Bridge on the River Kwai

  Ban Phrueksa Kan, Kanchanaburi, Thailand Friday, October 10, 2014

Off On My Own today! Bryan wasn't so keen to do this trip anyway so off I went. I had paid 500 baht for this (£10) so wasn't really expecting much. I was picked up from my guesthouse at 7am - yes Bryan I can get up early on my own! ;-) and we headed off on a 2 hour drive out of the city. First stop was a WWII cemetery for 832 Australian, Dutch and British Prisoners of war who died in the camps at the hands of the Japanese. It was a really calm and pretty place. Apparently the Americans took all their dead back to the US and the Thai and Indian dead were all interred elsewhere too. This is where we picked up our guide too a very lovely Thai girl whose name we could not pronounce so she said just call her O. She was really funny too. She explained things really well and made it amusing for us. Next stop was the JEATH Museum. I thought they had spelt it wrong on the itinerary but no it stands for Japan English Australian/American Thai Holland museum. The really only interesting thing they has here was a part of the original bridge that was blown up and you may all remember from the film. So next was the bridge. It was such a beautiful sunny day here with the mountains rising up on the horizon that it was just beautiful. Apparently the film was made in Sri Lanka so the landscape is a bit different but it was easy to picture the bridge in the film being here. It is so picturesque here and of course you have to walk along the railway line over the bridge. O's voice ringing in my ears "do not fall in river, I cannot help you, I cannot swim" Next stop was the railway station where we were to jump on and ride over a part of the line where the original structure still exists. We jumped on the train and pulled all the windows down. I seemed to end up chatting most of the time to a young couple from Cambridge and again found myself seated with them. O very kindly reminded us "look out window, do not jump out, i cannot help you if you do that," The scenery was stunning. A word we have used a fair bit in this diary but it really was. O came along every few minutes saying things like "look out left side after next station - velly beautiful" She was always right. Eventually we came to the wooden structure which is still the original built before WWII. We have been on many train journeys and certainly we had not been over anything like this before. Bryan you would have really liked this. Next stop was lunch and as a vegetarian, I was seated separately from the rest of the group and with a young couple from Singapore who were also having vegetarian food today. I had the usual question about why I was vegetarian and he was surprised to learn it was my own choice. It turns out that they are not vegetarian but Muslim so as the meat was not halal they ate vegetarian. They were funny and quite sweet too and when he revealed they were Muslim, he said "but good Muslim" we all laughed about how he felt he had to defend himself at the moment with all the bad press certain Muslims are giving the religion at the moment. They also revealed they had just had their 2nd baby and he took paternity leave to take a holiday with his wife. Not the spirit in which paternity leave is usually taken but I like their style! Next stop was the waterfalls which almost looked man made like those you get at a theme park. The water ran everywhere. As it got lower it got wider spreading out over a huge area. This also made it less powerful a it spread out and little platforms had been built over the flowing water for families to picnic on. Of course all the children were in the water and some of the bigger kids too. Bryan you would have been in there like a shot. My Muslim friend was in there too (I wish I had asked their names) and he said it was gorgeous in there. Well this was the day over and we all headed back to Bangkok on the bus. We had all had a really lovely day and certainly got our money's worth. Wish you were here Bryan xx [gallery columns="4" ids="8610,8620,8632,8646,8661,8669,8682,8697,8710,8725,8731,8740,8751,8758,8767,8775,8787,8795,8806,8814,8824,8833,8842,8848,8852,8862,8867,8873,8877,8881,8886,8894,8902,8906,8910,8915,8917,8921,8930,8933,8939,8944,8946,8949,8953,8956,8960"]