Thailand - Kanchanaburi, Sangkhlaburi and Bangkok

Early the next morning after arriving in Bangkok, we set out for a long trip heading north towards Sangkhlaburi with C.K. to see where he lives and to see all the wonderful community initiatives going on in this area. Our first stop along the way was in Kanchanaburi where we visited the war cemetery and the Bridge over the River Kwai (also called the Death Railway Bridge). This is where many allied prisoners of war from WWII (primarily Australian and Dutch soldiers) are buried who died while constructing the Death Railway for the Japanese to connect Singapore all the way to Burma. Sadly, it is estimated that 16,000 men died while building this railway, from malnutrition, disease, exhaustion from laboring so hard and from the harsh conditions. It was very sad walking through the cemetery and seeing how young so many of the soldiers were who lost their lives. We walked across the bridge over the river afterwards.


We continued along on our journey towards Sangkhlaburi along winding roads through the spectacular mountains. The scenery was so green as it is rainy season right now, and we drove through some very heavy rains at times.

Once we arrived, CK brought us out to the Three Pagodas Pass, which is one of the official border sites between Burma and Thailand. There are several other “unofficial” border sites (one of which we saw) which are much easier to cross, and Burmese people sneak across daily to work illegally in Thailand. They have military check points along the roads near this area on the Thai side to check vehicles to see if there are any Burmese people being smuggled in.

Afterwards we went to visit the Baan Unrak home for orphaned children, which means “Home of Joy”, where C.K. has been volunteering this past year. C.K. first showed us the guesthouse that is in the midst of being constructed that will eventually be rented out to raise money for the home. It has a magnificent view from the balcony overlooking the lake and mountains, and once it’s done it will be a really lovely place to stay. We got quite stuck in the mud when trying to reach the main area of Baan Unrak, but thankfully we got out eventually, and it is really great that CK is such a good driver and that he has a big truck with 4 wheel drive! The roads to get in were quite muddy and wet from all the rain, and extremely bumpy!

Once at the home we met Didi, who has been running the home for the past seventeen years. She is such a kind and caring person and really has a heart for serving others.
There are 120 children living at the home, as well as some of their mothers, as Didi encourages the mothers to stay with their children as much as possible and supports them by employing them in practical needs of the home such as washing, cleaning, cooking or weaving. We got to spend some time with these dear little children, who have so much joy despite not having very much.

Some of the older girls did a beautiful dance and gymnastics presentation for us, and they are very talented. We then had a delicious vegetarian dinner there and we got to hear more from Didi about the joys and struggles that she experiences.

After having such a full day we were ready for bed and we settled into our hotel which had a beautiful look-out to the lake from the porch outside our rooms.

The following day was another amazing and very moving day. CK introduced us to his friend Nelson, who is a pastor involved with an organization called Mercy Teams International. Nelson brought us to his ministry site called the Japanese well, in Burma, about 3 Km from the border (this area of Burma is far away from the conflict zone in the capital at the moment, so it is not a dangerous zone). Here there is a jungle village tribe of Mon people who live in very simple woven bamboo huts. Mercy teams has built a school and runs the school program for the children of the village, as they are not be able to afford going to the government school. They also have a very busy dental clinic here as well as a nurse and a small chapel. It was wonderful to meet the staff serving here and to meet the adorable children. Their next goal is to develop a well for clean drinking water for the village once they have enough funding, as water is very difficult to get during the dry season. It is such great work that they are doing here, meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs.

We continued along to see the church Nelson teaches at, which is a simple bamboo woven building.

We then continued on our way to visit another friend of CK’s, called Olivier, who is a young man from France who has moved here with his son, and began building a house in the country. He has a gorgeous view of the mountains and rice fields below from behind his house and it is very quiet and peaceful here. He and Papa had a nice time chatting up a storm!

