The Bridge on the River Kwai and my second half marathon

I recently made a trip to Kanchanaburi, a province in central Thailand that shares a western border with Myanmar, for some historical sightseeing and another half marathon.  Kanchanaburi is filled with historically significant places and sights from World War II - most notably the River Kwai Bridge and the Death Railway, along with Hellfire Pass, several museums, and a few war cemeteries. I was interested in seeing as much as I could in a short amount of time and looking forward to learning a few things.  I set out from Bangkok, along with two friends and fellow PCV's, and we took a train along 'Death Railway' well into Kanchanaburi.  This line was commissioned by the Japanese during WWII to create a land connection between Bangkok and Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar).  Using POW's for labor they were able to construct a complicated railway through the mountainous jungle that existed on their proposed path.  It earned the name 'Death Railway' from the significant number of POW's and local laborers that died while building it under extremely inhumane conditions (very little food, working through sickness and overall mistreatment while malnourished).  The line ran through Kanchanaburi into Burma (Myanmar) and was used briefly during the war until it was eventually destroyed and torn up in large segments.  The remaining track was eventually taken over by the Thai Railway Authority and this is the section that's still in use today, used by a few locals and many, many tourists.

Headed out from Bangkok

Crossing the infamous River Kwai Bridge

Scenery from the train: can you spot the Buddha head?

Just before the river Kwai bridge the previously near-empty train got pretty crowded, with people feeling more than free to roam about wherever they pleased

A train stop no longer in use; it actually leads to a small, but often visited, waterfall 

During my time in Kanchanaburi I was also able to visit several historical sites and museums dedicated to WWII.  My first stop was the Hellfire Pass Memorial, located just down the road from the site of the impending half marathon.  It's a very moving and informative memorial that includes an audio-guided tour along part of the Death Railway that's no longer in use, with commentary from some of the POW's that lived through the experience.  Hellfire pass is a particular location along the Death Railway where POW's had to dig through a mountain by hand to create a route for the railway.  During the latter part of the railway construction they were forced to work through the night, and the scene, in the middle of the night, was said to look like hell.  It was an interesting experience to walk along the old railway, see remnants of the construction and World War II and hear personal accounts of experiences at that time.

Hellfire Pass

Another view: all of this used to be solid rock and was cleared by hand by POW's during the war

From the top: looking down on the path cut through the rock

Remnants of the railway

View from the railway, looking out toward locations of old POW camps

Relative size: can you find me?

Further along the track: several kilometers of the old railway track are open to walk as part of the museum/memorial

I was also able to visit several other historical sites and landmarks related to World War II and the events that occurred in this area during that time, including the infamous 'River Kwai Bridge', still functioning as part of the railway and also open for people to walk across.

JEATH  (Japan, England, Australia/America, Thailand, Holland) War Museum

On the bridge

Sunset on the bridge

Along with several other PCVs, I went to participate in the River Kwai International Half Marathon, held next to a branch of the Kwai river on a road with enough curves and hills to keep it interesting.  It was an out and back course, more uphill on the way out with more downhill on the way back.  I felt great and finished more than 15 minutes faster than my first half marathon, 10 minutes under my goal time.

Very warm welcome: all runner to participate in a challenge

Post-race

Post-race (and shower) with the ladies running the guest house I stayed at

One of the highly-visited, and also highly-controversial, sites in Kanchanaburi is the Tiger Temple.  Tourists can pay 600 Baht (about $20) to enter the temple and take photos with tigers - real ones.  The temple also offers several (more expensive) options for temple activities, such as feeding tiger cubs or watching morning and/or evening feedings and daily tiger routines.  The decision of whether or not to go was one that I considered quite a bit before this trip, for reasons that have to do with the fact that a bunch of tigers are being held at a temple to be used for tourist photo ops.  I'd done some looking online, reading a few stories about how the tigers are drugged or mistreated in order to get them to act docile enough for people to touch them and take photographs with them.  After reading many mixed reviews/opinions and a lot of my own consideration, I joined a few friends and decided to go to the temple to see for myself.  The first 20 minutes were sort of exciting (tigers!) but mostly depressing (they're all chained up on really short chains).  People walked around and took photos with the tiger of their choice, while temple staff watched closely (at least 2 people per tiger) and were quick to reprimand anyone acting in a way not appropriate for being around a bunch of tigers.  A short time later everyone was instructed to move to a sheltered area as they prepared for moving the tigers and, of course, another photo opportunity for us.  Before I knew it I was in a line of people, waiting my turn to get a picture of me leading a tiger with a monk on the other side.  Everyone got their turn as we waited in another area of the temple for all the tigers to be brought down to another area.  During this time we received a lot of information about the temple and how the tigers are treated just fine, including an explanation that they're basically just huge cats, and they're nocturnal, so in the middle of the day after they've just eaten, of course they're going to be docile.

