Thailand-Burma Railway Part 2

Our first stop in Kanchanaburi was the Thailand-Burma Railway Center but the building was also labeled Death Railway Centre and Research Centre.  No photos were allowed inside the museum so it was very difficult to record information. Sometimes I like to capture photos of signage. Not this time. Photos wouldn't do it justice anyway. Across the street is the War Cemetery with the remains of about 7,000 POWS who died during the building of the Railway.

We learned that we really knew very little about this critical activity carried out by the Japanese during World War II. After visiting the museum and surveying the POW cemetery, we actually boarded a train and traveled from Kanchanaburi to the Tham Kra Sae Bridge at Sai Yok Station.

Our train crosses the bridge spanning the river and then headed inland. The Sai Yok Station and the Tham Kra Sae Bridge is along the Kwae Noi ( tributary). In Kanchanaburi you can walk across the famous "Bridge on the River Kwai." (More on the name later). From here you can see a now empty piece of land where one of the POW camps was located. There are side patios so you can hop off the tracks if/when a train comes along. There's even a sign with instructions for moving off the tracks.

Yes, folks, that light is on the train and a train is coming. What does everyone do? People stand there taking pictures as the train comes right at them as it crosses the bridge.

 The arched spans are original. The more rectangular spans had to be replaced after the Allied Forces destroyed part of the middle of the bridge.

Views from the bridge and surrounding area.

On the train, our guide explained that people still travel over these mountains to illegally enter Thailand. The crossing is extremely difficult.  

 B noticed this while on the train.

We passed fields of cassava, sugar cane and others.

 Perhaps original pilings now wasting away.

 We begin to get close to Sai Yok Station.

We each received a certificate for our train ride. On the train they served us a boxed snack complete with water. 

That was included in the fee for the train ride. If you were still hungry, frequently someone came through the car selling additional food items.

The special tourist car we were in cost 300 Baht per person (about 9 USD). The non-tourist cars are only 100 Baht. One of our fellow passengers from the tourist car pointed out that the car for local folks had pads on the seats. Ours did not. We did get the free snack and water, however. No cars had air conditioning.

Speaking of water, every time we turned around, our tour guide Wantana was handing us another bottle of water. It was hot, even hotter than at home. We knew it would be even warmer in Bangkok so we brought our Camelbak backpack to carry our own water. Nonetheless, water bottles were offered at every turn. Several times over the course of the 2 days we spent with Wantana, she also stopped and purchased pre-chilled towels for us to use to wipe off the sweat. After the first one, we started noticing other refrigerated units holding more of these individually sealed and already chilled small towels. Nice!

Sai Yok Station was about 65 km from Kanchanaburi. This is located at the north end of the Wang Pho viaduct.  The Tham Kra Sae Bridge is the longest railway bridge in Thailand. At this location we also visited an above ground cave – the Kra Sae Cave. Our guide told us that the cave was used as a hospital for the POW camp that was located here. It might also have been used for storage of goods by the Japanese or as a camp site for Japanese soldiers. Stories abound! There is a legend that Japanese gold was buried in the cave and you can see signs of all the digging and attempted looting that’s gone on here. Today there is a Buddha. We didn't get any good photos

We ate lunch at Sai Yok Station.

I was surprised  that the Pad Thai was very mild considering I was eating it in Thailand. I even had to add Thai chili sauce. After lunch I tried the local coconut ice cream. It was frozen, but wasn’t very coconutty to my taste buds. Cost? 20 Baht (60 cents US).