Hi All,
Just a short stay in Bangkok and then we headed off to Kanchaburi
which is on the river Kwai. This place is really hot at this time of
year. About 37+ deg C and humid. We wandered down to the river to our
accommodation only to find that our airconditioned stone bungalo didn't
exist but they did have some dingy stone rooms with fans. I was hot and
not amused. Eventually we managed to get a fantastic room on a barge on
the river with aircon and great views for the same price. Lucky us.
Then
we headed off to the Death railway (Thailand-Burma railway) museum and
allied cemetery. Shocking and very interesting. I didn't realise that
the largest number of people who died were actually asian
'contractors'. The ages of the allied forces headstones showed that the
ages were mostly between 30-40 years old which was a bit of a surprise for me. It showed how desperate the times must have been in WWII.
Certainly hot! We walked to the tourism office and dropped in to the 7/11 for a slushy each. Very nice. I now understand the purpose of he 7/11 stores that seem to be on just about every corner in the cities of Thailand. Relief from the heat.
My ears had not improved so we headed to the local hospital and got them checked by a doctor. He didn't seem too concerned and told us that there was swelling inside and put me on some anti-inflamitory and antibiotic drugs. Hope they work soon.
If the cemeteries bear witness to the carnage of the
‘Death Railway’, the JEATH Museum bears witness to the suffering of
those that fell during its construction. The ‘open-air’ JEATH (Japan,
England, Australia,America, Thailand and Holland) Museum was built in 1977 by a
Thai abbot in the style of the huts used to imprison prisoners of war.
The museum contains bunks and pictures of actual soldiers who died
alongside articles on the site and other authentic items. The result is
a picture of cramped squalor which gives visitors a genuine insight
into the suffering the soldiers went through.
After this we retreated to the room to cool down. We waited for the heat of the day to go before walking down to the bridge over the river Qwai. The original wooden bridge is gone but the iron bridge remains.
Strange town. Has a strange attraction. So many restuarants and bars in town but not many tourists. Maybe they just melted away. We found somewhere to eat with lots of tourists but the down side was that the food took nearly 1hr to arrive. Guess they just had one wok in the kitchen.
Slushies are very popular with us at the moment.
Next day.
We were up at 445am to get ready to catch the first train along the death railway towards Burma on the last 50km section that remains. Nice journey up to Namtok and took about 2.5hrs. Some of the sections were on wooden structures alongside the river and next to the hills. Then the locals pointed us in the right direction and we caught a local bus to hellfire pass about 40 minutes away. It was already very hot when we arrived. There is a section that can be walked for about 4km each way and the visitor centre provides free audio guides for various points along the way and also a radio for people walking the full track.
The valley is beautiful but it would have been hard for the POWs and asian contractors to enjoy it under the circumstances. Not much remains of the railway as most was dismantled and sold off after the war.
We really felt the heat and went through our 4lt of water along the way. Really really hot. We were balls of sweat by the time we got back to the visitors centre and were glad it was airconditioned. It is hard to imagine anyone working in these condition even with plenty of water and rest. I was really glad that it was tough for us. It gave us a little taste of the tough enviroment. How the POWs managed to work and survive is just a miracle.
We had grand plans to visit other sites around the area at the start of the day but decided that it was just too hot so decided to head back. It didn't take long to flag down a bus and it turned out to be airconditioned. Yes. A couple of hours later we were back in Kanchanaburi. Unfortunately I left my hat and sunglasses on the bus...bugger.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
