 Two weeks ago, the TCIS staff headed off to Kanchanaburi, a city/province in western Thailand on the Burma border, for the “official” staff bonding trip (unlike the unofficial one in Ko Samet). We had a great weekend!
Kanchanaburi is best known for the Bridge Over the River Kwai. This bridge was built by POWs and forced Asian labor during WWII for the Japanese. They were interested in transporting goods from the River Kwai via railroad into Burma and further west. Many people lost their lives during the construction. For more information, to go http://www.kanchanaburiguide.com/. Due to a no school - rain day, we left at 2:00 pm on  Friday, September 16. We had been off the previous day, as well, so we were all feeling quite spoiled to, on top of it, receive a free weekend in Kanchanaburi! Many people were drinking (to the surprise of many of you, I was not :), although we were told that this was to be a dry trip. Apparently two years ago, Curt, the Upper School Counselor, and a former TCIS teacher, were drunk, naked, and going down the hotel's slide while a few members of the Board of Directors looked on! Needless to say, we were instructed not to drink, but our bus was the party bus and therefore included few "responsible" people :) The bus ride was a good time, but a bit lengthy. It should have taken only 3 hours from Bangkok, but for some odd reason (I'm trying to get used to not using  logic because it's rarely used here in Thailand) we backtracked from downtown out to Thana City, where many TCIS teachers live, and back through downtown again on our way west. We're not entirely sure why they didn't pick us up last, so we could have avoided the additional 2 hours added onto our adventure, but the drinks were flowing, people were playing cards, and we were all having a pretty good time. In this photo, I'm being mauled by Craig, the 3-4 grade EIP (English Intensive Program) teacher from Toronto, who is also our neighbor, living in the building next door with Tysone and Rico. Upon arrival in Kanchanaburi, the guys hadn't had enough beveraging so they piled into a songtaw and headed for downtown.
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