After having some lunch we headed to the Kwai River Christian Hospital, which was really interesting to visit. One of the nurses was very welcoming and showed us around and explained how everything is run. She introduced us to some of the doctors working there from overseas, and we chatted with them for a while. The hospital is constantly over budget as they ask the patients only to pay what they can afford, which typically does not cover all of the costs. They treat many patients with malaria and Tuberculosis, and COPD is also quite common from all the smoking. The ward rooms are quite crowded with about 12-14 people in each, as well as their families who stay to care for them and prepare food for them. Although we have issues in our own healthcare system, being here makes me realize that we really are so fortunate to have the care and the resources that we do have in Canada.

Our last visit was to a Christian home for orphans, the elderly and for people with psychiatric problems (quite a broad spectrum!), which is run by a kind woman, Palulu and her husband. We visited part of the “safe house” for those with psychiatric illness where they have projects for the residents to work on to gain income, such as weaving, and we saw them creating some beautiful things.

We ended off the day with dinner at another great Thai restaurant, where we processed all that we had seen that day.

The following morning we had the fantastic experience of going on an elephant ride in the jungle! At first it feels a bit tippy on the seat on top of the elephant, but after a while you realize how stable it is, and how carefully the elephant takes its steps. We passed by some tiny villages and went through three river crossings, which was really neat!

Afterwards we stopped into the boys’ orphanage that is associated with Baan Unrak, where we found the little boys playing with some adorable puppies.

We then went onto the vegetarian bakery run by Bann Unrak and we had a great lunch there before heading on our way back to Bangkok.

The following day we drove South of Bangkok this time to a beach area called Pattaya. We started by visiting the “Temple of truth”, which CK really enjoys visiting and has been to several times. This is a temple that is build entirely from wood (kind of a crazy idea, considering it’s right on the ocean!), with intricate wood carvings inside and out.

Afterwards we went to the beach area, where we sat under the umbrellas to shelter us from the rain, so we didn’t really feel like swimming as it wasn’t that warm.

The next day was our last full day in Bangkok. We took the boat taxi along the river to the Grand Palace, where the former Kings of Thailand used to reside. The current King no longer lives here, and now lives in the northern part of the city, but the palace is still used for royal ceremonies and events. The palace is quite impressive with beautiful and ornate buildings.

That evening we met with CK’s sister-in-law who lives in Bangkok, and her son and his wife and daughter, and we had a great dinner with them at a very good Thai seafood restaurant, and it was nice to meet them.

The following day it was time say goodbye to CK and to Mom and Papa as they were heading back home. We were so thankful to have had such a great week with CK and two weeks with my parents! We flew out the same day down to southern Thailand to Surathani, where we took a ferry over to a beautiful island called Ko Pha Ngan, where we arrived quite late at night.

Singapore

We had three great days in Singapore, which is such a beautiful place! It is amazingly clean (especially after being in China, it is really striking!) and there are lovely trees everywhere forming canopies along the roads in some parts, and many beautiful flowers and orchids. Singapore is very hot and humid, and usually consistently stays between 30-36 degrees each day throughout the year.

We were met at the Singapore airport by Wehuns’ uncle “San Chew” and his aunt “Auntie”, who are lovely people, and it’s been so nice to spend time with them. They brought us to their apartment where we stayed during our time there, which was great. After settling in we met up with Mom and Papa at their hotel which was more central in the popular Clark Quay area at the riverside. We all went for dinner together and had a typical Singaporean meal of Hainan chicken rice.

The following morning I took the MRT (subway) to meet Mom and Papa for a bus tour of the city. It was a very good tour where we visited most of the key sites, and our tour guide was very interesting and informative. Meanwhile Wehuns spent the morning visiting with San Chew and Auntie. We then met up for lunch at a Hawker centre for some great Singaporean food. After lunch San Chew dropped the four of us off at the orchid garden, where they grow so many beautiful different kinds of orchids. Just down the road from the garden is the Singapore night safari which we went to next, which was great! We had dinner there at the safari themed restaurant which had very good food and neat décor. We then went to see a live animal show with all sorts of creatures of the night doing some stunts. Afterwards we took the trolley through the safari area, which was the best part. There were many different animals to see from various regions of the world, with very dim illumination in each area so that it doesn’t disturb the animals. We then headed back downtown and had a nice evening walk along the riverside before heading back to the apartment.

