A Visit To The Bridge Over The River Kwai

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We booked a trip from Bangkok to visit the River Kwai and the war graves in Kanchanaburi.  It took us around 3 hours by mini bus to reach the small town of Kanchanaburi which is north east of Bangkok.

First stop was the Chung Kai Allied War Cemetary on the banks of the Mae Nam Khwaw Noi (River Kwai) around 2km from the bridge.  It was an incredibly moving place to visit with small uniformed head stones engraved with the deceased name, age and rank together with the milatary insignia.  The graves are very well looked after and we saw two workers tending to the graves and weeding when we were there.  Most of the graves we saw were British soldiers and most were in their 20's - it was heart breaking.

Most of the graves we saw were British soldiers and most were in their 20's

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Next stop was the Jeath War Museum which was situated right next to the bridge.  It has a bit of an odd assortment of things here - lots of Japanese helmets and office things like typewriters.  Also has some pretty strange maniquins made to resemble and illustrate the workers and their conditions.  The reason why the museum is so popular is undoubtedly its location as you can walk to the rear of the building and get the best view of the Bridge.  The admittance was only 30 baht so worth it for the view of the bridge if nothing else.

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From the museum its a very short walk up the road - around 1 minute - to The bridge.  Its actually a reconstruction of the original bridge which the allies bombed towards the end of the war in 1945.  This was an incredibly popular place to visit and was quite busy when we arrived.  It was quite scary walking across the bridge as you can see right down to the river through the gaps in the sleepers.  The only concession made to the bridge to allow people to walk across it is a small 1/2m length of metal along the centre of the sleepers which people can walk on.  As you can imagine when the bridge is busy as it was when we visited you have to just hop along the sleepers.

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After leaving the bridge we travelled by bus around 45 mins to a small station where we took a very overcrowded train along a 100km section of the death railway.  We literally bounced along and stood most of the way as the train was crowded with a group of Thai scouts, all wearing their yellow 'I love the King' tops.