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Hi from Kanchanaburi!
The city’s name may have passed by your radars, but you have surely heard of the Bridge on the River Kwai. Part of the dark history of the Death Railway, this World War II project took numerous lives.
We, people, are often shortsighted so, after my last Kanchanaburi visit, I wrote about this famous landmark as a selfie bridge.
To be honest, even now, five years later, tourists gather at the bridge precisely when one of the four daily trains passes, mainly to snap a photo of themselves in a silly pose.
Deliberately not paying attention to them this time, I focused on another local attraction, just by the bridge. Many seem to miss or even choose to ignore this very vocal coconut slayer. She cuts coconuts with a deep male groan that turns heads and creates marketing momentum.
She also owns a cute puppy. But there are many less cute dogs on the streets of Kanchanaburi. Sometimes, I feel like I’m choosing a place for dinner by strategically picking a street with a lot of cats. I assume that when I see cats lazing around, I can expect fewer dogs potentially snapping at me.
It’s not the nicest feeling walking by night (or day) only to encounter growls and snarls behind the corner. A community that chooses tourism should do something about these defenders of invisible territories, mostly stray dogs.
When I attended the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, at one local temple I was “welcomed” by a pack of barking dogs that charged at me in unison, so hard that I thought the game was over. If I hadn’t frozen, and instead ran off, like I can imagine people doing in panic, I’m sure I would have ended up with some unpleasant marks on my body.
In Kanchanaburi, I started giving up on visiting certain shrines as soon as I would see scared and unadjusted dogs encircling them.
I do love dogs. I rescued two. You can see them in this week’s #Top4Theme on X. Plus, some funny Kanchanaburi dogs that nobody would be afraid of.
But then there are also those other dogs that shouldn’t just be left to roam around, eat from garbage bins, and bark at passers-by.
Stray dogs should be taken care of by the town government (when I say “taken care” of, I don’t mean it in a Death-Railway-style of taking care of things, but in actually providing shelters and veterinarian help).
Owned pets should also not just be let loose. Goats in a cosmetics shop (true story!) may be cute, but not if they would headbutt customers. So the same should apply to wandering dogs.
All this intro mainly to promote an article I recently wrote about a rather unusual passenger rambling aboard the Seajets ferry in Greece. Check out this redefined island hopping!
Have a pet-friendly week!
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
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