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Published: February 28th 2009
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VN Guesthouse view
Looking over the river towards the Chinese temple The fan room isn't too bad....84 F in the middle of the night😊
I must shower 3xday, it's so freaking hot. I started my day by renting a motorbike (250 B for 24 hours), heading to the train station and sorting out my train ticket from Nakon Pathom down to Chaiya for the retreat.
If you want a good sleeper seat on an overnight A/C car, you must do it a few days in advance or else you'll end up with upper berth (too cold and bright) or worse, fan only. After the train here, I will never opt again for a fan car! I'll have to takea local bus from here to Nakon, but it's the easiest way to go south without doubling back to Bangkok. I rather like the overnight trains and don't want my 'last night' to be spent on a bus.
After getting used to the feeling of riding a moto again, I visited the War Cemetary, one of three that contain bodies from PoWs who died during rail construction. Many bodies had been transferred from graves near the camps in the jungles. Both the ages and the inscriptions on these graves are heartbreaking.
Across the
street, you must visit the Thai-Burma railway museum(100B). These are both excellent starting points to understand the importance of the location you are in.
Also, the museum is A/C so it's great to visit during the heat of the day.
A bit of history.... Find yourself a comfortable seat and pour yourself a cup of coffee.... The Japanese were doing their best to conquer the whole of South East Asia in the mid 1930's, and as part of that campaign, were trying to make inroads into Burma amongst other countries. There was major opposition to them of course by sea defences from the Andaman sea side and Malacca straits and so their only option was by land. This required vast quantities of supplies to be moved to sustain their progress.
To facilitate this they decided to build a railway line between 'Nong Pladuk' in Thailand to 'Moulmein' in Burma (now Myamar). Insufficient labour lead them to draught in vast numbers of Prisoners Of War that they had captured on their earlier conquests. The survey team for the rail line said it would take 5 years to build the 417km stretch, those in command decided it had to be done
in 16 months!
The treatment of the PoWs got worse over the duration of the project due to increasing pressure from the higher-ups in command. This was passed down in command to the 'less intelligent' in command who violently and inhumanely abused the prisoners. In all, around 100,000 died during construction from Malaya, Burma, Britain, Java, Australia, Holland, China, America, India and Korea. Many died due to illness through beri beri, malaria, dysentry, infections caused through wounds etc. There was a quoted minimum food ration that they didn't receive due to lack of supplies. The images of imaciated bodies that were too weak to move let alone work are heartbreaking.
In the latter years of world war II, the Japanese were beaten by USAAF (allied) forces, who amongst many things dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (the 'little boy bomb' on 6th August 1945) and Nagasaki (the 'fat boy bomb' on 9th August 1945). There were many attempts to destroy the rail line (which was completed on 25th October 1943 with the 'Joining of the lines' ceremony at Konkoita), by bombing the bridge at Kanchanaburi using 'Azon' bombs, which could only be steered left/right so the pilot had to fly straight
at the bridge before releasing. The Japanese kept re-building the steel bridge and also rebuilt the wooden bridge close-by that had been used during the construction of the main steel line.
The Japanese surrendered on 15th August on what became known as VJ day, when the British took over control of the railway line. The river Kwai was previously known as 'Maeklaung'. The railway became subsequently known as the 'Death railway' due to the number of PoWs that lost their lives. Some irony....the Japanese gained their rail construction knowledge in Britain! After taking over the line, Britain decided it didn't want a connection between Thailand and Burma so destroyed a section of it at the 'Three pagodas pass'. A subsequent survey team who returned to check the line in 1956 didn't know about the location of this and plunged into the ravine!
Without a map or my guidebook, I took off into the Thai countryside. I found a wat with a temple cave, Wat Khao Poon, admit fee 20B. I would not put it on your itinary list, let's leave it at that.
I rather enjoyed riding along the river, wind in my face with no where to go
in particular.
Quite unexpectedly, I found the entrance for the Bridge over the River Kwai. However, it was on the other side of the river, which was perfect by me as the town side was flooded with big tour buses. I bought some ice cream and water, watched a sad chained up elephant and enjoyed the breeze blowing off the river. You can walk the train tracks across the bridge, but you must hold to the side when a train comes (not as scary as it sounds).
My biggest score of the day was finding an all-Thai internet den that had A/C! None of the internet spots in the tourist strip have A/C and they are like furnaces. I was the only farang in there the entire time--it was the hottest part of the day and I'm not ashamed to say I spent 2 hours in there for only 40B, 1/2 the price of the tourist places!
I rented a kayak for a sunset trip down the river. It was perfect! They took me up river and I set off by myself for almost 2 hours. You would never be able to go without a guide in the USA
and the freedom was exhilerating! I was just thinking about hopping out for a swim when I heard the loudest splash ever. That was no fish and no turtle either! I don't know WHAT it was, but decided to stay put in the kayak, maybe I didn't need to swim after all!
I made it back to the guesthouse just in time to catch the most beautiful part of the sunset.
This kayaking was 350 B and I highly reccomend it!
So far, I've been keeping to a budget of roughly $40/day. I'm up a bit from a backpacker nowand have graduated to a flash packer. This flashpacker needs a new pack. It's holding, but I have bag envy. My bag is from the early 90's and has seen 26 countries. Birthday? Anyone?
Tomorrow...waterfalls and elephants!
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