The Thai Pirate - Thai Blog and Travel Stories

The burial of the head monk's ashes

The head monk of Suphanburi died a year or so ago, and his ashes have been kept safely at a local temple in town. It was always the monks wish to be buried after cremation, so that his ashes would become part of the earth. Now another head monk has taken over, and has proclaimed today as the day to bury the ashes.

We arrive at the temple about 9am. There is a large Nissan diesel crane with ropes attached to a very bulky 30 ft standing Buddha, made from stone. Behind Buddha, there is a large concrete block, with a whole bored through the middle. This will be the head monks final resting place, with the large stone Buddha being placed on top, sealing the grave.

After much ritual and chanting, the new head monk of Suphan carries the monks ashes over the grave, and 'plunk,' down he goes (it sounds deep down there). As well as this, lots of other artefacts and blessed items / coins and money accompany the ashes into the grave. As this is taking place, the whole place is rocked by huge explosions and VERY loud bangs. I tried to see what it was making the noise, but couldn't make out if it was gun shots or fireworks. For about 10 minutes the place sounds like a war zone.

Once the ashes were in their new home, there was no time wasted and the crane guys fired up the old Nissan diesel, winching and positioning the large Buddha on top of the concrete block.

I got myself well clear, watching from afar, with what sounded like Gaza on a bad day behind me.

Once wedged firmly on top of the block, the crane guys got out their crow bars, poles and straps and levered the Buddha into position. All sorted very quickly, these guys must be Buddha moving pro's. Jeez. I remember the days when I worked on removals in UK, where we would have a baby over moving a safe!

After a short while, it was brekkie time, but I had to miss, as I was given the honour of washing the plate that has held the ashes of the monk since being at the temple.

He was quite attached to the plate, having been there for so long, and after trotting down to the river, it took me a little while to send the rest of the head monk down stream.

Lucky Pirate!

The Thai's have just celebrated Chinese New Year, and would you adam and eve it,  12 'Amoy' (Chinese girls) turned up at the coffee shop on their way to an event 'oop North.

They begged me to take a photo with them, so I obliged of course.

I reckon they are regular readers of the blog, and saw a map I posted previously map here

Places to visit in Thailand 8 - Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

A visit to the war cemetery at Kanchanaburi is a must do for all Brits who visit Thailand.

Kanchanaburi is the largest central province in Thailand, lying an hour North West of Bangkok. The province is the home of the River Kwai, made famous by the film 'The Bridge over the River Kwai'. Producers of the film are to blame for giving the river the wrong spelling and mispronunciation (it is in fact pronounced ‘Khwae’ as in ‘way.’

The cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who take care of graves in 150 countries. Upon entering through the large white arches into the cemetery,  you could be forgiven for thinking you have stepped into a little part of Europe, a calm, quiet, green field a thousands miles away from the bustling Thai soi's.

The graves are kept immaculately; lots of water sprinklers keep the grass as green as home, and help to absorb the heat from the hot Thai air. There were lots of tourists when we visited, milling around different sections of the cemetery, but the place remains tranquil.

The South Eastern corner is predominantly Dutch soldiers. The East part for Australians and New Zealanders, plus there are sections for India soldiers, and others, but the majority of the cemetery, well over half, is for fallen Brits, around 4000 headstones, lying in dozens of rows of up to ninety graves each.

You would need to spend the entire day there if you wanted to visit each grave and read each individual heart felt message. Soldiers from regiments from all over the UK, Royal Highland Fusiliers, The Royal Irish Regiment, Staffordshire Gunners, Worcestershire Artillery, Devonshire Infantry, Royal Regiment of Wales, Royal Anglican. The list goes on.

Some brief history? When the Japanese joined WW2 in 1941, several hours of fighting did actually take place between Thai and Japanese forces at Chumphon on the East coast of Thailand, close to the Myanmar border. It soon became clear that the Thai government really had little choice but to concede to Japanese demands for access into Thailand so their forces could advance and invade Burma (now Myanmar) and Malaysia.

The Japanese were very successful in over running large parts of South East Asia; once secure, they elected to build a single line railway to connect Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar and Ban Pong in Thailand, to create a more time efficient supply line between the two countries.

