As we have progressed through our trip, our trains have become progressively more basic. This time, there was no choice in coaches or seating. It was a third class train and all basics wooden seats.
We had to leave from the old train station in Bangkok which wasn't connected by subway or even another train, so we had to take a taxi to get there. We made it and had a pleasant 2 hour trip to Kanchanaburi.
We made many stops at little train stations along this trip and all were very well decorated with bright colors and lots of flowers.
Lots of farming going on along this route. Rice, corn, bananas and what turned out to be, castor bean trees.
Some fields had just been burned off, so we had lots of smokey air to contend with, especially in the mornings. Other fields were being flooded just after planting, and yet others had a full crop growing.
We had made reservations at the Felix Resort, which overlooks the river. We arrived at the station, took a TukTuk. This resort was unusual.
It was older, but nice. It was obviously a prime place for a conference with lovely grounds, several large meeting rooms and lots of small palapa with seating spread throughout the area for breakout sessions. It had two restaurants, two pools, a room for movie viewing (just DVD's I think) and more. But it was eerily vacant. We were able to walk from the back of this resort into one end of town and view the new bridge which was constructed so that the rail line can work. Tourist go here, walk the bridge, take a selfie and watch the train go by. The original bridge was damaged as part of the war and has not been reconstructed.
As nice as it was, not many folks stay at The Felix. In fact, we only stayed one night and then moved into town to The Bridge Hotel where we could just step out of our door and be on the streets with the cafes and shops.
The streets of Kanchanaburi look much like the streets of the other towns we had been in.
Lots of cafes, bars, massage parlors and .....
Even in this small town there were several 7-Eleven stores. Several of the cafes and bars are oriented toward Austrailian food, since lots of Aussies come to visit.
If you read this blog back when we travelled to Morocco and Spain, you might remember that the was a picture of Philip protectively using the ATM in a department store in Spain. And you might remember that that was our first time to use an ATM. Well, never let it be said that we aren't progressive. Here Philip is again using an ATM in another foreign country.
We met a very nice couple from England and did some our sighting with them for the next couple of days. This is Philip and David waiting for yet another train.
You know, those Brits make conversing so nice. Those great accents make the whole conversation seem like a visit with learned people from PBS. The four of us took this train up to Hellfire Pass.
The train trip was fine. The scenery was beautiful. These pictures are hazy because of that morning smoke I mentioned.
The information was sobering. While yes, I saw the movie the Bridge Over the River Kwai, what we learned here was first, that the movie, as with all movies got some things wrong and second, that here is one more situation that proves how cruel man can be. We went to the Hellfire Museum and walked part through Hellfire Pass where part of the railway had been constructed.
On our last morning, we went to the Kanchanaburi cemetery which is the final resting place for many of the soldiers who died during the building of this railway. There are two more cemeteries in the area as well. There are Dutch, British and Australian soldiers here. All American soldiers had been removed from graves and returned to the U.S. This is an extremely well groomed cemetery. Every day, there is a crew of workers tending to the plants. Every grave marker is well identified, plants are in between every marker and the surrounding ground has nary a small weed in sight. There are monuments with the list of regiments and names of soldiers.
Lots of personal messages from family members are written on little crosses or attached to small bouquets. PD just place a fresh flower cluster on the monument. A very sad footnote here is that while the Japanese honored the Geneva Convention regarding recording keeping of Allied POWs and of their subsequent deaths and internments, absolutely no records were kept regarding the Indians and Asians that were captured and forced to labor here as well. All of those thousands of people died and there bodies were dispersed of without any honor or records.
Just across the street from the cemetery is the Railway Museum.
This museum has been the endeavor of one gentleman in conjunction with the Thai government. Lots of funding from Australian and Great Britan. In the process of touring this, we met the current manager, himself an Aussie. He has been there for 11 years and shared a great deal of "backstory" information. Research is ongoing as it is their goal to help any family whose ancestor may have been in one of the camps to locate the camp in which that person may have been interred and find out any information they can help with. Again, another moving experience. There is so much history here, so much about how and why this happened and how the Thai government has been so respectful of the remains of all of these soldiers.
So.... That finished up our visit to Kanchanaburi. We packed up our bags and boarded the Wednesday afternoon trainand made our way back to Bangkok.
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