The river that got renamed cos of the bridge

It's been a while since our last road trip and Kanachaburi was one of the places we have been wanting to visit since we moved to Bangkok. Y was heading to Bangkok for a short trip and we thought it would be boring if we stayed in Bangkok and did the usual shopping and eating, especially since she was coming back again in December for that. Thus we decided that we will drive up to Kanachanburi, and then head down to Pranburi for Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park and some relaxation.

I must admit that my planning was overly ambitious and tried to pack too many things into one day. There are tours which offer day trips to Kanchanburi but they didn't attempt to drive all the way down to Pranburi at the end of the tour, thus in the end we skipped quite a few places that I wanted to visit in Kanchanburi. 

Our first stop was the Kanchanburi War Cemetery. It is the main cemetery for the prisoners of war captured by the Japanese army and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The cemetery is open 24 hours and there is no admission fee. I had read a few books about the POWs experience to gain a better understanding of their experience and I think being in the cemetery overwhelmed me. I actually broke down crying even though none of my relatives fought in the war. I know my grandma lived through it but she never spoke about it so I have no idea of the things she went through. As you walk through the cemetery it's very overwhelming to see how young some of them were, 19, 20 etc and of course this continues even today. There were a few people who seem to  be there to visit the graves of relatives as they came bearing flowers. The date of our visit was also pretty close to Remembrance Day so there were also poppies being laid on some graves. 

As we were leaving, there was a group of Thai tourists who came and used the place as a photo opportunity. Sometimes I wonder if the Thais know about their part in World War II, in any case I have no way of finding out. This group didn't seem to know the significance of anything and just took a bunch of photographs and left. 

Our next stop was the Death Railway Museum which was just next to the cemetery. As we were walking into the museum, there was a really really old man walking out. He was so old I wondered if he was one of the surviving POWs. If yes, I cannot imagine how he feels coming back to visit his old comrades as well as going through the museum and all the memories. 

No photos are allowed in the museum which is privately run. The museum is able to help source for information about POWs and of course it provides an overview of what happens during World War II and the construction of the infamous Death Railway. I would say the museum gives a good overview and is pretty objective in the information provided. One of the things I remember clearly is that there was a mock-up of the carriage which the POWs were transported in and I was struck by how claustrophobic it must have been for the POWs who were packed in like sardines. The Japanese Army apparently didn't care how many died as they treated the POWs as dispensable labour.  While the first floor of the museum was dedicated to providing an overview of the war, what the POWs went through etc, the second floor was dedicated to the personal effects of the POWs. Some were recovered from the camp sites while others were donated by their relatives. It was interesting how innovative and creative the POWs were in trying to keep records of what happened to themselves as well as their comrades. If you didn't come with flowers but would like to leave some flowers at the cemetery, you can purchase some poppies at the museum. I'm not sure if they have it year round or only had it since it was near to Remembrance Day.  

After leaving the Death Railway Museum, we headed for the infamous bridge over River Kwai. It is now a tourist spot with many restaurants dotting the surrounding areas and we settled into one of them for lunch. It was actually quite surreal to sit there eating lunch, enjoying the view and at the same time think of all the POWs who died building that railway.

 After lunch, we went onto the bridge to take a look. You can actually take a train to cross the bridge or you can do it like us and just walk on it. There is no worry about a train coming and crushing you since the train moves really slowly and they hoot like crazy as they are approaching. The bridge was been apparently restored after the war by the Japanese (the irony of it all) so it is very safe to walk on. No rickety wooden slabs to walk on, everything is now steel. There was a huge Chinese temple on the other end of the bridge which we did not explore as it was too hot to walk across and back that day.

With that, we ended our Kanchanaburi trip and headed off to Pranburi. While Kanchanburi is perhaps best know for the Death Railway and Bridge over River Kwai, there are a lot more places to explore and we would probably go back again.

Note: I got the information about the river being renamed from seat61