Lest we forget
As Jonathan was first to guess, we are in Kanchanaburi (that bit was easy – it’s labelled on our map!) at the location of the famous bridge over the river kwai. We have a really great hostel, which is why we have ended up staying here 6 nights – our room is on a raft floating on the river with gorgeous views of the river and surrounding area. Other than the very big (but very empty!) karaoke rafts that are towed up and down the river every few hours with music playing very loudly, it is a very peaceful location.
The film “Bridge Over The River Kwai” made the bridge famous, and is the main reason why many tourists come here. The bridge is still here (not a bamboo thing like in the film – a steel and cement one) and this section of the railway is still in use (the complete “Death Railway” went from Burma to Thailand, the section actually between Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand was dismantled many years ago as it was not needed and there were worries that it would be used to supply Burmese terrorists). 
You can walk across the bridge, trying not to fall through the gaps or get caught out by a train arriving (there are 3 a day in each direction). The main risk walking across the bridge is however getting knocked aside by all the tourists trying to get photos of everything (I include myself in this group – I cannot claim to be above criticism in this respect!). In fact we were surprised to see a group of Buddhist monks walking across the bridge in their glorious orange robes, taking photos of each other! I thought Buddhist monks were not supposed to have any personal possessions? The bridge itself obviously has history behind it, but is pretty unremarkable besides that. The two “box” sections in the middle are where the bridge was repaired after the bombing, hence different from the curved sections along the rest of its length. The film isn’t an entirely accurate reflection of the story of the bridge, but I wont bore you here with the details (or rather, Emma has told me not to bore you here with the details, so you can be thankful to her!)
We first visited the recommended museum that gave the history of the Death Railway. There are a few of these in town – some better than others apparently. This one was very moving and informative – it taught me a few things about how the railway was built and at what cost. Not only did over 10,000 of the 60,000 POWs die during its construction, but also did 90,000 of the 180,000 forcibly conscripted Asians (from Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia etc) – and they are much less remembered as there are few records of their identities or deaths.
The Japanese and Korean engineers and guards were very tough, more so when Japan enforced a tighter deadline – called the “Speedo” period. 18 hour continuous shifts a day with little rations and many having debilitating diseases. And of course they could not even take pride in their work, as what they were doing was helping the Japanese war effort. After the museum we walked amongst the war graves at the largest cemetery in the area – immaculately maintained by the Thais as a gift to the POWs of, primarily, Britain, the Netherlands and Australia. Many bodies from the graveyards of the many POW camps along the railway were exhumed and moved here by volunteers. A moving and humbling experience.
We were originally planning to take the train across the bridge an to the end of the line to see the area and access a few sights further north. In the end we hired a motorbike for a day and rode up that way instead. Apart from nearly running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere (we found a local shop that had an old fashioned hand pump from a barrel for petrol, luckily!), we stopped off at an elephant camp (didn’t partake in a trip on an elephant, but they seemed well looked after)
and then at another memorial to the workers on the death railway – this one created and maintained mainly by Australian volunteers, which was excellent. They had reconstructed some of the track, especially through an area called “Hellfire Pass”, where the workers had to manually hammer their way through many metres of solid rock to provide a path for the railway. We visited that area in mid-afternoon and it was REALLY hot with no shade.
Stopped off, and jumped into, a waterfall on the way back to cool down. I wasn’t the only one – that would have been silly. It was full of people doing the same thing – only many were “cooling down” from their air conditioned coach trip! Once again, the benefit of not being part of an organised tour meant we could stay there as long as we wanted, and I managed to get a photo when all of the crowds were gone.
Those mopeds are not really designed for 200km day trips, though. Engine was fine – the seats were not (at least, not according to our backsides!)
Oh, and we avoided visiting the Tiger Temple in this area for this reason: http://www.careforthewild.com/files/TigerTemplereport08_final_v11.pdf
We are both now expert chefs in the art of Thai cooking. Well, we both did a half-day cookery course, anyway. Consisted of a trip to the local market in the morning, which was really useful in identifying all those vegetables (and some animals!) that we had passed on market stalls previously but had no idea what they were or what to do with them! I never knew there were so many different kinds of aubergine. Well worth the course fee just for that instruction (although I was a little worried when I thought Emma was going to set free all the live frogs that were in a bucket ready to be sold! Not that I would blame her). We then went to a lovely big, modern kitchen (they were obviously doing well for themselves!) and cooked four dishes – pad thai, masaman curry, sweet & sour veg and tom yam soup. 
We obviously cooked the veggie versions (we’d already cooked and eaten the pad thai when this photo was taken!). I think we did a pretty good job – was certainly edible and in fact I think tasted very nice. The look on the face of the teacher as she sampled the dishes wasn’t always quite as positive as that, but I like to think she was simply being a perfectionist! So, assuming we can find tamarind, masaman and tom yam pastes in the UK, we’ll be sorted!
The rest of our time here has been spent chilling out, reading, walking (usually, for some weird reason, at the hottest part of the day when everyone else is sitting in the shade and wondering what these two weird Brits are up to in this heat!) and watching the world go by – making the most of it in advance of our next stop which will be Bangkok.
