Death Railway

The town of Kanchanaburi is west of Bangkok, close to the border of Burma. It's a relatively unassuming place set in beautiful countryside, however it's role in WW2 is much less pleasant and is a big reason to stop in the town. Kanchanaburi was the site of a Japanese-operated prisoner of war (POW) camp, made famous by the book and film 'The bridge over the river Kwai', and as a total history geek this really interested me so I decided to spend a couple of days in the town to learn more about this chapter in history.

I ended up staying at 'Tara Guest house' which was a great little place and fantastic value for money. In fact, since leaving the islands I have noticed that everything is cheaper, and my money is stretching a lot further. Hurrah!

On my first day I decided to get a bit of background information at the Thailand-Burma railway centre, and was extremely impressed by how well presented and informative the museum was. The exhibit began with an explanation of Japan's role in WW2 and their intentions for the Thailand-Burma railway, then moved on to explain how it was constructed and how terrible life for a POW working on 'death railway' was. I felt both sufficiently informed and moved by the exhibit, and spent the whole morning completely engrossed by the story.

Across the road from the museum is a beautiful graveyard for the prisoners of war. It is immaculately cared for and the manicured grass and flower beds make quite an unusual sight in Thailand. I wandered around the graveyard for a short while to pay my respects before walking across town to visit the famous railway bridge.

The next day I decided to visit the 'hellfire pass' memorial which is an original railway cutting carved out of mountain terrain. This section of the railway was the most gruelling for the POWs and was nicknamed 'hellfire pass' due to the unearthly shadows cast by the nightly fires of the labouring POWs. Hellfire pass is now a beautiful trail along the original railway bed which provides gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside and Burmese mountains. The pass itself is absolutely massive, and it's really hard to believe that men actually cut through a mountain using virtually no tools and minimal supplies. It was a humbling walk, brought to life by a particularly good audio tour.

Hellfire Pass

Walking trail

I'd planned to spend one more day in Kanchanaburi to visit nearby Erawan waterfalls, but due to inaccurate bus timetables and misinformed staff I managed to miss two buses to the falls, which meant it was too late in the day to go. So, as my Thai visa was running out, I decided to move on and head north to Chiang Mai; and it's a good job that I did, as I got there just in time to meet new friends- the fabulous Katie and Ashley!