Bridge of River Kwai & Respect ...

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my first encounter with the bridge the morning after my arrival ..... after that i've kayaked underneath it and watched a few sunsets behind it ... in the distance ... anyway better to read commentary accompanying the pictures ... and no i wasn't acting ... i got a vivid imagination and almost felt at certain moments to step into a time warp ... more of that to come later ...

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Photos

on my way to the bridge over the river kwai
another one of my more favorite little pagodas ... also nice the architectural contrast behind it ... more roman style ...

and here's the bridge
early in the am, round 7.30am

to all expectations in, the train reminded mi of disneyland ...
and thought it was a bit disrespectful to all those tens of thousands men and women who died building this railway of Death ...

this is off to mi ...
i love history and the famous movie about the accompanying picture (minus the tourist train - however the rainbow colors are nice, aren't they)

of course we gotta pose on the bridge
and the boyfriend is luving it and completely doesn't remember ...

every nail, every piece of iron
reminded mi of someone's death ...

and there's that bl***y train again
....

ah and the 'lone' tourist ...
by that time i was quite taken by the thoughts of the history haven taken place here ... was contemplatinhg ...

thinking bout what happened
.... however m looking into the light, thus m squinting ... better thinking picture w/ glasses on ... ;-)

et voila ...
my most serious look ... nay i stop kiddin' now ... back to the pain and struggle of this briidge

every screw ...
holds someone's death ... 120,000 people died of which 80K civilians, amongst them many dutch ...

and went down the steps ...
seeing this 'dangerous' boardwalk to the boat i envissioned 72 years ago ...

where it also turned spring ...
... and were those walked and died so long ago ...

and suddenly i recognized the statue ...
there she is the BIGGEST Quan Yin I have encountered ... (at a distance i thought it was Buddha, so i was delighted ...)

i doubt there were flowers when the bridge got build
which by the way was constructed in the Netherlands to have then be moved to Indonesia, where the Japanese dismantled it again and brought it to the river Kwai connected BIrma and Thailand ... a railway connection never to be finished ...

many dutch
with the Dutch Emblem ,,,

kinda creepy
My mom's maiden name is
L.A. Nienhuys- Mulder ...
when i took this shot i only paid attention to one of the nicest hibuscus plants on the cemetery and the tree behind it ... and noticed the headstone only at night ... you go figure how i felt

next to the cemetery, young life ...
on one side and a atheletic field on the other WITH tennis courts ...

just lazily gazing ...
a moment of thouight in nowhere's land and then taken back to kanchanaburi by honking cars etc ...

taking care of cemetery is funded by ...
a Dutch warfund which pays for 5 cemeteries around the world where many dutch civilians and armed forces are laid to rest ... 4 workers on a row ... when they come to the end of the cemetery they start all over, and they do it with respect, love and dedication ...