(This photo is the view over the mountains into Burma (Myanmar) at sunset as we rode on the moped back to town)
Sue & Anna – just for you, a picture of the two of us together – just to prove we are both here! I struggled to find one where I wasn’t wearing a vest top or bandana, as that would offend Jonathan (and I’m sure, others!) ;-) This is us (& Mr Bear, of course) overlooking the floating market. You’ll notice the dreadlocks, beard and braided hair is yet to come…
The film “Bridge Over The River Kwai” made the bridge famous, and is the main reason why many tourists come here. The bridge is still here (not a bamboo thing like in the film – a steel and cement one) and this section of the railway is still in use (the complete “Death Railway” went from Burma to Thailand, the section actually between Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand was dismantled many years ago as it was not needed and there were worries that it would be used to supply Burmese terrorists). 
You can walk across the bridge, trying not to fall through the gaps or get caught out by a train arriving (there are 3 a day in each direction). The main risk walking across the bridge is however getting knocked aside by all the tourists trying to get photos of everything (I include myself in this group – I cannot claim to be above criticism in this respect!). In fact we were surprised to see a group of Buddhist monks walking across the bridge in their glorious orange robes, taking photos of each other! I thought Buddhist monks were not supposed to have any personal possessions? The bridge itself obviously has history behind it, but is pretty unremarkable besides that. The two “box” sections in the middle are where the bridge was repaired after the bombing, hence different from the curved sections along the rest of its length. The film isn’t an entirely accurate reflection of the story of the bridge, but I wont bore you here with the details (or rather, Emma has told me not to bore you here with the details, so you can be thankful to her!)We first visited the recommended museum that gave the history of the Death Railway. There are a few of these in town – some better than others apparently. This one was very moving and informative – it taught me a few things about how the railway was built and at what cost. Not only did over 10,000 of the 60,000 POWs die during its construction, but also did 90,000 of the 180,000 forcibly conscripted Asians (from Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia etc) – and they are much less remembered as there are few records of their identities or deaths.
The Japanese and Korean engineers and guards were very tough, more so when Japan enforced a tighter deadline – called the “Speedo” period. 18 hour continuous shifts a day with little rations and many having debilitating diseases. And of course they could not even take pride in their work, as what they were doing was helping the Japanese war effort. After the museum we walked amongst the war graves at the largest cemetery in the area – immaculately maintained by the Thais as a gift to the POWs of, primarily, Britain, the Netherlands and Australia. Many bodies from the graveyards of the many POW camps along the railway were exhumed and moved here by volunteers. A moving and humbling experience.We were originally planning to take the train across the bridge an to the end of the line to see the area and access a few sights further north. In the end we hired a motorbike for a day and rode up that way instead. Apart from nearly running out of petrol in the middle of nowhere (we found a local shop that had an old fashioned hand pump from a barrel for petrol, luckily!), we stopped off at an elephant camp (didn’t partake in a trip on an elephant, but they seemed well looked after)
and then at another memorial to the workers on the death railway – this one created and maintained mainly by Australian volunteers, which was excellent. They had reconstructed some of the track, especially through an area called “Hellfire Pass”, where the workers had to manually hammer their way through many metres of solid rock to provide a path for the railway. We visited that area in mid-afternoon and it was REALLY hot with no shade.
Stopped off, and jumped into, a waterfall on the way back to cool down. I wasn’t the only one – that would have been silly. It was full of people doing the same thing – only many were “cooling down” from their air conditioned coach trip! Once again, the benefit of not being part of an organised tour meant we could stay there as long as we wanted, and I managed to get a photo when all of the crowds were gone.Those mopeds are not really designed for 200km day trips, though. Engine was fine – the seats were not (at least, not according to our backsides!)
Oh, and we avoided visiting the Tiger Temple in this area for this reason: http://www.careforthewild.com/files/TigerTemplereport08_final_v11.pdf
We are both now expert chefs in the art of Thai cooking. Well, we both did a half-day cookery course, anyway. Consisted of a trip to the local market in the morning, which was really useful in identifying all those vegetables (and some animals!) that we had passed on market stalls previously but had no idea what they were or what to do with them! I never knew there were so many different kinds of aubergine. Well worth the course fee just for that instruction (although I was a little worried when I thought Emma was going to set free all the live frogs that were in a bucket ready to be sold! Not that I would blame her). We then went to a lovely big, modern kitchen (they were obviously doing well for themselves!) and cooked four dishes – pad thai, masaman curry, sweet & sour veg and tom yam soup. 
We obviously cooked the veggie versions (we’d already cooked and eaten the pad thai when this photo was taken!). I think we did a pretty good job – was certainly edible and in fact I think tasted very nice. The look on the face of the teacher as she sampled the dishes wasn’t always quite as positive as that, but I like to think she was simply being a perfectionist! So, assuming we can find tamarind, masaman and tom yam pastes in the UK, we’ll be sorted!The rest of our time here has been spent chilling out, reading, walking (usually, for some weird reason, at the hottest part of the day when everyone else is sitting in the shade and wondering what these two weird Brits are up to in this heat!) and watching the world go by – making the most of it in advance of our next stop which will be Bangkok.
(This photo is the view over the mountains into Burma (Myanmar) at sunset as we rode on the moped back to town)Sue & Anna – just for you, a picture of the two of us together – just to prove we are both here! I struggled to find one where I wasn’t wearing a vest top or bandana, as that would offend Jonathan (and I’m sure, others!) ;-) This is us (& Mr Bear, of course) overlooking the floating market. You’ll notice the dreadlocks, beard and braided hair is yet to come…
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