Day 77 - Thailand-Burma Death Railway

A very different day today. This morning we got a taxi to the Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre, built to commemorate the 60,000 Allied prisoners and thousands of Asian labourers who were forced by the Japanese to build (by hand) the railway in WWII. We walked a section of the line, including Hellfire Pass, which had to be cut through solid rock. The site is very peaceful today but thousands died here in 1943 and 1944 (1 person for every 5 metres)
The track no longer exists here, so we headed back to Namtok (via Sai Yok Noi waterfall) where we boarded the train for the 2hr trip back to Kanchanaburi. Just before Kanchanaburi is the so called 'Bridge on the River Kwai'. Apparently the film-makers got the wrong river name, so they renamed the river in the 1960s (the original River Kwai runs parallel to the current one)!
Lots of cannabis plants along the route - only decriminalised in 2022 so the farmers have been busy!Read more