Lest we forget...

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Up at 6:30, body clock still on UK time so in need of caffeine. Breakfast in the restaurant consisted of, amongst the usual cereals and stuff , a Chinese croissant an acquired taste that I can only liken to a deep fried donut with a background taste of special fried rice .

We met up with our guide in the hotel lobby (note to Trailfinders the guide had 7:30 we had 8:00 not a good start as it could have meant missing some of the itinerary.)

The driver was ready to go so we drove into the Bangkok rush hour traffic...

...half an hour later we were still in it. Not long after it started to move and we entered the suburbs. The guide had said it might take 3 hours but the traffic was ok so it only took us 2 hours 30 minutes to get to Kanachaburi our first stop. Not that I minded the journey, travelling through the country, taking in all the sights and sounds was part of the day.

First stop was the Jeath Museum, well more like an extended exhibit but very powerful nevertheless. It had been started by a monk and was located in the grounds of the monastery right on the banks of the river kwai.

It consisted of a pow hut (reconstructed) inside was a large number of photographs taken by the prisoners, very harrowing. In the beginning the Japanese allowed photographs, it was only when then war started to turn against them did they stop it for fear of the evidence of severe ill treatment being used against them.

Next stop was just 15 minutes away, the war cemetery. After the war was over the harrowing task began of retrieving the bodies of the pows who had been buried alongside the death railway. There are 5,084 commonwealth graves there alongside 1,896 Dutch war graves. The Commonwealth Graves Commission looks after the site and as with all the war cemeteries they maintain it was in immaculate condition. We spent some time there reading the gravestones, one could only shake your head in disbelief at man's inhumanity towards their fellow men.

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Photos

War cemetery - Thailand
Maintained by the CWGC

Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
Lest we forget...