When in Thailand you can’t omit a
visit to the Bridge Over the River Kwai and the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi.
I booked a two day tour, and I was
so happy to go to see such an important site.
However, every time I told other
travelers where I was going, nobody knew what I was talking about. Even young
Thai people did not know what I was talking about.
I am still amazed at the worldwide
lack of history knowledge.
The Death Railway was built by prisoners
of WWII between September 16, and December 25, 1942.
It is called the Death Railway
because most of the prisoner died during the construction. The terrible
treatment they received from the Japanese, the lack of food and medicines,
combined with the hard work, and atrocious tortures, caused the death of more
than 16,000 war prisoners from England, Australia, Nederland and the USA. There
were over 90,000 kidnaped laborers from Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia and
Indonesia that die too. They received a worse treatment than the POW. They did
not count, because if they die, the Japanese military just go and kidnaped more
people. No big deal.
The 215 mile long railway was built
to provide a route for supplies and ammunition between Thailand and Burma.
The bridge was the target of many
bombing raids during WWII and was rebuild after the war ended, using many of
the original parts.
The Death Railway crosses the River
Kwai in Kanchanaburi, where there is the Death Railway Museum and Research
Centre. There you can see pictures depicting the history of the railway. There
is also a war cemetery where many of the POW had been burry.
Now a day you can travel the
railroad in a replica of the old train from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. Or you can
do like I did and just travel part of the way. Let’s face it, the train with it
wooden seats, it’s not that comfortable, so 1 ½ hours was enough for me.
Nevertheless, it was an incredible experience.
Once you arrive at the bridge you
can cross it on foot. However, there were so many tourist crossing the bridge
and taking pictures that it did not feel as special as I thought it would.
Still it was great.
The views during the train ride are
gorgeous. The lush tropical forest and banana plantations surrounded by
majestic mountains form a great landscape, very well worth the trip.
The landscape now is very different
than what it used to be. Now a day, instead of jungle, you have a golf course,
hotels and restaurants. There are also many floating rooms and resorts on the
river. I stayed in one of the floating rooms and it was beautiful, I slept like
a baby. It is a UNESCO place and as such, a touristic place.
“The
Bridge Over the River Kwai” became famous due to the 1957 film of the same
name, directed by David Lean, with William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness,
and Sessue Hayakawa in the main roles.
There is a new picture “The Railway
Man” with Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skarsgard, directed by Jonathan
Teplitzky.
I have not seen the new movie, so I
cannot say anything about it. However the original movie was excellent.
If people don’t want to read
history, I recommend everybody to see the original movie. It is great and you
will learn about an important part of history too.
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| The River Kwai and the Death Railway |
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| The train |
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| The Bridge Over the River Kwai |
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| The jungle at the River Kwai at present |
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| POW Cemetery |
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| My floating room |
