Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Thailand

The plane touched down in the darkness of night with immediate sighs of relief and whoops of joy from the passengers inside. We were finally home. I was firmly back on Singapore soil after 3 whole weeks in Thailand.
Well, it was a rather interesting experience in all. I spent almost all of my time on the roads sending food to the field, naturally, the roads of Kanchanaburi seem like familiar roads already. However I can only provide photos taken from our R & R, which also pretty much help me portray my point.

The roads in Kanchanaburi are not very populated like ours, because it's in the slightly less developed part of Thailand. So small towns and villages scatter the main roads of the area.



The most popular modes of transportation are pick-up trucks and motorcycles. You will hardly see sedans around this part. The amazing thing is that most adults drive or ride, but sometimes youth can be seen driving as well. And I do mean really young, like 9 year old boys riding a motorcycle, or 13 year old girls driving their own pickup with friends enjoying the ride in the backseat.



There is so much land that plantations can be found almost everywhere possible. One of the most popular crop which I noticed is the tapioca, fields and fields of them can be found in a lot of the areas. Padi is probably the second most grown crop out there, and since it's the rainy season, all the better for padi as well.



Not forgetting the harsh weather as well! The mornings and nights are quite cooling and comfortable, but it was the afternoons which felt really really bad. The afternoon sun is very hot, and the heat lasts from around 10am(Thai time) all the way till around 4pm. Mysteriously, it doesn't rain the afternoons, but usually only at night, so it makes it really cold as well, not that I'm complaining though.



The scenery is rather nice to admire though. With plantations spread all over the foreground, while mountains line the back. It really made me feel at ease amidst all the rushing and chaos in the field. The view is really something to experience firsthand, no description can depict the real view there. Even the roadside greenery is a lot lusher compared to Singapore, mainly because it's more of a forested area than maintained strip of plants along the road.

The locals seem to like orchids a lot, because on the outside of almost every house is at least a pot of Dendrobium or Oncidium hanging around. There are also a lot of stray dogs all around. Only a handful of cats did I see, I can literally count with 2 hands the number of times I saw a cat(even domesticated ones). Of course with so many wildlife roaming free around the place, roadkill is something which happens once in a while as well. I saw a few casualties along the whole course of time there, but I won't describe them because it's just too sad and bad to discuss it.

Well, will I get another chance to go back to Thailand? Maybe, but even if I do go again, it will be something where I can learn so much more, both about my job, as well as the about the country. It was an enjoyable trip while it lasted, and I'm glad that I went.

Now it's farewell to Thailand and hello Singapore once again!

~moey out~