Kanchanaburi

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A two hour bus journey brought us to Kanchaburi about 200 km west of Bangkok. This is the site of the infamous 'Bridge on the River Kwai', part of the death railway construction project that cost the lives of more than 100,000 asian labourers and allied prisoners of war. We decided to spend a couple of days here to see the bridge, the museums and some of the surrounding countryside.

We stayed at the boastfully named  'Luxury Hotel' (nice but not luxurious) which was only a five minute walk away from the Allied War Cemetery. Walking down row upon row of graves illustrated the sheer human cost of building the railway and the cruelty inflicted on the POWs and Asian labourers by the Japanese and Korean guards.  The museum across the road had some really interesting exhibits and we spent a good hour walking around, taking it all in.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

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The bridge itself is very impressive but the location is not what I expected. I was expecting it to be set in the middle of the jungle, just like in the film, but in reality its on the edge of the town and there are lots of restaurants now lining one bank of the river. We walked across the bridge which proved to be a bit nerve-wracking as there no handrails and not very much stopping you from stumbling and falling twenty metres into the river below. We were glad to make it across and back in one piece.

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During our time here we also went on a day tour into the surrounding countryside. We soaked in the hot springs and saw a waterfall in the morning and in the afternoon we went to see the Hellfire Pass Memorial and museum. This is part of the railway where Australian and British POWs had to build a huge cutting through a cliff-face. The lights of the torches at night and the hammering of tools against stone gave it the nickname of 'Hellfire Pass' and making the cutting cost the lives of thousands of the prisoners. We walked through the cutting and found that it was a really eery place, as you knew that many people lost their lives here. It was very hot and humid. It took a lot of energy just to walk around, let alone doing hard physical labour for twelve hours a day on half rations. Really interesting place, though - we really enjoyed it.

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After that, we took the railway back to town through some really picturesque countryside. A very good day.