Kanchanaburi – November 25, 2010

I am in Kanchanaburi – a small town about 2 hours north of Bangkok. I am here to attend the end-of-the-year BDM meeting. BDM stands for “business development manager” and there are about 30 or so BDMs working for LMG Thailand. They are sort of like regional sales managers, except that they essentially run mini-companies, managing not only sales, but also underwriting, claims, and finance. It’s a very interesting business relationship – we supply office space, staff, and systems and they generate income for the company. Many of them have been with LMG Thailand – or one of its predecessor companies – for many years.

Tewtip and I drove up together. On the way up, we stopped at a temple. (I think it was called Wat Prathong, but not really sure.) It was an interesting temple because it was essentially just one very large golden chedi, with small shrines and statues ringing its circular base.

There were some beautiful old murals and a reclining Buddha.

There was a lot of activity at the temple – people praying, putting money into monk bowls, buying lotus flowers, etc.

Also a large pack of Thai boy scouts on a field trip – who seemed genuinely surprised to see a “foreigner.”

That was one thing that struck me – we were only about an hour or so north of Bangkok but I noticed people looking at me. In Bangkok there are lots of Westerners and most Bangkokians don’t even bat an eye as we go past. In fact, it’s more likely to be the Westerners who catch each other’s eye. But here, people seemed surprised and weren’t shy about staring.

The other thing that struck me was that much of the activity in the area was due to the annual “winter festival.” Winter?!? Please – it was 96 degrees! One of the reasons I went on this trip was because I was told that Kanchanaburi is in the hills and that it would be cooler. Well, it is in the hills – at least the start of the hills – but it was definitely NOT cooler. Though it was nice to see some actual topography – Bangkok is flat, flat, flat.

We eventually made it Kanchanaburi and to the Felix River Kwai Resort.

That’s another reason for coming here – this is the site of the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai.

The bridge itself is less impressive than I expected, but the story behind it – of the hardships and atrocities inflicted on the POWs who built it and the railway – is compelling. We made a stop at the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, where almost 7000 POWs are buried.

On a happier note, today is Thanksgiving. But like I said, it was 96 degrees today so Thanksgiving was not in the air. And no turkey for dinner – had a very tasty sea bass in green mango salad instead. And there was “entertainment” during dinner – a lounge act. A Thai man and woman singing, with a guitar. And for some reason, they seemed to be singing mostly American songs. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard a Thai lounge act sing “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” As a duet.