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Published: October 1st 2007
Taylor Headstone
Could this be a relative ?The River Kwai tour started by me being picked up at my hotel at 6:15am ! It was a long 3 hour drive in mini van . Our group consisted of 2 English couples, an Aussie couple and myself, along with the driver and the tour guide, whose name was "Tiny".We passed along through typical countryside scenery with houses on stilts so that they didn't get flooded when the river rose. There were banana crops, corn, sugar cane, coconuts and tapioco plantations growing. We finally arrived at the Kanchanburi War Cemetary where the Allied Servicemen are buried. The graves are so well cared for, and it really puts our cemetaries to shame. Even the lawnmower was quiet! There wasn't a weed around and every grave had flowers growing around it. It was very moving experience to see how well cared for it was.We then drove to the JEATH Museum. They changed the name from the DEATH Museum because the name was associated with atrocities. The intials are for the countries that the Allied Servicemen came from, Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland. Next up we were treated to a ride up the River Kwai in a long tail boat. These things
War Graves
These graves are so well kept. go like a bat out of hell, a good reason not to wear a hat !! It was so hot and steamy that the fast ride was a welcome relief. The River Kwai is actually two rivers and where the two meet the water has two colours. Ahead we could see the Bridge on the River Kwai and the boat driver slowed down and gestured for me to stand up so that I could take a photo. The bridge has in fact been repaired after being bombed and you can see the we could walk across if we felt we could make it - there are parts of it that if you lost your footing you could end up in the river, and it was a long way down !!
I walked up and back in between trains coming and going, and weaving past the many tourists, it was quite nerve wracking at times. Of course there were the obligatory market stalls, any excuse to sell more of the wares. These stalls were much more expensive than in Bangkok and of course I did buy a cotton shirt and paid twice as much as I would have paid in
Bridge with Train
Train going across the bridge, view from the long tail boat the city !!
We were then able to take the train journey four stops, which also took us through Hellfire Pass. How amazing this was!! I can't imagine how those poor servicemen survived that hell.
A Korean man sat next to me and all of a sudden I felt him put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him, gawd, did I get a shock ! Anyway, he gestured to one of his friends to take a photo of us, so I played along with it. Our tour guide Tiny, took my camera and took some graet photos for me from the other side of the train as it was so packed with people that there was no way I'd get over there to get any photos.
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Sharron
non-member comment
Wow di already you have me green with envy but I know how hard you worked for this trip and I hope the rest goes as well as you hoped, miss you