A Day with My Sisters

This post is going to be kind of long, but only because SO MUCH has happened in the past few days.

Last weekend, my host family asked me if I wanted to go on a little trip for my day off. I said "sure, why not!" having no idea what we were about to do. My host mom knocked on my door yelling "Emily, gin khao!!" at 6:30 (even though we definitely agreed on 7:00, farewell, zzz's). I groggily got ready, grabbed my backpack, and jumped in the car with my family.

In about two hours, we arrived at our first destination: Kanchanaburi war cemetery. Here, almost 7,000 prisoners of the Japanese during World War II are buried. These prisoners were forced to build the Thailand/Burma railway, which stretched over 258 miles. The pictures of the prisoners building the railway are quite disturbing, and I'm slightly embarrassed that I did not know anything about it beforehand. The cemetery was beautiful, and also filled with Dutch and Australian tourists looking for names of ancestors.

After the cemetery, we went to the railway itself, which was beautiful, but also a little confusing to me. The setting almost seems like a festival. Food carts are everywhere, a little girl plays her guitar and sings for donations, and on the bridge itself, hundreds of tourists are taking pictures. At first, I thought nothing of it, and was snapping away with my host sisters. But then I thought, like an idiot "wait, people died to make this bridge. Isn't this, like, horribly offensive to their memories?" I tried asking my sister, but she didn't really have an answer for me. That mystery remains unsolved.

After the bridge, there was more driving. My sister Ying turned to me in a slight panick and asked "Oh, I forgot!! Did you bring your bathing suit??" Luckily, I did happen to have it with me. She said "Great! Put it on when we get there." I truly had no clue what I was in store for.

We then arrived at Erawan National Park, a well known park in the west. The view was stunning. Everywhere was you looked was green, children were running around, parents were watching them while eating their picnics. At the very end of the walkway was a nice waterfall that people were splashing and laughing in. My sister said "this waterfall has seven levels, which one do you want to swim in?" and I blurted out "LEVEL SEVEN!" because I was so excited. Ying looked at Ming, who shrugged her shoulders, and Ying said "alright let's go!"

The hike. Was. BRUTAL. I CERTAINLY did not prepare myself correctly, since I had just gobbled up the fried chicken my host mom made for us, and was wearing no bug spray. However, every level of the waterfall just got prettier, and my sisters were in front of me shouting "su su!!" which means "fight fight!!" so I had to keep fighting. And I am sooo glad I did.

Level seven was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I'm sure I felt this way partly because I was delirious and fighting the urge to vomit. But it really was beautiful. Everyone was swimming in crystal clear water. Big catfish were swimming around, and the waterfall roared over everything else. I jumped in, and fish immediately started nibbling my toes. It was hilarious. It was surreal. It was chaotic. It was a memory that I now have stored in my mind forever.

When I think back on this day, I can't get over the sights I saw. But more importantly, I can't get over the hard work and kindness that was involved for my host family to do this for me. The food they made, the long drive, the willingness for my sisters to climb alll the way to the top with me. I am touched by their love every day. It's hard to believe I only have them for a few more weeks before I move to site. But they will always be my family from this point forward.