Man and beast

Me, leading a tiger

Spoon feeding a giant cat

One of the many photos

And another

I've still got mixed reviews about this place after a visit - of course it was awesome to see a tiger so close, and to touch them, but the thought of them doing that day after day with a whole bunch of tourists who just want some really cool pictures?  It just makes me wonder how good this place really is, especially for the tigers.

Kanchanaburi is home to several National Parks and I had brought my tent along with the intention of visiting one or two while I was there.  I did just that, and I was able to see a lot of the province's beautifully mountainous scenery and enjoy some quality time outdoors.  The pictures below show this, along with a few other sights I visited:

Camping near a reservoir 

Giant Mon (a Thai hilltribe) bridge, currently under construction

Walking on a bunch of bamboo: the working bridge (you can see part of the other one off to the right)

Erawan waterfall: 1 of 7 levels

At the top: last level waterfall 

3 pagodas pass: at the border of Burma (Myanmar)

Relatively new Peace Temple at the border of Thailand/Burma.  You can see part of the old 'Death Railway' bottom left

Buddhist Lent and the Candle Festival

Buddhist Lent begins every year in July and is a period of time where monks spend most of their time at the temples and Thai people visit often to make merit and listen to their teachings.  Monks used to inadvertently cause damage to newly planted rice fields as they made their way throughout the country on foot doing their teachings.  Farmers were naturally unhappy about this, and so the Buddha gathered the monks and called for them to stay in the temples during the rainy season.       

  

Every year in Ubon Ratchathani, the easternmost province in northeast Thailand that shares a border with Laos and Cambodia, a Candle Festival is held to celebrate the beginning of Buddhist Lent.  In the past, candles used to be used for lighting in the temples, and prior to Buddhist Lent many people make offerings of candles (among other things) to the monks.  During the Candle Festival giant candle sculptures are created, displayed, and then driven through town during a parade.  The candle designs are pretty spectacular and incredibly detailed.  Many of them are built around cardboard structures that have the wax carved over top of them – they’re not exactly solid wax. 

Night display of the giant sculptures

So much detail - that's the 'candle' part in the middle

Parade of candles

Even the monks are amazed

An idea of the size of these things: me in the corner

Streets full of giant candle structures

The evening before the parade I was able to participate in a candle ceremony in front of one of the local temples.  Small yellow candles were passed out to people seated in the stands and then lit while people participate in Buddhist recitations/chants.  

Passing out candles for the evening ceremony

Lighting the candles

Candles for everybody

 It was a great festival to be a part of, and definitely one of the experiences that is a significant part of Thai culture and tied strongly to their Buddhist beliefs.  

Festival season: Buun Bung Fai and Phi Ta Khon

It's festival season in northeast Thailand and I've been traveling locally to take advantage of the cultural celebrations.  A few weeks ago was Buun Bung Fai, or Rocket Festival, just a few kilometers down the road at my friend and fellow PCV Keith's site.  This festival is celebrated every year in many locations throughout northeast Thailand prior to the beginning of the rainy season.  Northeast Thailand receives the least amount of rain compared to other regions of Thailand, even throughout the rainy season (July - October).  Rockets of all sizes are shot up in the air as a symbolic way of inviting the rains to come.  This celebration included a parade and plenty of local morlam dancing.

Parade floats

Dance performances

Rockets for sale

The following weekend I traveled to Dan Sai, Loei to see the Phi Ta Khon Festival, a celebration of spirits that includes a vast array of elaborately decorated, homemade masks worn throughout the weekend.  Ghosts and spirits are big in Thailand and many Thais have strong beliefs related to them.  A long time ago in Dan Sai people believed that ghosts came out of the forests to follow the Lord Buddha.  The weekend was full of a whole lot of masks, a parade, and of course food and dancing.

Mini ghosts - the kids were the cutest!

The masks are really incredible - fantastic designs and colors

So many ghosts, so many colors

Roaming the streets all weekend

Ghosts on bicycles

One giant mask in the parade

These men represent villagers that used to live in the nearby forests

Yaai (grandmother) overlooking the ghosts below

Dan Sai is a relatively small town and the festival doesn't usually see a lot of tourists, so sometimes it felt like we were as much of an attraction as all of the masks.  We spent a lot of time getting pictures taken of us and having people sneak into our pictures - such as the one below, that even the police wanted in on.  If only you could see the view from our angle, where a whole lot of cameras and phones were snapping pictures of all the farangs.

