are a couple shots from the cemetery....

and a final look at the bridge....if you have not seen the movie I encourage you to check out the epic...you will be amazed.  One of the great lines in the movie is by the Japanese commander of the camp who tells the POWs ...."In the words of the Imperial Emperor Horatio....be happy in your work"!!!

And then the road beyond the bridge....Burma....and beyond.....

On my return to Bangkok tonight I could not resist one more trip out to the street in search of dinner?....Well here is what I found...basics...duck...chicken....pork

maybe something a little different....

For the life of me....I do not know...and could not find out what this was....I can say it looked like oatmeal....was very very hot and it was all over the place when being scooped from pan to plate....the other thing that impressed me was the beautiful girl cooking this....you can judge for yourself...

Well...even the outside seating was taken so I guess I will travel back to the hotel for dinner....darn!!!

I do have one more photo today...these are the roses in the hotel....white roses which are a favorite of my friend 'Snowflake'....so here is my toast from Bangkok...

Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, Ayutthaya and Wat Maha That

Off early in the morning to go about an hour and half from Bangkok to the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace.  Along the way were many fields of jasmine rice with living quarters smiliar to these...

I learned so many little things today that I would like to share with you....first, the flag of Thailand...it is 5 stripes...the first Red for the people...White for the Religion...Blue for the Royalty...White again for Religion and Red again for the people.  There is also Yellow flag of the king that is seen most often next to the Thailand flag...it is Yellow since the King was born on a Monday....I was born on a Tuesday so my flag would be Pink!! Yeah...

Remember when I blogged about the people in India just stopping along the road to relieve themselves?  Well in Thailand for a man it would be called "Shooting the Rabbit" and for a woman it is called "Looking for a flower"....just a more refined way to express oneself....

An earlier Blog item related how the Thai information person told me to "walk...walk...walk..and turn right".  Well, I found that by repeating the word there it emphasis on the distance...so what she was telling me was that I was going to walk quite a while before I turned to the right.  I found this out after trying to figure out how to ask for food well done...i.e.,eggs or meat especially.  The Thai word is "Suci.."(sp)....so if I say "Suci...Suci"...that should do it....will let you know in a future Blog.

Finally....I learned of the three distinct types of style/architecture of the temples....in this photo one can identify on the far right the Sri Lanka style...in the center the Cambodian and on the far left the Siam or Thai style....

Okay...to Bang Pa - Summer Palace.  It is actually used as such.  The current king at 84 does come here in Summer (April)....often traveling by train (Royal train of course...arriving at the Royal station)....sounds a bit like Queen Elizabeth huh?....So what would he find?  Well the Royal residence...or parts of it anyway are open to the public...all the materials used in the construction of the palace built in the late 1700's was imported from China.  Here are some views of these beautiful buildings...

The guest house....similar to the "Blair House" in the United States was really lovely....

King Ramadan V had the Summer Palace built....here he is in the center of this shrine...

His wife died a very strange death....she drowned....only because she was a woman and no other man was allowed to touch her.  Her boat overturned as she was traveling to the Summer Palace and met her untimely death...this was her memorial...

The grounds of the Palace are so beautiful....check out this sculptured bush...yep elephants...

A chicken here and there....and then this Monitor lizzard...YIKES!!

A couple more shots of the Palace....

Hard to imagine that the Palace is actually used...but the presence of a large number of armed soldiers may make you a believer.

Before heading to the the Ancient City of Ayutthaya....I want to share this with you....it does not...I repeat does not mean "no pants" for men...only for women...

Okay the ancient city of Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand or Siam for 400+ years...and was burned and destroyed by the Burmese in the 1700's...the ruins were unreal....

The small windows as seen here deterred invasion while still allowing light....

Notice that most of the Buddha figures were destroyed....leaving only partial remnants...

There was one famous Buddha...

The one on the right encased inside the tree...the one on the left is the Bobby...not the Buddha...

Then later in the day to Wat Maha That...1374 monastery - residence of the Supreme Patriarch....here I found many Buddha....

Here we have the Buddha and disciples...

The famous reclining Buddha is also at this site....

I noticed one of the Nuns who are the woman counterpart to the Monks...folding a "white" cloth for the use in covering the Buddha....my tour guide Sunny (Sitthisak Lersviriyanont) investigates....

One last pic....sort of a walk...walk...walk....

Oh...and just and FYI....no rain today... it was at least 33 degrees Celsius... 90++  HOT and SUNNY...

The Streets of Bangkok....

Okay....as promised....I take to the streets.  Really, I don't have to go too far to catch some of these photos...I tried to get a little variety.  The vendors on the street are very plentiful.  I mean there are in a space of 50 feet....5 to 6 vendors...sometimes more.  They sell and hawk everything...it is also ironic to me...often they will be in front of another store almost hiding the store behind them which seems to be a legitimate business with air conditioning etc...and here they are on the sidewalk.  Fear not...I do not believe they have a rule or law on how far you can go on the sidewalk.  And, there seems to be no rule on the number of tables you can place for outdoor seating.  Okay let's go...first off...some of the more unusual "shops"...i.e, key making and shoe repair....

How about having those pants cuffed or skirt hemmed....with an on the spot seamstress....

Food...is the mainstay of the street vendors....I mean I saw so many different things...I could not even believe to tell you what any of it was...I have some ideas...but will let the food speak for itself.  For example a number of things come on the stick....

Oh....something from home....how about "Popeyes"??

For some reason I just don't think this is the 'real deal'!!  How about a table for two.....curb...I mean alley side?

For me....the vegetables and fruit were most awesome....I did purchase some oranges....they were green with very soft skin....and as sweet as you can imagine....delicious!!

Bananas on the grill?  How about some sweet corn?  Then the last picture in this set is a HUGE fruit...I have no idea what it is...but it looks like pineapple...and was being prepared very much like pineapple.

Flowers anyone....these are used for the temple and to adorn the various shrines/temple areas...

Finally......the numbers people....they are everywhere...it looks like the lotto...and seems to be the thing to do...but a strip of numbers....I did not purchase any...for fear I would win!!!

Okay...hope you enjoyed that little walk down Silom Rd here in Bangkok..