The next day the four of us met up with Wehuns’ cousin Cody and his aunt “Da-Ee”, who are also lovely people, for an amazing buffet lunch at the Hyatt. The food was so delicious and was an interesting mix of Singaporean, Malaysian, Indian and Indonesian food. We had a great time meeting more of the family and learning many more interesting things about Singapore from Cody.

Cody and Da-Ee had to go back to work afterwards, so we then went and wandered around Orchard road, which is one of the main shopping areas in Singapore. We visited the courtyard and lobby of the famous up-scale Raffles hotel (well actually just Mom and I were allowed in since Wehuns and Papa were wearing shorts, which do not fit the dress code, even just for the lobby! So we went in and took pictures to show them what it was like inside). We then went on to another shopping area called the Vivo shopping centre, which was very North-American. It was funny to see that fall fashions are in here in Singapore also, and they don’t sell shorts at this time of year just because it’s “fall”, even though the temperature remains in the 30’s year round!

The next day we went to East Coast Park where we rented bikes and biked along the beautiful trail along the ocean. It was nice to have the breezes from the ocean helping to cool us down a bit as we biked as it felt especially hot that day. It was then time to head to the airport for our flights to Bangkok. Wehuns and I were on separate flights from Mom and Papa’s, but they arrived fairly close together, so that was good.

We met all together at the airport in Bangkok with Wehuns’ Dad, C.K., who has been living in Thailand for the past year, doing volunteer work in the local community in Sangkhlaburi and with one of the local orphanages. It was another great family re-union! We had some delicious Thai food for dinner together at the airport and then CK drove us to our hotel in Bangkok. The next few days were quite a whirlwind of activity with so much packed into each day, so I’ll describe that in my next entry!

Hong Kong - the beginning of many family re-unions!

We made our way to Hong Kong by train from Shenzhen and met up with my parents, and it was great to see them again and catch up after being gone for a month. Shortly after we settled into our hotel in Kowloon, Wehuns’ aunt who lives here came to meet with us and we walked around Kowloon all together and she showed us around. We met the rest of her family (her husband and two sons) at a Cantonese restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we walked over to Wehuns’ cousin’s condo, which is in a beautiful building on the 56th floor, with a great view over the Hong Kong harbour. The timing was great, as it was October 1st that day, which is the Chinese national holiday as well as the ten year anniversary for China re-claiming Hong Kong. To celebrate the holiday, there was a very elaborate fireworks show choreographed to music, so we had an amazing view of the show from the condo. It was a great evening, and really nice to meet Wehuns’ extended family for the first time (the first of many family re-unions on this trip!)

The following day Mom and Papa, Wehuns and I headed over to Hong Kong Island to explore around and we started out with wonderful Dim Sum at a restaurant at City hall overlooking the harbour. I think this was the best Dim Sum that I have ever had, it was so delicious! We went for quite a long walk around the financial district, and then to the botanical and zoological gardens. Afterwards we went up a series of several long escalators through the SoHo area that make up the longest escalator ride in the world! We then went up the tram to Victoria Peak, where we waited until sunset for a beautiful view of the city skyline, with all the buildings illuminated with many lights. It was extremely windy and rainy at the top, so unfortunately we couldn’t walk around too much at the top.

Our visit to Hong Kong was very brief and the next day we were off on our way already to Singapore.

Yangshuo, China

We spent four wonderful days in Yangshuo, which was our favourite part of China. Yangshuo is a small city in southern China, in the midst of stunning karsts (limestone mountains covered with green trees), and very fertile farming land with rice fields and fruit trees, so it is very green and lush here. We met a really nice Swiss couple on the way there, and we convinced them to come and stay at the same guesthouse as us, so it was really nice getting to know them. We stayed in a Chinese home with a very lovely family, who really made us feel at home. All the meals were included, and the food was absolutely delicious -the best food we had in China, with 10 different homemade Chinese dishes each night that were shared with all the other people staying at the guesthouse at family style dinners. It was really nice to sit all together to eat and to get to know so many great people and exchange stories.

