A LITTLE KNOWN FACT

A STORY OF INTEREST FOR THE TOURIST TO WANG PHO

RAILCAR # 2512

THE RAILCAR OF DEATH

OUR TRAIN STATION AT WHANG PHO

There has been lots of books and articles written about the famous Bridge on the River Kwai and the Thai-Burma Railway built by POWs and a lot of Asian slave labor , during the Japanese occupation of Thailand during WW II , or as the books and the tourist call it the Death Railroad .After the war the Thai government assigned the officials of the Thai railways to explore the possibility of using what was left of the Thai -Burma railroad for use during peacetime as a means of transportation for the Thai people. One of the little know facts is that it was a death railroad in war and in peace, as some of the inspectors were killed in a tragic accident while inspecting one of the viaducts, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves . I hope you remember these folks too ,when you think of the railroad or when you take a ride or visit the site. Just a little know fact your information . Malcolm

UNSEEN THAILAND TREASURE

This is one of the most beautiful Budda's I have ever seen I have never seen a image of Budda as a young boy , and here pointing up

This is a huge wheel ,whitin small wheels each with a different number ingraved in them and on golden colored balls, the thing on top, that looks light a old lighten rod ,has a glass ball filled with green liquid.

I thought for a minute he was real

Budda on a snake or dragon with lots of heads,pretty scarey sight

A traveling Budda which I have never seen

Another image of Budda , I never have seen so many different ones in one place .

I don't know what this is suppose to be or it's importants in the Buddish religon, May you could enlighten me ?

A beautiful collection of Budda's and monks, and angelic beings. very colorful , and everything is well maintained and cared for.

The Stairway to the sky (I called it ) goes to a huge cave at the top all locked up to keep down theif and vandalism

So, you ask ? What is this unseen Thailand treasure . well, it is not a simple answer, but I'll try to say what I'm posting about . Yesterday me and Ciejay decided to explore a couple of roads that lead off into the mountains behind our house , living here five years, I had never drove down them . Well we drove for about 10 kls. thru valleys and hills and up and down winding roads and all of a sudden there was a huge Thai temple in front of us , Now I have come to the conclusion , that there are Wats and there are Temples in Thailand, each one with a different purpose, ( no research here) just my thoughts, I think the Wats are for the local people , cremation, making of a monk , marring , and feeding and taking care of the local monks . The Temples,are not as often, visited (by tourist and sight seers). are for the Thais to come and pay respect to Budda , to study about Budda's life and teachings, to relax and meditate, and to offer tamboon and to make merit. and to display Thai treasures and artifacts from old times , and I think a lot of these are for Thai eyes only and not for the tourist to goggle over and snap photo and walk over places with no respect for Budda and his teachings.Such was the Temple that we found yesterday , I was in awe of the beauty and care and solitude and quiteness of this place , I found out that there were forty people (Monks and Nuns ) and labors paid for by the temple to keep and preserve the natural beauty and and splender that I was beholding.Does that sound a little hollywoodish, well thats just the way I felt being there , like it was a national Thai treasure , and I had the pleasure and experience of getting to see it with my own eyes, I showed great respect to everything and after a while the Nun that spoke english said to me "you can take a picture if you like, just show respect."I felt very privileged to have found this wonderful Thai Treasure. This is amazing Thailand and you never know what you will find off the beaten path or around the next bend,I hope you take a little time out to explore you area , there is a lot more to see than you know. I will post a few pictures this time and a few more next time around , I took lots of pictures some quickly as I did'nt want to impose on the Nun showing us around. the stairway you see leading up goes to a cave that they keep locked, as the artifacts in there are hundreds of years old , and years ago they had some of them stolen, one of a kind treasures never again to be seen. She gave me the key to the door and told me where the light was and said she was to old to climb all those stairs , I told her" thank you", but, I'll come back another day if I may , she said I would be welcome.Ciejay was glad for my decision as she did'nt want to climb the stairs too. I hope to return again soon for another adventureous day in the LOS, and take lots of pictures to share with all of you .Also if you want to see more I will be posting them in Malcolm and Ciejay's pictures on our web site at www.geocities.com/thaimalcolm/index.html hope you enjoy Malcolm

