Asia

This morning we were heading out of town several hours so we had a very early morning start. We drove through a province that is known for its shrimp farms and salt production. The salt made here is of superb quality and much is exported. Along our route we stopped at an independent china painting studio and observed the artists working. This studio has no contract with tourists so it is not visited very often. These artists are the best at what they do and use the finest of bone china to paint on. You can definitely see and feel the difference in the pieces they produce. This is where the royal family has their china painted. Items can be ordered but might take six months to be completed. No catalogs are available but there were samples on display. The owner has a room full of awards and pictures of him with royals as he was presented those awards. It was a fascinating stop.

We visited a temple in this area that the local people fought diligently to save. They invested so much in it that the government couldn’t take it or the property away as they were attempting to do. All of the walls were murals from floor to ceiling as is usual but what made these different was that the were all beautifully carved from wood. The murals on display throughout all the temples tell the stories of Buddhism. We have recognized stories from temple to temple.


China Painting by hand	Floating market- grapes for sale	Floating Market

Our destination in this area was the floating market. Tong hired a paddle boat she uses often. She prefers not to use a motor and our guide paddled us twice the distance usually involved so that we could see an area not so often visited. We paddled through the residential area. We love getting a view into the daily lives and culture of the areas we visit. The market itself was bustling with activity. As we paddled through the market hawkers tried to get us to buy from THEM. Tong was ordering food as we made our way through the masses of boats. This was our breakfast and lunch for today. Tong knows what is great and safe and what we should try. It’s fascinating watching how these people cook from a cart on the street or sitting in a tiny boat and serve up a gourmet looking meal!! There are so many fruits here we have never seen before. We bought a selection today of those we had not yet tried.

Once back in the van we were fat and happy and had about an hour and a half drive to our next stop which was the Tiger Temple. This Temple is in a remote area and has a good piece of property involved. It has become a sanctuary for wounded and abandoned animals and all but the tigers roam freely on the property. Construction is underway to create a larger area for the tigers where they can also run free but not be a threat to the other animals. This is all being done strictly through the use of donations. The monks maintain a close and personal relationship with the animals. The excitement here currently is over a tiger cub exchange that was made only a couple of weeks ago. The tigers here are suffering from in-breeding so an exchange was made with Laos and there is a new two month old male tiger here now. Once a day the monks and handlers bring a group of selected tigers out for a walk into tiger canyon. They are on “leash” and then chained at stations but you can actually walk with or touch the tigers but with very strict guidelines of behavior. It was pretty interesting and they are massive beautiful creatures but we all left hoping they will get their facility build as soon as possible.

One Asian Bear was brought here as a baby. She has grown so large now she isn’t allowed to roam freely any more. We were escorted by a monk to visit her and were able to feed her. She loves mango and milk!!!! From there we walked the grounds and toured the temple. We came across a litter of eight baby piglets with their mom that we fed our with our leftover fruit. Peacocks were scattered all over the property. We did our best to stay under our umbrellas or a shade tree today!!

A highlight of today was visiting the River Kwai. Kwai is the word for buffalo. When this river was spotted early on it was full of water buffalo and was so named. Our first visit was to the longest of the bridges over Kwai. It is still a wooden single track bridge. Tong gave us a great deal of the history of the work on the railway through Asia and the repercussions. A great many lives were lost in the construction of the bridges around the war time. There are actually over 300 bridges over the Kwai. There was a huge cave here that workers lived in. It is now the location of a shrine honoring all those lost. We drove a little farther down the road in order to get on the train which we road for about thirty minutes. We passed through a very rural area that was absolutely beautiful. We passed sweet potato farms, eucalyptus and corn fields. This was transportation home for a train full of people.

We visited the Memorial Cemetery for those killed while working on the bridges. Many were prisoners of war that Japan forced to work on the bridges. In the cemetery there was a section for the English (3,568), a section for the Dutch (1896), a section for Australia (1362), and a section of 156 unidentified. It was a somber place reading the headstones. So many of those lost were in their twenties. We saw very few past their 30's. It is a beautifully kept memorial.

Our destination was the bridge made famous in the Bridge Over River Kwai. The bridge standing now in that same location is a rebuilt one of course but built to resemble the first. We walked from one side to the other and it is still a working track. There are side platforms to move to should a train be coming. I think there are just two trains per day.

The restaurant at the base of the bridge is where we enjoyed our dinner on the water. Tong ordered seven or eight recommended items from the menu and the meal turns into a shared feast. We might not know what to order or what we got without our interpretation!! We shared our sunset here.

The ride back to the city was two and a half hours or so which meant there was time for a movie. We had the “VIP” van today since we had a lot of travel. We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. During the car chase scenes it all seemed so real with our swaying and bumping and road noise!! We were all ready for bed when we got home!!