Travel: Thailand - River Kwai

http://6.upload.dailymotion.com/video/x1mrt7_river-kwai-tour

This is an account of my first (and last) organised tourist tour to Kanchanaburi Province to visit the War Museum, War Cemetry, Bridge over the River Kwai and the Death Railway.

See the above link for the movie...

Music: Soundtrack of 'The Bridge over the River Kwai'

Early morning 6am start... waiting for the mini bus (30mins late). We eventually started off on our trip, the driver tearing through the morning traffic like a bat out of hell, Elma white knuckled, gripping on to the seat in front of her. A 30 minute race later we stopped at a petrol station and were greeted by our guide. What? a coach?!! Full of tourists?!! and WE are going to join them!! Horror of horrors.. this was looking more and more like a tourist tour!! I had vowed I would never go on one of those!! Seen too many coach loads of tourists in Ireland being whizzed through the main attractions.. been there, done that, bought the t-shirt! Not very attractive for someone who likes to savour a place, be free of rigid timetables (20mins here, then 15min stop, 30 for lunch...AAARGGHH), and the excitement that comes with spontaneity and self discovery. Nightmare. Only in my wildest dreams... except perhaps as an old woman, supported by a walking cane with other old cronies

Right, positive thinking... I had to rid myself of any preconceived ideas, prejudices towards the kind of people who consciously opt for this (bad girl) and go into this with an open mind and tolerance. I had no choice..we were leaving and I wanted to have a nice day.

Right from the onset, my new found determination to give a tour a chance was immediately challenged... microphone blaring, the tour guide with his instructions, laying out for us what the day would hold in store for us... step by step.. ruining all elements of surprise! Literally, 15mins here, then 45 minutes there... all stay together, don't stray (like cackling chickens in a ren)... fun.
Open mind, Sarah.. go with the flow, be flexible. We arrived at the cemetery and museum (1 hour folks - don't be late). It was actually quite exciting - Rinus found records of his uncle who had been a POW sent to work on the railway and killed there. Unfortunately, he wasn't buried in Thailand but in Burma. It was quite amazing though for him to get a print out with name, rank, age when he died, next of kin, burial place. He is the first in his family to look him up. Actually, his namesake, his uncle had been stationed in Indonesia (colony - married to a local woman) when he was taken as a prisoner of war to work on the railway tracks which were to join Thailand to Burma, facilitating entry into India for the Japanese and cutting the Allied supply route into China. The sea routes to India, particularly the straits of Malacca were heavily controlled by ally troops leaving the Japanese no option but to construct a railway connecting Thailand to Burma over a treacherous terrain of wild jungle and steep mountains. Despite Japanese engineers warning that it was an impossible feat, the government insisted and ordered Burmese, Indonesian, Singaporean, Malaysian, Commonwealth and Dutch POWs along with labourers to build it... many of them arriving in already very weakened conditions from the gruelling journey by ship. Deplorable living conditions, infested with disease, no sanitation, lack of food and of course hard dangerous manual labour, thousands died (60,000 POWs), Rinus' uncle died tragically only two weeks before the line was completed (it took 14 months in total, beginning at both ends, Burma and Thailand, and joining in the middle, to construct 415kms of railway).
Unfortunately, the museum and graveyard is now surrounded by city infrastructure and commerce, leaving very little to the imagination to delve into the realm of what was. The cemetery; neatly lined up gravestones, invaded by an army of ants (metaphor for tourists :-) taking pictures, talking loudly with the background noise of Asian traffic.. didn't really hit the sensitive nerve in me. But, yeah.. interesting to see the Dutch names in a land so far away.
Oh.. 2 minutes left.. better head back to the bus. The Bridge over the River Kwai when we arrived was black with tourists swarming all over it. Perseverance… look, the river is quite magical, wide, meandering slowly through the countryside, swift current, green foliage gently dipping into the murky brown water on each bank. There is a history here, parts of the old bridge still intact (the Japanese were ordered to repair all bomb damage to the bridge after the war ended as part of their indemnity), connecting two sides of a symbolic river (also made infamous by the film… whistling the tune in my head), and still there today… treaded on by millions of people from all walks of life.
Didn't have long to savour this… rushed on to the next "highlight" (a word our tour guide loved to use!) of our tour – a train ride on the Death Railway. Old carriages with wood panelling, windows up, hair flowing in the wind, racing through the beautiful Thai countryside… the luscious green of rice fields, dotted with tall elegant coconut trees, fields of tapioca plants, waving long golden bamboos and Thais living out their daily lives under a hot lazy sun. Hypnotised by the chugging (tudd, tudd, tudd… tudd, tudd, tudd) of the train I felt time transcending taking me to a place.. neither today nor yesterday. Deep gorges, thick jungle, steep cliffs to the river below…. a realisation of the enormity of what had happened and been achieved here and…. the price that was paid.
All in all… a nice day with Elma and Rinus, learned interesting things (always good) and again vow (this time an experienced decision) NEVER to go on a tour bus trip again!!

And I didn't buy the t-shirt…. :-)