Whatever you do, don't fall in the river

We're back today from a two-day trek through Konchanaburi, about 2 1/2 hours to the west of Bangkok. It was jam packed with the bread and butter of farang behavior in Thailand: riding elephants, swimming in waterfalls, and partying with other backpackers. My elephant's name meant "Pig" in Thai, which made sense since when he wanted a snack he destroyed most of a tree, carrying it off in his mouth like a dog to save it for later. The waterfalls were pretty spectacular as well, and less packed with tourists than the ones near Chiang Mai, which has a pretty similar landscape.

Konchanaburi is famous for being the home of the bridge on the river Kwai and other WWII memorial sites. Most of the monuments and museums had very apologetic and occasionally humorously worded/gramatically dubious displays about the Allied forces that were in POW camps in Thailand, which had sided with the Japanese. Konchanaburi is pretty close to Burma and therefore was pivotal in the transportation of supplies for the Japanese to fight the British. The sites, especially Hellfire Pass (a museum funded by Australian ex-POW veterans), were disturbing but very interesting. Since there were not very many Americans in Thailand during WWII, it's not something you generally would read about in a US history textbook.

Although the history was interesting, what made me happiest was the floating guesthouse we stayed on in the river. There was, of course, the requisite United Nations of Alberto's 20th birthday party. He got a better deal than when I had my 20th in Thailand: all I got was a Christmas decorated birthday cake (my birthday is in October) while he got to hang out on a party boat with cool travelers from all over the world (Sri Lanka, England, France, Germany, the list goes on). After that, coming back to Bangkok was a bit of a letdown, rife with dehydration, downpours and the first man down with food poisoning. Although the honeymoon period of Thailand may have worn off, at least we are headed to the islands this weekend!