journal indo-china 2008

Indo-China 2008 Travel Journal

to Kanachanburi

Oct 22, 2008 Wed
Morning
03:00to Kanachanburi
09:54breakfast at Grande Ville
10:07 hercules of bangkok
11:22 map of siriraj medical complex
11:28forensic museum
2nd floor in building 28 in a hospital complex
A sign says it will be closed tomorrow, I'm not sure if it means forever.
It contains :
Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum ? Internal Organs, Murderer Cadavers, Dead Babies ? the gory grimness all you can eat.
Gua Ketusingh museum of Thai medicine ? I can't find this museum anywhere, but judge by the name, I don't think I missed anything.
Parasitological museum ? If you want to enjoy your lunch afterwards, don't come here. Actually if you want to enjoy lunch for the next three days, don't bother to visit.
Ellis Pathological museum ? I wonder where the killer dildo is but only find photos of the Thai king playing doctor. Unless you are a fan of the Thai king, you will quickly skip through this museum.
11:39Songkran Niyomsane forensic medicine museum
Since no photo is allowed, I would do my best to describe the glory gore in words:

Upon entrance, there are some exhibition about the 2004 tsunami and how the tsunami victims were treated.
Then there are some human figures demonstrating giving birth to babies.
Further inside, there are some skulls injured in car accident by dragging along the road, and another injured by burn, and one suffered laceration from a sharp object.
You can also find some human hearts with gunshot wounds, and intestines damaged by drinking acid (coca cola anyone?), and tongues and spleens with gunshot wound.
Not to miss the amputated arm and foot. Complimented with a severed arm with tattoo (of a smoking farmer).
There's placenta fetus of 6 months gestation age baby from pregnant woman with abortion due to abnormal injury in car accident.
And the usual cigarette smoker lung, and babies fetus at different stages.

Every here and there, there was a reminder that visitors can buy postcards of these gory details in the souvenir shop.

There are four cadavers of rape murderer after death sentence. One is the body of si quey.

The highlight is the pink T-shirt belonged to the victim stabbed to death by a dildo (both the dildo and T-shirt is placed neatly inside the glass case.)
There's a throat cut by beer bottle but the worst belongs to the blast force cadaver. A dead raccoon road kill will look prettier.

There's also an urn which used to contain a dead child. The label says asphysial death burn. It's so spooky that I've nightmares about the urn a few nights later.

Thanks to the helpful forensic museum, you will know exactly how your cadaver will look like if you die in a motorcycle accident or lacerated by sharp object in the skull. With enough imagination you can also visualize the road kill pattern of your remains if you die in an explosion.
Afternoon
12:13Parasitology museum
This museum will convert a raw oyster eater to a humble vegetarian. This museum is not much tamer than the last one.
You can see the victim of elephantiasis or filariasis (transmitted by mosquitoes), illustrated by a human figure with scrotums as big as a small sofa.
There's photos of large ring worms protruded from an unlucky victim.
Don't forget scabies, malaria worms, house dust mites and ticks and all sorts of nasty stuffs.
12:39Siriraj medical museum
12:40 siriraj medical museum
12:42 vintage vehicle association
Like the gore internals organs of the B-movies, only these are real.

Human face, baby face, more dead fetus, and even a full gown baby.
Literally hundreds of dead babies, different favors of deformed babies?
two dead, attachment to middle trunk
thoracopagus parasiticus (head in body)
epionathus parasiticus (grow from mouth)

They even got a bones and joints section for all the T-bone lovers.
13:02prehistory museum
Almost a relief to visit this museum, not just the air con, but also the bones here are dead for millions of years and lose all the glory details of death.
13:19 museum of anatomy and prehistory
13:29temple near Bangkok Noi Station
13:41board train to Kanachaburi
14:30raining train
To experience the hardships of building the dead railway, you don't have to be a POW, you can experience part of the hardships simply by becoming a passenger on the Bangkok Noi to Nam Tok station train in a rainy day.

It is like fighting a battle, almost none of the windows work on the train. Everywhere is leaking. The passengers fight a fruitless battle of rain blocking and still end up soaking wet.

The train also acts as the tree trimmer, chopping off leaves and branches along the railway, and sending them into the mouth of the unsuspected passengers.

Last train to Bangkok from Kanachaburi train station is 2:44pm (a bit later on Weekends).
Tourist train is 10:50

The windows of this antique train is not up to task of blocking the rain, and soon many people in the train were soaking wet. Luckily, I sat on one of the few seats that are immune to wetness.
100b for a rickety train that leaks, maybe too expensive.
15:40 raining train
17:51 tnt guest house
It is next to the water house station in the guest house district.
Got Satellite TV, hot shower, air con, big bed for 550B
It is clean but smells bad. Probably because it doesn't have a flushing toilet, but it is easy enough to flush (one person, no problem)
Night
18:14Yanee bike renting
Here's the cost of bike renting:
motorbike (automatic) 200B to 250b
motorbike (manual) 150B
bike 50B
18:43Tai-Thai restaurant
Location: close to the TNT guest house, on the opposite side of the road.
During happy hour, buy two drinks get 1 free until 7:30 pm.
Ordered a Thai omelet and a fried glass noodle with egg and veggie.
It also has a large ice-cream dessert selection
The staffs are friendly
19:00 thai omelet
40B
19:28bus to Bangkok
Mini Bus: 1:30pm and 5:30pm 150B
7:30am to 7:30pm every hour 150 to 160b
have air con, arrive Khao San road
23:59TNT Guest House
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