Temple in a Mountain: Wat Phu Tok

Buddhism is a big part of Thai culture; over 90% of Thai people are Buddhist.  I've learned a lot about Buddhism during my time in Thailand and have been able to see the many ways it is weaved into the culture and daily life of people throughout Thailand.  It's really interesting to be able to learn about it while also living in a country in which it is so ingrained.  I read about things that I see played out in my day to day life in rural Thailand.  The number of Buddhist temples in Thailand is remarkable, especially given their often ornately intricate designs and colorful exteriors.  I've long since lost track of the number of wats (temples) I've been to and yet I still find myself consistently fascinated by them.

Bueng Kan: Thailands newest province

  

I recently visited Wat Phu Tok in Bueng Kan province (the red part of the map on the left), a temple constructed on a mountain that requires a hike and no more than a manageable fear of heights for a complete visit.  It has 7 levels, each reached by various staircases and rickety wooden planks.  The different levels are related to the path to enlightenment in Buddhism and the different stages along that path.  

I started at the bottom and at the second level I had the option of two different staircases: one looked more direct and a little more reliable while the other looked a bit more roundabout and challenging.  I chose the latter, and was rewarded with the more challenging (and significantly more terrifying) ways around and up the mountain.

Entrance to the climb 

Wat Phu Tok from the ground

Starting up the many stairs 

 Each level became slightly more challenging as I continued further up the mountain.  A couple of the levels had walkways around the mountain that were simply a bunch of pieces of wood constructed into a walkway built on the side of the mountain.  If I looked down I could see just how far I'd go if one of these things gave out, which was not a very comforting thought.  

Walkways and staircases weaving around the mountain

Walking on the side of the mountain

Told myself not to look down, which didn't help me to not look down

Level 6 included a path that led out to a separate, small mountain peak that was detached from the main part of the mountain and included a walkway to a small covered pavilion with a few Buddha images inside.  The views and the feeling of tranquility on the top levels were pretty spectacular.  

Small detached peak off of level 6

Walking on air - almost 

The ascent to level 7 was the least developed and most challenging - less stairs and more climbing over trees.  I couldn't help but think about the symbolic values of each level as I climbed all the way to the top (choices about the path we take and the effort required to achieve 'success').  The final paths would through the trees and vines and eventually came to a small clearing at the top.  I made it to the top, soaked in sweat, and enjoyed the views for a few minutes before making my way back down.

At the top

On the way back down I discovered a few paths I had not yet explored, as well as the easy route up and down the mountain.  My anxieties about experiencing the 'side of the mountain terror walks' were eased as I made my way back down via the slightly easier route of solid walkways and mostly solid staircases.  

365 Pictures of Peace Corps life

I've just finished a 365 Project documenting a year of my life in Peace Corps Thailand through one photo every day.  Check it out here:  365 days of Peace Corps Thailand

Personality and culture: sometimes opposites are just opposite

Peace Corps is a two year experience of living, working, and integrating into communities of other countries and cultures, but it's also a long-term introspective study into our own personal beliefs, behaviors and perspective.  I've been living in Thailand for a year and a half now with most of that time spent on my own, attempting to get to know and integrate into a community that was completely foreign to me.  I've met a lot of people and integrated myself into a community that I now consider home.  I've also gotten to know myself in a much different way than I've ever been able to as I'm faced with new situations, environments and challenges.  I've had my fair share of down time, which more often than not means some quality time to get lost in my own head and ruminate on all sorts of things that I might not otherwise spend much time thinking about - like my own personal nuances and strengths and flaws and all things in between.

I've known for a long time that I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert.  I don't talk just to say things and I spend more time taking things in than I do talking about them.  There's a whole lot more going on in my head than ever comes out of my mouth.  I process things internally before ever beginning to verbalize them.  My mind is constantly on the go, processing, analyzing, interpreting, assessing, and asking questions.  I not only relish alone time, I need it for my own personal mental health.  I’m not good at small talk and would rather have in-depth conversations.  I hate being the center of attention and try to sneak toward the outer edges of big groups.  When faced with the prospect of public speaking, my mind immediately goes blank and I’m incapable of forming thoughts, let alone verbalizing them.  I need to be able to think through things before talking about them; I need to process things in my brain to come up with a well thought out response that might actually come out of my mouth.  I don’t prefer big groups and I’m totally comfortable doing just about anything on my own.  While these parts of my personality have certainly contributed to challenges and difficulties throughout my life, I’ve learned to appreciate and embrace them. 

