Kanchanaburi, the railway of death

During world war II, the japanese used this spot in thailand, a neutral country, to build a railway that would go until Burma and India, so they planned to conquer this countries. This railway was expected to be built in years, but the japanese where such in a hurry that finished ir in only a few months. That was done by prisoners from the war, such as australians, english and dutch, with also lots of workers who where promised an improvement on their job situation and salaries. But the truth was that they where pushed so hardly due to the pressure to finish as fast as they could, that the conditions were way worse than deadly. Thousands of people died on this process, so the place is now a place of memorial and history for all those who'd like to understand what happened during this period. The hostel had a very nice backpacker vibe, because the city was a little bit out of the typical tourist route, and the owner was a cute small crazy lady, Mimi, who fed me and made me laugh with her stories and thoughts. I visited the city on my first day there and a veryvery weird museum supposely about the war (wich ended up just having a bit of everything possible such as random gems, religious drawings, prehistoric utensils...) Where I was greeted by a sleeping man (even with a blanket) on the ticket counter, and later on had a nice sushi buffet from the night market next to the hostel (a piexe of sushi was around 5 baths, which is around 10 cents!!). On the second day I biked to the Hellfire pass, an amazing outdoor museum around the location where the railway used to be, so you could see tje impressive work they did on such basic tools and learn about the drastic conditions they where under. The place is sponsored by the australian government, so its probably the cleanest and nicest pleace in all south east asia. With clean toilets, water dispensors, very clear explanations, an audioguide (and they let you keep the headphones), proper english speaking workers and they give you a walkie talkie for security for the very easy 5 km trek along the railway. And all of this... For free!!! I met Henry on the trek, a guy who Mimi wouldn't stop talking about (they even skyped when I was there) who was with a guy with the weirdest backpack (just aconstruction bag wrapped with a scarf), with who I ended up doing the trek and spending the rest of the day with. We tried to sneak into a cave (but we where caught) and visted a beautiful sightseeing spot from the railway of death.

📍Essentials: Hellfire pass
🏠 Accomodation: Asleep Hostel (the owner is just amazing and next to train station and cheap night market)
🍴Food: night market next to asleep hostelLeggi altro