In and around Kanchanaburi

---

First day here I went for the minibus tour as it covered Hellfire Pass and the Erewan Waterfall which is on 6 levels and takes an hour to walk up it. There were thousands and I mean thousands of Korean and Japanese tourists here. Most varrived after we did so walking back down was awkward as you were walking into a human tide walking up!! Waterfalls are worth seeing although due to my ongoing troubles with my leg/foot I didn't get very far up them at all and spent most of the time sat at the bottom watching the 'army' of people marching up.
At lunch there was some catty remarks between a Dutch lady and a Korean lady about the 2 Russians on the trip - there was an obvious age gap of about 20+ years and an even bigger one where looks were concerned but I say live and let live or should that be love and let love - it makes the world go around.
Hellfire Pass was interesting but again due to leg/foot issue I didn't descend down into the cutting itself and made do with looking around the exhibition centre instead. For those that don't know Konyu Pass was the deepest and most dangerous part of the Thai - Burma Railway built by Allied POWs and workers 'recruited' from SE Asian countries by the Japs during WW2. Conditions were horrific and Allied deaths ran at around 45% of the total workforce. The civilian death rate was higher as they had absolutely no medical facilities at all! The whole railway should have taken 4-5 years to be build but was completed in 16 months and used for barely 20 months before the Japs retreated. Today the line ends at Nam Tok. Further on up the line towards Burma is under a Lake now due to a dam being built.
It wasn't just the Japanese responsible for the cruelty either - many guards were actually from Korea which was allied to Japan as was Thailand until a coup ousted the pro Japanese Leader named Phibul.

The nxt day I visited one of the 3 Allied cemetaries for the men who died building the railway or in action. The officers are buried together with the men not separately - a Lt Colonel next to a Lance Corporal. I saw 3 Captains buried in a row - all 3 British Special Forces, all 3 died on 16th September 1941 and right next to them one stone that simply says '3 Allied airmen of the 1939-1945 war 16th September 1941 - Known Unto God - looks like they were all on the same plane.
What has surprised me about the railway and the cemetaries are the number of Japanese visitors - why they come I don't know but I hope that they are suitably ashamed of what their country did and determined not to let it happen again.

The surrounding mountains and jungles are well worth visiting as is the course of the river Kwai through these parts.

·My last few days in Kanchanaburi were spent getting sunburnt around the pool and meeting Mina a local Thai lady who I hit it off with straight away - we are now in Bangkok and off to Malaysia tomorrow. Bangkok needs a special mention all of its own - the one place I was determined not to bother visiting is actually the one place I'm really glad I did! It's foodie heaven but more about that in my next post.

---