MORE ELEPHANTS

Well, I have to do one more post about elephants , I hope you will enjoy this picture post as much as I have enjoyed looking at these old pictures . Ciejay and me were doing our wine business the other day and at one of the resorts I saw these old pictures and ask if I could photograph them , and did they have a story to go with the pictures . They said I could and the story was told them by the owner of the resort.Now the man that owns the resort ,which is managed by his daughters and their husbands, is the same man that owns the Sai Yok Elephant Park that I visit often and took the pictures of the previous post of the babies learning to swim.Fifty plus years ago there was a elephant fair , held in Surin, up north in Issan country where all the elephant owners and trainers would bring their animals to show them off and to have different contest and to see whose was the strongest and smartest and best looking ,and all the other elephant stuff. these pictures were taken by his father and have been enlarged and framed and are now proudly displayed in the resort lobby.I have never seen so many elephants in one place at one time in all my life. Have you ?

I have decided to dedicate a small(maybe not so small) area on one wall in our home and frame and display my many pictures of elephants that I personaly have taken and also some given to me by friends and ,I have been told that I could include these too. I hope you enjoy them. Malcolm

TEACHING THE BABIES TO SWIM

OK THATS ENOUGH FOR TODAY YOU CAN DO IT , I'VE GOT YOU

ARE YOU SURE YOU'VE GOT THE ROPE ON ME

As you know if you read my blog ,that the thing I love a lot about Thailand is the abundance and variety of birds , and of course my all time favorite ,ELEPHANTS. This is maybe a short post , but the other day when Ciejay and me were coming home from church and crossing the bridge over the River Kwai in our village of Wang Pho , she saw the elephants in the water and Ciejay said"STOP" and I did and , we found out that we were watching the trainers and the mama elephants , teaching the babies how to swim , the trainers had a long rope tied to the baby and they would take them (the babies) in the deep water and they would start kicking and spitting water and thinking they were drowning and then they would bring them back to the shallow water and let them rest and then do it again , after a few times the babies were swimming around like they had learned, it was so much fun to watch that I forgot I had left the camera in the truck and , when I got back I only got a few ending shots . I hope you enjoy them. You know that is just the way I taught my boys to swim , ,I was on a big rock with a rope tied to their waist and they would let go the rock and kick their feet and hands , while I held their heads out of the water, after a few minutes they were swimming around the rock on their own. how I wish I had a picture of that , that was forty years ago in Alaska down on the Kenai Pennsula ,at Daniels lake where we had a little fishing cabin.Wow how that filled my head with memories.

I know you have heard lots of stories of how horrible they threat the baby elephants to break their spirit and will, and make them afraid of the people before they can train them, well I can say for a certain that no baby elephant is poked with sharp stick and caged and starved and given no water in order to train them at our village . I have wittnessed first hand the training and of the babies . the Sai Yok Elephant Camp has about thirty grown elephants and lots of babies and the babies stay right by their mother's side all day , the camp is open every day for the tourist to ride and they have a show of the elephants dancing , and massaging the people while they lay on mats and the little babies run around and pick up the plastic water bottles and bags and put them in the trash can, it is so cute to watch . I have made a few unannounced visits , to the camp and have never seen anything but love and gentleness from the trainers here in Wang Pho. I can't speak for all the camps in Thailand but I can for the Sai Yok Elephant Camp , and for Elephantworld where my dear friend Moll-Lee live in the jungles of Kanchanaburi. Check out their web page ---www.elephantworld.org and as I have said before come on over and we'll go take a swim with the elephants , you'll love it , and if you can't swim .I'll tie a rope to you and stand on the big rock and hold your head out of the water while you swim. Malcolm