The Japs used POW's and civilian labour to carry out the leg work and construction, effectively putting two labour forces to work at opposite ends of the line, eventually meeting in the middle at Konkuita, Thailand in 1943.

In total, the Japanese 'Burma-Siam' railway project cost the lives of 15,000 prisoner of war, and over 100,000 civilians.

Kanchanaburi is home to the largest of three cemeteries on the Burma-Siam railway, and located near to the 'Kanburi' Prisoner of war camp, where many prisoners of the Japanese passed through on their way to other camps.

Kanchanaburi holds the graves of many soldiers transferred from solitary burial grounds from the southern half of the railway, and from other grave sites in Thailand.

It is touching to see how well these graves are maintained, making the cemetery a 'must visit' for all Brits who come to Thailand.

The great TEE Coffee expansion (well, gamble), plus new Dragon attraction in Suphan

There is a new tourist attraction just opened up in Suphanburi, it is a huge Chinese style dragon, housing a museum and lots of little shops and night market.

Suphanbui is a nice part of Thailand, but being that it is centrally located, it misses out on the beach seekers, and is not really a prominent tourist trap. Monuments like this will help bring more tourists and Thai's to the town, as it is impressive. Known as 'Man Gon Suwan' amongst the Thai's, or 'Heaven Dragon', it is initially proving to be a successful pull, with lots of people coming every weekend.

Once again with us, always business before pleasure, we were at the monument to bid for a retail slot in order to help expand the 'TEE Coffee' empire across town.

(pic left, Sutiya picking out one of our lots) The way it works is straightforward, you put down 5000 baht (100 quid) and for that you get a lot number and a receipt. All entries have to be put in between 10-11 am on a particular day, with the draw held at 12 on the same day.

There was a long queue, and I guess around 60-70 punters, all vying for 1 of the 20 available slots. A 'lot master' calls each person up in turn, who then dip into a bowl to pick a ticket which will either read 'Dai' (successful) or 'Mai Dai' (not successful). As we had arrived quite late, we were near the last to be called.

As each lot was called, there were significantly more 'mai dai's' than 'dai's', and as the draw continued, it looked increasingly likely we might end up with one of the slots. We actually bought 2 tickets, one by Dee, my brother in law, and Sutiya had one as well.

Dee's name was eventually called, he approached, fumbled around in the bucket a bit, pulled a ticket and..................it was a dud.

Sutiya was next, she walked up, reached in, pulled a ticket, handed it to the official, who read it and...it was a dud.

Shit.

Oh well, looks like we will have to look at alternative areas, for now. There will be a second draw in a month's time, so perhaps it will be our turn next time.

I was ready to whinge and cry 'fix' being the cynical bad loser that I am, but I then found out that if you don't win, you get your money back a few weeks later, so fair enough guv, no problemo.

Maybe should have bought a couple more tickets?

Lucky car crash in town (again)

Not too long after my last 'crash' post (here), and in near enough the exact same location, another road joker comes a cropper and flips his motor 180 degrees into a ditch (must have been going some).

Lucky for him / her, it looks like the front seats are left fairly untouched. As long as they were belted up, I guess they should have been OK.

And lucky for everyone else they didn't lose it and tear through the front of somebody's shop, or front yard.

Can't work out why this part of the road seems to be such an accident black spot? The road is straight?

Maybe, as they were driving, a bird or stray dog came into the collision path, and the driver swerved? (doubtfu!)

Actually, looking at the pic above, the black tyre marks on the hard shoulder might indicate this joker was coming from the other direction? (I hear all those back in the UK gasp).

Who knows? This is Thailand, road accident investigators must come across all sorts of strange scenarios, being that the Thai's generally have a good go at ignoring every road regulation ever passed, including the one about driving down the motorway the wrong way.

But altogether, it's not as bad as it sounds. If I had taken notice of all the Thai guides I read before I came here, I wouldn't have ever had the guts to drive at all. The main roads here are very large, with good vision at daytime, and as long as you're not reckless, driving in Thailand can be a pleasure (although, night driving can be a whole different ballgame).