grandma's wanderlust: The Bridge Over the River Kwai and the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi.

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.