Kanchanaburi: The Bridge and the Railway

---

Backtracking...currently we're in Vientianne, Laos, heading south to Pakse. We have a 10 hour overnight bus tonight. We're just hoping the "V.I.P. bus" is as good as it claims to be!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok on the 11th July and headed west to Kanchanaburi on the 12th. Only a two hour bus ride that took us into the the green hills.
A small city, Kanchanaburi is home to the "Bridge over the River Kwai" and the infamous Death Railway. During WWII, the Japanese set up POW workcamps to build a railway line to get goods through Thailand and into Burma. The living conditions were poor, and thousands of men died, including many Westerners. We visited the Death Railway Museum which explained all the history and displayed some graphic photos. Next to it was one of the cemetaries for some of the victims.

The bridge was contstructed for the railroad. The bridge was bombed by the Allies during the war, but later, the bridge was reconstructed in the middle. We just explored around the bridge, but we didn't ride the rail out of town. Very interesting to learn all the history around it though.

We spent our afternoons lying in hammocks in the garden at our guesthouse which was situated right on the river. It was so peaceful and quiet, I think we even got a couple of naps in. In the evenings we headed to the night market where besides the clothes, shoes, etc, there was a good selection of food. Rice and noodle dishes, meat on a stick, sweet corn (my favorite), fruit shakes, fresh pastries...lets just say we enjoyed our dinner all evening!

On our last day we took a local bus out to a huge waterfall. We had to hike up the hill to view the seven different levels, the water light blue and full of fish. We went for a swim at the top pool, and overall, it was a good day out of town.

---

Photos

Dan on the Bridge
The Death Railway going over the Bridge over the River Kwai. This was bombed by the Allies during WWII, but reconstructed later.

The cemetary
In honor of thousands who died while working on the "death railway"

Our guesthouse lawn
We spent our afternoons curled up on hammocks, reading and napping. It was fabulous.

Heidi on the Bridge
Another view of the bridge and the scenery around the town.

The public bus
Yes, it looks like a clown school bus. No A/C so all the windows were down and the door stayed open the entire way :)