The River Kwai

---

---

Spent three days out in Kanchanaburi which is a little town situated on the River Kwai. Stayed at a lovely little Guesthouse on the River which had floating raft rooms. From Kanchanburi you can explore the surrounding national parks as well as look at parts of the Death Railway which was built by POWs and slave labour (Burmese, Siamese etc) during WWII. Walked over the Bridge on the River Kwai made famous by the movie (we even watched the movie for the first time at a local pub....although the movie is apparently quite a grand embellishment on the true history!). Visited Hellfire Pass which is a pass built by POWs through solid rock...lots of hard work in horrendous conditions.

While here we also went out to Erawan Falls in Erawan National Park which was a series of seven waterfalls. We hiked all the way to the top and swam our way back down. Kirstyn was a little nervous of swimming in some of the pools as the fish like to bite your feet!

Visited Hellfire Pass as well. A great museum here which has been developed by an Aussie guy complete with MP3 comentary as you walk around the bush.

Hired a motoribike to get around town in Kanchanaburi. After a slight stumble initially (making friends with the gutter) we went well dodging the Thai traffic and are now ready to embark on more motorbike adventures elsewhere. (Jason the driver with Kirstyn on the back...).

---

Photos

Motorbike Adventure
Jason had the strange feeling he was being followed.

Erawan Falls
7th Tier

Comments

[KP1958]

Slave labour and WWII
Here is the amazing history. The Asian slave labour was recruited mainly from Burma and Malaya. As the only free country in Southeast Asia then, Thailand chose to ally itslef with Japan during WWII. The Thai government during the war was not Japanese's puppet but the one elected back in 1938. Thais did work on the construction of this railway, but only as voluntary hired labour. Thailand declared war on USA, Great Britain and China in early 1942. Reactions from the three countries differed. The British took it very seriously. The US and China never regarded Thailand as an enemy. Following Britain's retaliation, Australia and New Zealand later declared war on Thailand. The Thais refused to acknowledge, saying there were absolutely no conflicts between Thailand and the two British Commonwealth nations.