Joel: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a double bank holiday, and last week we made good use of our four day weekend by making a trip out to Kanchanaburi near the border with Myanmar, the location of the bridge on the river Kwai. It was a bit of a trek having to go into Bangkok and out again but we arrived at a little guest house on the river late on Friday evening, just in time for last orders in the restaurant. Rakhi’s just finished reading the famous novel named after the bridge and although I’m aware of the significance of the place, I’ve not even seen the film, so it was great that after breakfast on Saturday we could check out the nearby Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, a fantastic museum detailing the history of the construction of the Death Railway from all perspectives. I kind of thought that after leaving Korea I might have heard enough stories about the brutal Japanese but not to be. It seems as pressure began to be placed on the officers to get the thing finished, the conditions in which the Allied POWs were kept became utterly hellish. There were plenty of first-hand accounts from those who’d suffered and survived as well as those who hadn’t and plenty of artifacts to give observers an idea of the torment and agony suffered. Next to the centre and visible from the windows is the huge Allied War Cemetery. We gave that a miss.

In the evening, we took bikes from our guest house and peddled up to the bridge in anticipation of a nine o’clock light show. There was no light show, but instead at one end of the bridge the local Thais were having a huge knees-up with a stage, a band and plenty of energetic dancing. We made our way along the sleepers to the centre of the unlit bridge (imagine the restrictions in the U.K. on walking along such a famous railway bridge at night. I love living in a place where I’m not always treated like an infant!) and couldn’t quite take it all in. “We’re on the bridge on the river Kwai! Woo-hoo” I’ll just have to read the book now.

The next day, we took an early bus up to Erawan National Park, home of a seven tier super-spectacular waterfall. It was a gorgeous day and although plenty of Thais had had same idea as us for enjoying the bank holiday, it wasn’t too busy and everyone we did see was having a great time. The waterfall was stunning. It was a bit of a hike up to the top tier and we worked up a bit of a sweat in the heat but it was well worth it. We took a swim in one of the plunge pools, had our feet nibbled by foot long fish and sat for a while on the rocks underneath the waterfall itself. Absolutely breath-taking.

It’s now Monday morning and I’m back at school after what amounted to something of a working weekend (which is fine every so often). On Saturday, Rakhi and I travelled to a different school to give some lectures on Phonology to a group of Thai teachers. We’d worked pretty hard preparing it (Rakhi particularly) and when the day came, it all seemed to go really well. We’d made it quite interactive with lots of games and exercises and, despite having to be at school on a Saturday, I think the teachers really enjoyed the classes. They gave us pretty good evaluations anyway. A credit to Rakhi I’d say.

And yesterday we both came in to school for a final big rehearsal day for the English play. The six students were more than happy to come in on a Sunday, which kind of shows me how much they want to win, and we spent four hours going through the script in terms of pronunciation and stressing and moved on to tweaking some of the action. After four hours we ran the whole thing and I’d say it was in pretty good shape. We’ll have a final dress rehearsal on Wednesday and if they can remember the two most important things, “Loud and clear, loud and clear…” I’ll be quite happy. On Thursday, we’ll be getting up early to make the three hour trip to Phitsanulok for what I’m now told is the final of the competition. If we win, we’ll be invited with the other three regional winners to perform at a festival in Bangkok in September. Anyway, I’m not counting my chickens. I’ll try to get a video camera this week to film it and, come Thursday, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed .