The railway

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During the second world war, the Japanese forces in Rangoon needed constant supplies. At first, the were supplied by ships, going around the Thailand/myanmar/singapore/Birma landmass, But that system just didn't hold, when the allies got their ships, aircraft carriers and troops in. The alternative, that the brits had worked out earlier, was to build a railroad, connecting Thailand to Birma. Due to huge costs, number of people involved, the difficulty getting material to the places they need to be and some infrastructural problems, the Brits rightly tossed the plans.

Then, the Japanese captured Singapore and got 85.000 British prisoners of war, and some thousands ofother nationalities (about 5000 dutch). High command didn't like to be responsible for so many pow's. It would be good if there were less. Apart from that, they needed the railway. So, the pow's were shipped to Thailand and Birma. About a hundred camps were set up, each of those had to build 10km of track trough a thick jungle, rocks and water. With constant mosquitos, beatings, diseases, without rest, or much medical attention, they put in a lot of physical effort each day, without even the food needed, to sustain a human sitting still all day. 16 or 18-hour shifts during the 'speedo' -period, in which the Japanese shortened the delivery date by a few months, during monsoon season, caused lots of pow's to kick the bucket.

This day, I did the museum, telling about the whole thing, plus another one about the worst camp, Hintok, at 'hellfire pass' (named after the fires, by which the pow's worked at night). Then there was a trail you could walk, with an audio tour, over a piece of the route. The bridges and most of the tracks have been removed, but you can still see how much work it must have been, to hammer and tap your way down a rock, explode it with dynamite, and the log all the debris away, to make everything even. Also: the v build bridges from bamboo.

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Photos

First cut-out
These were made without any machinery

End of the trail
Now to hike back and get back to my scooter..