My time spent in Thailand has proved to be a constant challenge to all of my introverted tendencies.  Small talk is an integral part of my daily life and rarely do I engage in deep discussions.  I’m usually the center of attention no matter where I go because I’m the only non-Thai person around.  I’m often forced into the center of large group gatherings, put in a position for plenty of people to stare at me.  I’ve been handed a microphone too many times to count while being put on the spot to introduce myself, talk about something or answer questions.  People accompany me as often as possible, sometimes just because they don’t want me to be alone (people ask me ‘are you scared?’ on a regular basis – regarding anything from running alone in broad daylight to taking a bus by myself).  While I’ve adapted and learned to deal with these things with a decreased amount of inner anxiety and loathing than usual, the idea that these things are all directly contradictory to the core being of who I am never escapes my mind.

Peace Corps is a myriad of challenges: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, personal, and everything in between.  I knew coming in that it would be hard in any number of ways, and I expected to be challenged.  But facing challenges that go against my personality and the very essence of who I am?  I’m not sure I knew what I was getting myself into.  Sure, I knew I’d be thrown well out of my comfort zone in a country that's much different than the one I was coming from and I was willing to deal with that.  I didn’t realize how hard it would be sometimes to force myself, against all my natural instincts, to do the things I usually shy away from – the things that generally terrify me.  Introducing myself to strangers in a foreign language on a daily basis?  It happens.  Engaging in small talk about what I ate, what I will eat, or what I will buy at the market to eat later?  It's part of my daily routine.  Having a microphone shoved in my face and being told to talk about myself?  I can't say I enjoy it, but I've learned to become a little more comfortable with it.  Dealing with my daily language struggles and mistakes, often getting laughed at for some error in tone pronunciation that turns an everyday word into a dirty one?  It's happened, probably more than I even realize.  

Living in Thailand hasn’t transformed my personality, nor did I expect or want it to.  If anything I often speak less, either due to inefficient language skills to contribute to a conversation or because the people around me are speaking the local dialect in a way that makes my head spin if I listen to it long enough.  I’ve realized, through conversations with and side comments from Thai people, that they often misconstrue my silence as lack of understanding or lack of interest.  My mind here works in many of the same ways it did in America, only now I do it in two languages instead of one.  If I’m not running through a list of questions that constantly badger my brain here, I’m mentally repeating the sentence structure of someone speaking because I notice I’ve been saying something wrong – or I’m formulating my own response in my head to a question in the local language.  I’m not totally sure how this comes across to Thai people all the time, and I’ve questioned it internally many times.  I often explain to people that my understanding of spoken Thai language is more developed than my verbal abilities and that sometimes it takes me a little longer to formulate a complete, verbal response to something, meaning that keeping up with a group conversation while also being able to actively contribute to it can be seriously challenging.  I've explained a few times that even in America I’m a generally quiet person; I’m ok with silence and I don’t feel the need to talk just so something is being said.  I'm not sure they really understand this, but it's important to me for them to see these parts of me and accept them while potentially altering their preconceived notions of farangs or Americans - so I try to explain anyway. With all the cultural and language differences and challenges I’ve faced in the last year, this often just adds an extra struggle to this already challenging experience.  Despite that, it's important to me.  While I want to integrate and get to know people and be respectful of cultural norms, I also want to be free to be myself in a way that allows my community to get to know me for who I am, not for who they think I might or should be.  

I’ve tried to adapt to these unique challenges like I’ve had to adapt to so many other things here, both physical and mental.  I push myself to engage in the small talk that's always been challenging for me.  I try to remember my name when a microphone is shoved in my face.  I smile when there’s hundreds of faces staring at me and try not to let my entire face show my internal anxieties.  I try to say things out loud sometimes instead of keeping everything in my head, at least so people will know I’m always interested.  Even with all the effort, it’s still hard.  Like any self-proclaimed introvert, I take plenty of time to myself.  I relish the weekend days I can spend at home with nothing to do.  I've often wondered if I feel a more pressing need for 'alone time' here because of the added mental efforts of hearing and speaking another language every day and constantly feeling like the center of attention and have often taken a bit more time to myself on the days I feel like I need it. 

I know I've changed in the 17 months that I've been in Thailand, in many small ways and probably some bigger ones that I won't truly realize until I'm far removed from this environment and experience.  Even considering that, I'm still going to go back to America as fundamentally the same person (with a lot of great/awful/gross/inspiring/heartwarming/terrifying stories).  Thailand won't make me an extrovert, no matter how many times they put me on stage or make me the center of attention; but it has made me more aware of my introverted nature as it affects other people, and I think that's something valuable that I can take with me from this experience.