Very soon after we had left Photharam this morning, we already arrived at an early highlight: Wat Khanon Nang Yai. It's famous mostly because of the (traditional and historic) shadow puppet plays that are done there - which are only on Saturday so we could not see it. The temple itself is beautiful however, and there is a small museum in an attractive old wooden building, with the puppet shapes used for old plays. The shapes are made of cow hides, coloured and with holes punched in them.
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| Golden Buddha images surrounding the wat |
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| Historic wooden buildings in a marvellous compound |
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| Great examples of shadow puppets; the big one is at least 2m high |
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| Details of a puppet |
From there it was continuous easy riding on small roads, with a few moments of... rain! Temples continued to appear all the time and although slightly less than yesterday, there were some real jewels. Later on we cycled a long time along a wide canal, a bit boring but safe, quiet and easy cycling. Again the temples, although now there were some very big ones, and special ones, often a bit away from the road.
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| Village life in remote rural Thailand |
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| Yes, we had some rain again today. Nothing compared to previous weeks however |
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| The canal scenery, for about 30km today |
We arrived in Kanchanaburi (Thai like to call it Kanburi), a small town at the river Kwai, after an easy day cycling and 70km. Kanchanaburi rings a bell? It's where the famous "bridge over the river Kwai" is located. Our guest house is 400m from the bridge, at the riverside, we can see a little part of it from here. It's world famous, because of the film and its historic value, the bridge itself is nothing special (didn't go there today, so no picture yet).
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| A wat in the distance (Wat Tham Kao Noi), very special and impressive. It was a bit a hazy day today; haze or mist??? |
Tomorrow we take a day "off" in Kanburi, and need to decide whether we go to Myanmar from here, and what is needed for that. Visa won't be simple, that much we know already...