In Bangkok i was residing at the "Burapa Hotel" situated in downtown Bangkok at 160/14 Charooenkrug road, Bangkok-10200, one of the popular and reasonably priced hotels, popular with Indian tourists. I was accommodated into room Nos 562 at a daily cost of 550Baht(1Us$= 39 Baht approx @2005 rates), a large spacious air-conditioned room, decent and reasonably priced.The hotel arranged for local guided tours and hence on arriving at the hotel i instantly booked for the "Packaged guided tour" of "Kanchanaburi" as being a "Film and history Buff" , i had pre-planned this visit through study on the "Internet Search Engines". The total cost of the tour was 1950baht( Rs 2450 approx).
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| "BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAE YAI( KWAI)" :- This present railroad bridge is a original replica of one of the 600 bridges built over the 415 Km long railway between Ban Pong in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma. .The original "DEATH RAILWAY" was completed ahead of schedule in October 1943 and the Japanese army transported 500,000 of freight though this railway before it was captured by the Allies. |
On Thursday(22-12-2005) , got up early and waited for the "Toyota Minibus", a common mode of transport for "Package tour operators" in Bangkok, the same arriving at our hotel at approx 0830 hrs.The tourist guide was a young lady named Leena with an accompanying local guide apprentice and after picking me the minivan proceeded to pick up tourists from the other hotels,a very convenient and economic method of touring Bangkok. Bangkok is difficult for the "Solo Backpacker" like me as there is a "Language Problem" , few local Thai's speak in the "English Language", hence, without knowledge of "Thai language", its extremely dangerous to travel outside the precincts of Bangkok city in "Public Transport".The tourists in the van were a total cosmopolitan crowd of Europeans, consisting of Germans,Israelis,French,Britishers and a fellow Indian, with "English language" being the mode of instruction by the tour guide Leena. It was a 2 1/2 Hour drive of approximately 130 Kms of road travel to Kanchanaburi better known as the historical location of the World War-2, "1942-43 Burma-Railway" construction ,made famous in the 1957 war movie, "Bridge on the river Kwai".The actual movie, "Bridge on the river Kwai" was filmed in the Ceylon( now Sri Lanka) jungles with artificial "Film Sets",not at its historical location in Kanchanaburi in Thailand. Our first stop was at the Kanchanaburi war cemetery(Don Rak) which contains the remains of 6,982 allied prisoners who perished during the construction of the "DEATH RAILWAY" as the "1942-43 Burma Railway" construction was later referred after the atrocities during its construction were revealed to the World. An estimated 12,339 allied P.O.W's and between 70,000 and 90,000 forced Asian labourers including many Thai's died during the short period of construction of the "Death Railway" . I observed that most of the gravestones were of men in the age group of 20 to 40, indicating the tremendous loss of an entire generation during the 2nd World war in Asia. Next we visited the "Jeath war Museum", constructed in the shape of an "allied Prisoner of War Camp" with artifacts of that particular period in human history. The name "JEATH" is derived from country's involved in the War from 1942 to 1945 which comprise of Japan, England,America,Australia,Thailand and Holland.The Thatched "Bamboo bunks" contain photographic material as well as utensils and physical memorabilia of the inhabitants of these camps, a lucky few "P.O.W Survivors " donating their own artifacts after the War, including log books, making the museum more authentic ."Bridge on the river Kwai", the movie with its immortal "Colonel Bogie's March" tune is romanticized fiction meant for the "Box-office" as are all "War era Films", totally different from the authentic "Death Railway site" horrors and loss of human life during just 3 years of warfare. Next we boarded a Thai speedboat and approached the actual black iron bridge on the Khwae Yai river
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| Original replica of the foundation girders of the Bridge on the Khwae Yai river(River Kwai). "The Burma Railway(Death Railway)" was a 415 Kms railway between Ban Pong in Thailand to Thyanbyuzayat in Burma built by the Empire of Japan to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War -2.The Thai portion of this original railway line exists with 3 trains crossing this bridge twice daily bound from Bangkok to Nam Tok train terminus.The Burmese portion of the original "Death Railway" fell into disrepair and is no more in use . |
, better known as "BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI", a replica of the original which was totally destroyed during the war. The beam supporting the main railway tracks are made of teak wooden beams and not iron girders as are all modern train bridges, besides , the curved spans of the bridge are the original sections.
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| On a tourist train journey over the exact replica of the "Death Railway Bridge" in Kanchanaburi |
The scenery was just beautiful, absolute forested mountain greenery and we walked along the railway tracks also experiencing a train passing through this bridge at a very slow speed.
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| On the tourist train crossing the "Bridge on the River Kwai". |
Next we caught the train at the bridge station and crossed this historic bridge, meandering our way through absolutely scenic mountain forests and cliffs, absolutely wild and harsh terrain. As a backpacker and having traveled through numerous uncharted forest trails infested with mosquito's and leeches i can visualize the calamity faced by these "P.O.W'S" working on the "Death Railway" with disease due to insects and malnutrition claiming most of the human lives. we crossed the "Death Bridge" and alighted the train at the next stop on this beautiful mountainous hills. Lunch was at a classic restaurant offering a beautiful view of the entire valley below, just indescribable natural beauty which has to be experienced and difficult to describe in words.
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| "ELEPHANT CAMP" at Kanchanabhri with their Mahouts providing " Elephant Rides" to tourists. |
After lunch we visited the elephant park where tourists are given an elephant ride amongst the forested area, even crossing the river at its shallow end. Viewed the local "kraal Houses" built by the local elephant mahouts and their families amidst these jungle surroundings. As the Europeans were not used to "elephant rides", it was a craze amongst them while i just trekked within the forests for almost an hour, alone amongst the dense vegetation and nature.
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| Elephant rides across the River Kwai. |
In Thailand most of the elephants are tuskless(Makhnis) and seem comparatively docile compared to their Indian cousins, whom i studied personally during my visits to the Mysore zoo and Theppakady near Mudumulai forests in India.We finally departed from the "Elephant Reserve" in Kanchanaburi at approximately 1530 hrs making our way back to Bangkok in peak time traffic congestion, with traffic jams of 1/2 hr at times . A normal routine of "Guided Tours" in Bangkok is that after the main tour they normally take the tourists to a "Jewelry" or "Handicrafts" shop which besides explaining the process of jewelry manufacture also expects the tourists to purchase some of their products.Finally i reached my hotel at 1915 hrs, exhausted from a hectic days tour and trekking.
