I realize this isn't the best picture, so I'll explain. Tonight, after three buses and a dash across six lanes of Thai express way, I am in Hua Hin (with every other tourist on the planet - this is Thailand's Cancun). The picture to the left is the view from my dinner table. I looked at the German places, and the Swiss places, and tons of Italian places (it's way to hot for pizza) and, in the end, decided on squid curry on a jetty over the Gulf of Thailand. And a Chang beer about the size of my lower leg. I dedicate this meal (which cost more than my room, not that that is saying much) to my dad - for his love of seafood, spicy food, and restaurants without menus in English.

To recap, I did not in fact make it to Sangkhlaburi to buy textiles from refugees and orphans. I feel bad about it, but I couldn't find a place to stay so I walked through Hellfire Pass and spent the night in a rafthouse. Hopefully, there's a Women for Weaving outlet in Bangkok. Saturday (back in Kanchanaburi) I visited the JEATH museum (Japan, Australia & America, England, Thailand, and Holland). If you ever find yourself in Kanchanaburi, I recommend seeing all three major museums (JEATH, Thai-Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass - I skipped the one by the bridge itself so I can't say either way). While they cover the same material, they do so in very different ways. JEATH, housed in a model POW bamboo hut, is like a cross next to the highway - a (mostly) spontaneous memorial to the horror that occurred here. The stated purpose of the museum is to remind people of how terrible war is so that we stop doing it. The focus is on the torture and disease suffered by the soldiers (and the hired Asian laborers, lacking doctors and military training they died in droves - the rough estimate is 90,000). The late, great Sir E.E. "Weary" Dunlop also features heavily (and deservedly), having saved innumerable lives as a camp doctor and for harboring no ill-will toward the Japanese after the war. If he's not in line for sainthood, he should be. Both TBRM and Hellfire Pass (right) are far more technologically "slick" but nothing really prepares you for walking down to the pass and realizing sick men on starvation rations cut through this solid rock by hand. The area itself is just beautiful - apparently even more so during the building of the railway before all the teak was removed. Not exactly the most cheerful few days, but am I grateful I had the opportunity to come here and see this place for myself. Even with the tour buses and the trinket stalls, it was startling and raw.