My second post of the day... By popular demand, and while I am without anything to do...
Obviously the story of last Tuesday (it was Tuesday wasn't it?) didn't end with me standing on Hellfire Pass, and while that definitely was a defining moment, there is more to tell... And it led to one of those rare and unexpected situations you don't get unless you are travelling like I am.
As the darkness came in from below and to each side as it only does in the jungle, I had gone there to make my pilgrimage knowing full well I might never get the chance again, and also knowing full well there would be no way back to Bangkok, or even back to Kanchanaburi afterwards. The buses had stopped running south before I even got there and with the departure of the last tour van as I got there, there was nothing else but to walk to the road and sit and see what came past. At that point, to be honest, I was more than happy to sleep on the pass, I had precious little in the way of gear, but I did have insect repellent, possibly the one most vital thing to have... I wasn't going to starve or die of dehydration before the morning... and there was something strangely comforting about the place, despite everything.
With this in mind I walked my way back up to the road on the off chance I may get lucky... the first thing I saw was one of the little rashackle food huts you see on roadsides all over Asia, a thatched roof and no walls, a few tables and basic homecooked food for the locals. I wandered up and thanked the Almighty there was someone there, and promptly grabbed a coke and a bottle of water from the fridge. The lady running the place looked a little bemused and said several times before I understood "No bus Kanchanaburi!!" she led me by the arm and pointed to a clock "No bus!!" I smiled and nodded and tried to tell her I knew that... She watch as I wandered off in the direction of the road and headed south.
Various vehicles passed, mostly locals on scooters heading home, a few trucks and vans... several slowed for a look at me as they approached then carried on their way. I was doing the mental arithmetic, the nearest civilisation I had noted on the way up was about 10km away.. I was planning on waiting until I was out of sight of the food hut before jumping the fence and heading back around to find somewhere to put my head down, but just then I heard a scooter approach and slow behind me. I turned to see the lady from the food hut, and her husband, and their little kiddie of about 5, pull up beside me.. the conversation that followed is a bit hard to explain but mostly involved her talking to me in Thai asthough I understood her, and her husband and I swapping confused looks asthough neither of us really knew what she was on about. I made the international "walking fingers" sign and various others to try to communicate that I was going to walk to a hotel I had seen.. she wasn't having any of this, and started telling me to get on the scooter... I smiled and nodded and shook my head and said I was ok and tried to walk away several times but to no avial, she wasn't having it, and they obviously didn't want me walking down the road in the dark alone. I think I got across the idea that I was going to find a hotel and she decided this was a good idea, but after much to-ing and fro-ing it became clear I wasn't going to be allowed to carry on alone. With significant concerns re structural integrity, and having the deaths of a young family on my conscience, I climbed onto the back of the scooter (it wasn't even a big scooter) and kiddie, mum, dad and I puttered off into the night, weaving disturbingly a bit here and there down the winding roads, and much to the delight of other locals we passed... after about five minutes we pulled off the road and up a driveway. I initially thought they meant for me to stay there the night, but we established they had taken me there as they thought one of the ladies could speak English. She couldn't... but she knew someone who could... kind of... so a couple of abstract cellphone calls later we established they had a friend who had a car who could take me to a hotel. But they didn't. The friend with the car couldn't make it, although I at first thought he said he could, and there was a period of some waiting... EVENTUALLY we established that the dad would in fact take me the rest of the way via scooter, and payment (which I had asked the sort-of-English-speaking guy about) was entirely up to me... I thanked everyone profusely, feeling worse and worse for the drama and wishing I had stayed on the pass.
Dad and I again whizzed off, stopping to top up with gas at a "petrol station" (two pumps with a shelter). I tried to give Thai dad some money and he refused and refused, when he finally relented he tapped the dollar value on the pump, indicating I could pay the 80 baht (NZ$4) in gas... I shook my head and pressed 200 baht into his hand, and he looked at it and his face lit up. He tried to give it back but I refused. Without words to be able to express anything he just smiled and we climbed back on the scooter, and eventually after some time got to the hotel sign I had seen. The River Kwai Village Hotel. Sounded nice enough, and from the sign I guessed was fairly modest, with a cheap room in the sticks for a place to lay my head. Until I saw the bigger sign. The River Kwai Village Hotel Jungle Resort. And then I saw the security barrier... and the guardhouse... but Thai dad on the front turned and smiled and went "Yes, yes?" and I felt guilty so I said "Yes" and tried to grin like I meant it... I knew I was in more trouble when the double laned asphalt drive over the rise and down the hill was wider and better than the public road we came off... and there were signs for ATV tours, riverboats, jungle walks, etc... I knew I was in even more trouble when we passed the six double decker tour buses outside the drivers quarters, which I had from a distance hoped was the hotel... I knew I was in REAL trouble when we wound down a hill to the river through manicured jungle to be greeted by a huge complex, three more shiney tour buses unloaded very well dressed white folk, and a large elaborately lit entrance way into an expansive lobby... Thai dad stopped short on the scooter as the tour bus crowds began to turn and look... I shook his hand and we smiled and said things that neither of us understood a word of, and he rode off into the dark..
I turned and regarded this new and unexpected development. I knew it wasn't going to go well, and considered walking back up the drive, but I just felt guilty, it seemed kind of like throwing the kindness of my Thai samaritans back in their faces... so I sucked it up and turned and strolled casually toward the lobby. You have to paint the mental picture here... It's dark and these folk in very nice clothes are coming off their air conditioned luxury coaches, probably direct from the airport, at a resort in the middle of nowhere, and being handed iced beverages from tables set up outside the front of the hotel as they are directed to the balcony restaurant overlooking the river. A lonely scooter putts up behind them carrying a local chappy and a large tanned white guy, filthy and smelly, with scruffy hair, five days stubble, a sweat and dirt stained tshirt, long pants and hiking boots. The dirty white chap gets off the scooter, shoulders his bag, shakes the brown chaps hand, and then strolls past into the lobby...
And into the lobby I went... I knew I was in further trouble when I saw the gift shop... and the jewellery shop... and the lounge areas... and the somewhat smarmy and condescending guy behind the counter showed me photos of the rooms and asked various questions I will not go into... so to spite him I dug into my bag and pulled out a wad of (almost all my) money and told him I would happily take one of his rooms... and so I did...
I tried to avoid the wealthy clientelle as much as possible, getting many curious looks whenever we crossed paths... at first it was actually good fun obviously, it all felt rather Indiana Jones...... I had no spare clothes so could only shower and put back on my damp and stinking rags, and not being able to afford the food in the plush looking restaurant and being conscious enough of my state to not inflict it on others, I retired to the pool bar where I had a couple of beers, after the staff had quietly gone to the reception to make sure I was in fact a guest and could pay for them... I did of course have a bit of fun, raising eyebrows at one table of French folk who I kept catching looking at me over their cocktails, and talking quietly at the same time... Obviously I was something of a mystery, sitting alone looking rugged and weathered.. or possibly I was doing something to ruin the mood of the place... I eventually tired of catching their looks and decided to take an active part in their indignation by blowing cigarette smoke into the fan whenever it pointed in their direction...
Running out of money all round and conscious I still had to get back to Kanchanaburi... and then Bangkok... the next day, I retired to my nice (though not exactly five star) room.
I had asked the guy at the counter if there were vans going south the next day.. he looked me up and down again and said there were local buses if I walked up to the road... as I thought... So that is what I did, the next morning as tourbus after tourbus thundered past, off on their merry tours, I walked back up the hill to the road and sat on the side and waited til a bus came. Back in Kanchanaburi I searched in vain for a minibus heading back, but they were all waiting til late afternoon for their passengers, so another local bus later, and mid afternoon I got back to Bangkok, and my first meal in 46 hours... and so it came to pass...From Bangkok to Kwai to stranded on Hellfire Pass, to the milk of human kindness from unknown friends.. to a night in a resort.. that was last Tuesday and Wednesday
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