Photo Gallery & Impressions VI

PHOTO SAMPLER - SAT., JULY 12, 2003

With the trip to the sea canceled, Susan, Ted, Peggy & Keith decide to take a day train ride to the northwest of Ban Pong toward the Burma/Myanmar boarder.  It was a long & interesting ride, going almost to the end of the railroad line.

Keith here with the sign for the station at the beginning of the adventure.

 The station master gives us good advice through Yupadee.

We make acquaintances along the  3 hour trip to our destination.

Workers in the fields are a common scene from the window.

Keith & Ted were amused by this sign above the door between cars.

Here the train stops so that a luxury car can be added to the front of the train..

Announcing the approaching famous site of the Bridge over the River Kwai.

Now it is a popular tourist attraction for people of several nationalities but especially Japanese, Dutch, English and Americans because of the history.

Here we see some of the tourism development associated with this Kanchanaburi site, as we start to cross the bridge over the River Kwai.

The countryside was abundantly green and the fields were lined by the darker green palm and other trees. We found the mountains in the distance attractive.

Keith sits on the landing steps enjoying the breeze as the distant mountains go by. This was one of  Ted's favorite spots to sit during the ride, but we never got a good picture of him there.

Nearing our destination we look across the river to the River Kwai Jungle House.  We didn't know it yet, but we would be touring the grounds of this 100 acre resort and meeting the owner.

The train depot and tourist rest spot.  This shows the requisite label with English subtitles. This was just past the Krasae Cave Bridge which snaked along the cliff above the river.

From across the river by the Krasae station, the floating guest houses look intriguing.

The resort's ferry is available to take us across.

The buffet lunch at 150 baht each (under $4) offered a wide variety of great flavors.

At our table overlooking the river we polish off a few bottles of "bia." It was then we noticed a Rotary sign.

It turned out the owner, Kamthorn Lorwomg-Ngam was past president of the Kanchanaburi Rotary Club and his son, Art, had been a student at Medford Oregon. Art gave us a tour of the grounds and showed us the comfortable accomodations.

After the tour of the facilities, we were taken back across the river in time for our train. This activities resort provides river floating, rafting and a total of 5 activities.

The ferry returns to the to the River Kwai Jungle House: The Activities Resort.

While waiting for the train, we take a small walk through a small cave which has a resident shrine and Buddha.

Several tour busses dropped off numerous European tourists to ride the "Death" train to Kanchaniburi.

Keith likes this picture of freshly plowed ground.

Among the several crops we noted were: corn (shown here),asparagus, sugar cane, rice, and many we could not recognize.

This crop we did recognize, the white cattle with long droopy ears and rolls and folds of skin.

Here is a neat little train depot where we were sidetracked while engines were exchanged. Two traditional home are prominent here.

Keith and Susan look out waiting patiently for the engine to arrive from Bangkok for some switching.

Train schedules and times are posted at the station.  In the foreground is the donut man who sold us some really greasy donuts.  

Peg stands with two typical Thai wooden houses in the background while our engine waits to be connected to the cars from Bangkok.

In the distance is the Bangkok engine and two railway employees prepare to make the exchange. This happened two more times on the return trip and such waits accounted for the 4 hour return trip while it only too 3 hours on the way up..

Wats are seen throughout Thailand often in unexpected places.  This wasn't too unusual -- just pretty.

This was a lake we passed that Keith liked.  It may have been a dam.

Around 8:00 pm, most passengers had gotten off and our car was empty except for four tired farang. We arrive back at Ban Pong in a rainstorm.

Return to Photo Index

Hit Counter