Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I've heard from a lot of people lately in regards to the coup, and the whole military junta thing. So, just to be clear, it is not a problem.

Seriously. It is not a problem. The media, especially western media, is making it out to be bad news. The sentiment is the opposite here. The opinion is more that this is a good thing, and is long overdue. Or at the very least, "So what, it doesn't change anything". And even the most skeptical are right. My day-to-day is exactly the same, everyone else's, and every tourists' is exactly the same. Nobody is killing each other in the streets, it has not become a dictatorship, and the police are just as useless as always. The situation does not factor into anyone's plans, nor should it yours.

Right, now with that out of the way, things are more in full swing at work. I'm starting to settle into my regular life now, and after an annoying immigration process I am now a Thai resident... almost. I still have to get my work permit to become a permanent resident. Actually, the process was a bit funny. 4 of us needed visas, and they decided "Hey, it would be good if we sent two Chinese teachers that don't speak English to help the foreigners." So, the process was, the the immigration workers speak in Thai, the teachers translate it to Chinese for me, I translate it into English for the others. Because that is definitely the most efficient way to do things. We had a massive amount of paperwork as well. The first 2 guys went through no problem. Then the guy before me was okay as well. They finally get to me and realize we only have "copies" of our employment contract, and not the originals. Oh my buddha, the world is ending! So after stamping 3 passports, they decide to not stamp mine. After some pleading they agreed to process it and if we showed them the original contract they would give me my passport. So, the Chinese teacher went back the next day to do that. Completely absurd. I gave her some chocolates as thanks.

Now, as exciting as dealing with Thai immigration is (Yessssss!), I had another adventure, this time to Kanchanaburi. Known mostly for the expensive Tiger Temple, where you can snuggle up to drugged and possibly mistreated tigers. I already got my obligatory tiger experience at Nong Nooch, so I'm good. Instead Kinaree and I headed further to Nam Tok. Nam Tok is the site of the infamous "Death Railway", where the Japanese worked a lot of POWs to death in WWII to build a railway to Myanmar. Mostly Australians, Dutch, and British, but some other nationalities as well, including 5 Americans. It was a bit interesting to me that all of the people that died are still buried at Kanchanaburi in a massive cemetary, except for the 5 Americans - the families chose to have them sent back to the US.


Anyway, we did a package tour through Thai Rail. It started at 6am, and stopped at Nakhon Pathom, to see Wat Phra Pathom Chedi. These words likely mean nothing to you, and they mean nothing to me. I am tired of Wats. I don't care about Wats. This was a Wat. It had a buddha, who I am increasingly becoming sick of. The only reason I am mentioning it is because of hilarious muscular Thai guy. He stands in front of the wat all day and lifts up the traffic gates behind him for exercise. Kinaree showed me a Thai website with lots of pics of this guy, so apparently he's there a lot. He was super friendly, and I thought that was hilarious. Hey, gotta get the tourists in somehow. Ladies?

Alright, next was the Death Bridge itself, where you could get out and walk around for a bit. Certainly exciting, right! Eh, it was a bridge. Neat enough, but nothing revolutionary. After a short look around it was back on the train to cross, and then on to the very end of the line, Nam Tok. Nam Tok has a waterfall, Sai Yok. It was an alright waterfall I suppose, I was more interested in the old locomotive at seeing the train tracks end. It's unfortunate that Thailand doesn't continue the railway into Myanmar like it used to. Kinaree and I went to see the water source at this cave to kill time, only to find out it was closed. Argh. So, 2 hours wasted, back on the train to our hotel.

The hotel was actually pretty cool. It was a "resort" floating on the Kwai River. I use "resort" in quotes, because I don't know the criterion for when a hotel becomes a resort. I do know one of these criteria is that there are temperature controlled showers, which this place definitely did not have. And I'm okay with that, but it doesn't sound very resorty. Mostly there wasn't too much to do there except eat at the numerous buffets (woo!) and dip your feet in the river. The current was quite fast, and any swimming involved being pushed downriver, swimming to the shore, walking back up, and jumping in again. At night there was a firework and light show. The light show was accompanied by narration (in Thai) from the railroad tracks visible across the river. It was pretty cool, with sound effects, various different lights and whatnot telling the story of the railroad. And then all of a sudden, Star Wars music.

In what I am sure is completely licensed and approved by 20th Century Fox, "Here They Come" from Episode 4 accompanied the narration for the liberation of the railroad. And then after this victory, somber reflection of the terrible things that happened here. Quick, cue more Star Wars music!

After that hilarious exchange, we went to see the fire show, which wasn't much of a fire show. It was more like "Lets stand around the campfire and play silly movement games." They were designed to trip you up, and if you failed you had to stand in front of everyone so they could laugh at you. I was determined to win because it would otherwise bring shame and dishonor to my country.

The next day was a pretty lazy one. We went back across the river to check out some cave. There was a buddah in it. SHOCK! We also walked on the railway tracks, which was pretty cool. After that and a big lunch, it was back on the train to Kanchanaburi. We hopped off to see the museum, which was a bit small but overall interesting. But it was mostly a lot of plaques telling the history, and not much actual historical things, so I didn't find anything really picture worthy. At last, we took a minibus back to Bangkok to end a very lazy weekend. And there's not too many more places I haven't been in Thailand! Perhaps the next one will be to Hua Hin, a beach resort town that the royal family likes to visit.