Sunday we went to see the bridge over the River Kwai. We were picked up from our hotel at 6:45 in the morning. I had forgotten that there was a 6:45 in the morning! Our tour guide and driver took us to pick up the other two people joining our group and we were off. Kanchanaburi is about 80 miles west of Bangkok. Traffic and road conditions meant the journey took about two hours.
We stopped first at the War Cemetery which holds the remains of over 6000 Allied POWs who died building the “Death Railway” from Burma into Thailand. The cemetery is well maintained and quite beautiful.
Next we visited the JEATH war museum. JEATH stands for Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand, and Holland. The museum is built to resemble the buildings the POWs lived in at the camp. Inside the bamboo huts are photographs, news clippings, and artifacts telling about the history and conditions of the camp.
Right outside the camp is a monastery.
The monks at the monastery care for it. I found some of the monastery buildings quite beautiful and took a couple of shots before it was time to move on.We boarded a long tail boat and took off down the river to meet up with the River Kwai. The ride was bumpy, fast, and enjoyable. Speeding across the water brought a welcome cool breeze.
Once we arrived at the bridge we go off the boat and went up to the land. The bridge is still part of an active railroad track so it surprised me that we were allowed to walk across it! There is no way that people would be allowed to walk across a bridge like that even if it was not still used by trains. It wasn’t too bad until you met up with people walking the opposite direction and had to pass.
There is not a stop right at the bridge, so we drove up a little to a stop further along the way. We just missed the train and had to wait for the next one to come. When it arrived it was already packed so we had to stand for awhile until passengers got off and seats were made available. The views along the way were spectacular.
