Bridge On the River Kwai & Hellfire Pass

After learning about Thailand's medieval history we deep dive now into its recent history by visiting the town of Kanchanaburi and its famous death railway. Built by Japanese Prisoners of War during World War 2, the 415km track linking Thailand to Burma was installed to move troops and supplies up to Burma and India to progress the Japanese frontier.
Made famous by the movie of the same name,
the "Bridge on the river Kwai" represents for many a brutal regime which killed many allied troops and local conscripted workers. The town itself is nothing special, but the war museums provide a good historical account of the conditions and engineering feat undertaken by the prisoners as well as a place for quiet reflections on a brutal part of history.
Only fun fact of this post...the river under the famous bridge isn't actually called the river Kwai, it was the Mae Klong River. It has been renamed tough to river "Khwae Yai" in 1960 to probably help lost tourists that wanted to see the famous bridge!
We took the train along the railway to Nam Tok, the last station along the line which is still operational and continued along the trail to Hellfire Pass. Completted entirely with basic hand tools the prisoners slaved 18 hour days to carve through pure granite, surviving on a very small ration of rice a day and little else. It is known to be one of the most brutal parts of the line, with some 400 men having lost their lives here during the 12 weeks it took to complete the pass.Read more