We left the city for a visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai. Locally it is spelt Kwae but I will use the more familiar Kwai spelling. First stop was the museum.
The local temple.
Looking over the River Kwai.
The JEATH Museum is an open air museum. Its main structure is a realistic reconstruction of a prisoner of war hut. It houses some of the photos, sketches and paintings of the Death Railway and items connected to it by army and POWs. It was established in 1977 and now is run by the next door Buddist temple.Photos were allowed until Japanese thought it might reflect badly on them so there is documentary evidence.
The JEATH Museum is an open air museum. Its main structure is a realistic
reconstruction of a prisoner of war hut. It houses some of the photos, sketches
and paintings of the Death Railway and items connected to it by army and POWs. It was established in 1977 and now is run by
the next door Buddist temple.
Photos were allowed until Japanese thought it might reflect badly
on them so there is documentary evidence.
It is called JEATH not Death as that seemed too harsh. It is named for
several of the countries involved as in Japan, England America & Australia,
Thai and Holland but a notable exception is New Zealand. It was 415 kilometres
long.
It was started in September 1942 using 30,000 POWs and 200,000
labourers from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma and Thailand.
More than 16,000 POWs and 100,000 labourers died during its construction due to
accidents, disease, insanitary conditions, starvation, and lack of medical
supplies or equipment.. Hence its other name, the Death Railway.
Japanese engineers said it would take five years to build. The army
built it in 16 months and completed it in December 1943.
Some of the uniforms, pistols, knives helmets, canteens and a large bomb dropped to destroy bridge.ALong the river is a skywalk where visitors can walk out over the river.
More views of the sky walk...
...but the view up river is of a road bridge, the railway bridge is further up stream.
We passed the Chinese cemetery.
We stopped at the War Cemetery. It hosts a large number of Dutch and British graves.
Then it was a stop at the bridge itself. A lot of the original bamboo structures have since been replaced.
Looking across the bridge.
The train ahead of ours ready to cross the bridge.
One of several old locomotives on view.
Our train rossing the bridge.
A view upstream.
A buddish temple on the far side.
A view of the countryside.
A blurry photo but the doors were left open with no protection from the passenger level and the steps down to the ground that sped past as the locomotive picked up speed.
The River Kwai. We were never far from the river but it was often out of view.
We pulled into a siding to let a train pass. We were on a local train, travelling second class. This was the royal Blossom, an upmarket tourist train with waitress service in the dining car with lunch included for passengers returning towards Bangkok.
One of the carriages.
And some more rolling stock...
Cassava plants, which along with rice and bananas is a major crop here.
Guava trees.
After scenic countryside, we passed some cliffs which required a major engineering effort to build a railway through the valley...
...over trestles...
...towards the next station...
...past cliffs and tight turns...
...a view of the trestles...
...and a view from the mouth of a cave.
We stopped here although the train continues to Namkot but the rest of the line up to the border and into Burma is not open. The buddah in a cave.
A view of the River Kwai from the restaurant upstream...
...and downstream with the railway just visible under the cliff centre left.
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