The first evening we arrived we went to a fantastic outdoor performance that’s done on the river, surrounded by the karsts, which are illuminated during the show. It was a beautiful evening, with the full moon shining brightly. We were so impressed with the show, with over 600 performers, which was so well choreographed. It is directed by a famous Chinese movie director, and portrays the life of local villagers from long ago, with beautiful traditional costumes and great music.

The following day we rented bikes and had a delightful day exploring the surrounding area, in the intense heat. We started by biking over to a place called Moon hill, where you can do a hike up to a rock formation with a big hole in the centre that looks like the moon. At the very top there are breath-taking views of the surrounding karsts. We then continued our bike ride on a more secluded and very bumpy path through farming areas and local houses, which was very beautiful and very interesting to see. With each corner we turned we would be in awe of another stunning vista. It was also neat to see the farmers hard at work and to see people bringing their cows or oxen along the path for a walk down to the field to feed or to the river to cool off.

After dinner that evening we went into town with some other new friends from the guesthouse to the night market, where it was fun to wander around and check out the different stalls and shops.

The next day we organized a group trip with all the others staying at the guesthouse (thirteen in all) as everyone was interested in doing a bamboo raft trip down the river, so we decided to do it all together, which was fun. We did the three hour rafting trip down the Li River, which has stunning scenery all the way along, and it was a very relaxing afternoon. Our raft guide was able to tell us a lot about the area and he was so happy to speak with Wehuns and one of the other fellows on our raft that spoke Mandarin as well, so that really added to the trip and made it more interesting.

We had another pretty full day the next day, and we started out the day by exploring another bike trail, which was even more spectacular than the first one we had done! In some parts we rode along a very narrow trail with rice fields directly on both sides of it and the beautiful karsts off in the distance. Some parts of the trail were even narrower, with steep drop offs to ditches on both sides, where I fell off my bike twice, so it was very difficult riding! After this point we must have missed a turn and we got very lost in a farmer’s field, which had some fruit trees, lined with thorn bushes and we have the many scratches on our legs to prove this! It must have been at this point that I popped my bike tire, although I did not notice until about an hour later, so no wonder it was taking me so much effort to ride my bike! Anyhow, we finally came across a farmer who helped us find our way out of the field and back to the trail, so that was a relief. Once we got further down the road and a noticed my flat tire we found a tiny bike repair shop where they replaced the tire, and found three different puncture sites from the thorns! The way back to our place was much smoother and we returned our bikes, and then headed out to a cave to check it out. It was a neat water cave that you take a boat to get into, and once inside then we walked around the massive interior with a guide, and it was interesting to see.

The following day we had to pack up and leave Yangshuo, but we had the whole day to enjoy before flying out since our flight to Shenzhen was very late that evening. We decided to use the day to visit the Dragon’s Backbone rice terraces with another couple we had met, which was about a 3 hour drive from Yangshuo. The rice terraces are a really beautiful sight to see, especially from the two different viewpoints we walked up to at the very top of the terraces. The rice plants have started to change colour, so the fields are now a beautiful golden colour in some spots. On the way back we stopped into a small village where we saw some women in traditional dresses from the Yao tribe, who all have very long hair – they hold the Guiness book of world record for the longest hair in the world! They use this fact to make some income, and we were haggled most of the morning at the rice terraces by women of this tribe trying to convince us to pay them to see them let down their hair and comb it. Wehuns finally gave in and was curious to see what this was all about, so this group of women was very pleased to show us the different ways of wearing their hair, depending on whether they were single, married, or had children, and they also sang a traditional song, so it was neat to see in the end! We then continued on our way and stopped into a rural restaurant for dinner before being dropped off at the airport to make our way to Shenzhen. The next day we headed into Hong Kong by train to meet up with my parents and it was so great to see them again! More to come on that soon….