Kanchanaburi

The Death Rail or Burma Rail or bridge on the River Kwai. A place to reflect and remember those who helped build the bridge for the Japanese in World War II. A place of sadness but also a place of a great engineering milestone where the men worked together and helped each other to survive such terrible conditions, for the Japanese it was connecting Thailand and Burma in a landscape that was difficult to navigate.

The Town of Kanchanburi has many restaurants and bars some dedicated to the various armed forces that help build this rail. We went by bus from Bangkok I’m sure the bus had 6 gears but the driver only knew how to use 4 so a bouncy ride once we arrived we explored the town and walked to the station in the town and saw many people visiting, had lunch by the river food was plentiful considering what we paid

We visited the War Memorial in town a place to reflect. we meet many other Australians amd some British seeking out soles looking for graves of loved ones.

The main reason for visiting was to visit the new Australian memorial-able Hello fire Pass about 90 mins drive from the town. Hired a car which once we go going the driving was find. The new memorial is set back from the road and all who work there work for the Australian government. There is a theatre on the main building that tells you the story Then you can walk down to the River Kwai where there were places of reflection on the way to the circle of prayer a very solemn place but well worth the visit. we could have walk to the river but they had had very heavy rain and the path was very slippery

We were going to have Lunch at Erwin falls but due to the rain we stopped at Muang Sing Historical Park. I think the ,guard at the security gate was surprised to see us I don’t think too many foreigners stop. It was a set of ruins in Khmer style which helps you understand how big the Khmer kingdom must have been well worth the stop

Next day we took a Grab to the Wat Tham Suea temple about 15 Km out of town it’s in the middle of rice fields and visible for a long way. It’s related to the tiger cave. The temple is a at times typical to a Thai Buddhist but at times the decoration and architecture is more Chinese looking. It was great to see the various sculptures and wonder around they were doing renovations but you make the most of that. We didn’t think it out very well we should have asked the Grab guy to wait or keep the hire car from the day before. It very very difficult to get transport back to town in the end a shop keeper helped us but we paid nearly double