THE BRIDGE - KANCHANABURI

 3rd - 4th Jan 2022

The bridge on (not) the River Kwai

Kanchanaburi is famous for 'the bridge'. This was built between 1942/43 as part of the Imperial Japanese Army's railway project linking Thailand to Burma. Thailand was an ally of the Japanese during WW2. It involved the 'slave labour' of mainly British, Australian and Dutch POWs, along with other local ethnic groups and the stories of Japanese brutality, hideous conditions and horrific death toll are well recorded. The bridge itself gained international fame and notoriety thanks to the 1952 book and then the 1957 blockbuster film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'. Both of these played fast and loose with the facts, but were vastly popular. In fact, and here it gets confusing, the bridges (a wooden one was built first) were built over the River Mae Klong. The River 'Khwae', pronounced 'Quair' ('Kwai', pronounced 'Kwy' means 'water buffalo' and, as I have just discovered, is an expletive deployed to remind someone that they resemble an intimate part of the female anatomy) was indeed nearby. To avoid confusion and to satisfy a growing tourist industry they renamed the Mae Klong the River Khwae Yai. So you can see the whole thing is a bit of a fabrication; life imitating art. Actually only bits, the plinths and spans at each end, are original. The rest is rebuilt and supports an operational railway. Anyway, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story, or to disillusion tourists.

Left: Looking down the tracks from east to west. Tourists are free to roam over the bridge and there are safety points in which you can stand if a train is coming (there are only three a day and, as I mentioned earlier, they go very slowly with lots of hooting and whistling). Can you imagine the 'elf 'n safety' dictatorship in UK allowing that to happen?

Right: There is a booming market area surrounding the east side of the bridge.

Left:.....and several rather decent looking riverside restaurants. Boat cruises are also on offer.

Right: There is a WW2 museum nearby. It is probably one of the least inspiring museums that I have visited. This 'retired' Jap train is parked outside. What the relevance of the car on the back is I could not fathom. It looks a bit like my sadly long-departed trusty 1988 Datsun Bluebird. I often wondered what the breakers yard were going to do with it.

Left: The displays inside were of little interest or relevance. Endless racks  of ancient rusting rifles, and swords plus helmets and other paraphernalia. Any explanatory notices were in Thai. There were many faded photographs lining the walls and few seemed to be of interest. There was one of Adolph Hitler and another of Stalin. Quite what part they played in this theatre of war was not explained.

Right: Against the wall outside were two 'statues'. On the left 'Charles de Gaulle' and on the right 'Winston Churchill'. Neither bore the slightest resemblance.

Left: Another 'fascinating' and unexplained exhibit. There was an additional 5 story annex which had large displays of china and porcelain artefacts, more swords, more rusty rifles and even cheap local jewellery. 

Right: Part of a long display of, I suppose, Japanese swords. I'm only showing these photos because I jolly well took them and expect will be of little or no interest to anyone! Least of all me.

Left: A skeleton in a glass case. Of whom?!

Maybe just to remind us of the POW's dietary regime?

Right: Outside on a plinth was an old Cessna 152 light aircraft. These were produced  in the USA from the mid 1970s. Again, what relevance this had was entirely unexplained. The plaque merely told us its rather boring specifications and uninspiring flight performance details......

Left:....and in the market area a be-masked violinist playing, very badly, an unrecognisable tune. Yehudi Menuhin not! I gave him 10 Baht out of sympathy and towards his, hopefully, imminent retirement. I doubt if he will be troubling the Royal College of Music and maybe not even tourists for much longer if he has any sense.

Right: The west end of the bridge. Maybe original?

Kanchanaburi as I discovered is, for the most part, a very pleasant town with delighful (unless you were a POW) forested and hilly/mountainous surrounding countryside  and home to many Western and Antipodean ex-pats. It is a very 'linear' town stretching about 4 miles south-east from the bridge.

From the bridge you get to the touristy mile long main street, Mae Nam Khwae, containing a vast array of bars, restaurants, hotels, guest houses and shops. Talking of shops, every street in every town in Thailand has at least one '7/11' store. There were three in this street. They must be the Thai equivalent of our Co-op shops and exist in profusion (probably Government owned). They sell all sorts of goods including food and alcohol. The puritanical Thai law prohibits  the sale of alcohol between 2 - 5pm and after 9pm. Except where it doesn't! (backhanders?). The Thais are subjected to all sorts of restrictive laws but have marvellously inventive ways of getting around them. During the total lockdown period here where the sale of alcohol was forbidden everywhere, it was amazing (I am told) how much alcoholic 'tea' was served from teapots into plastic teacups. Or in venues that were owned by 'those in charge'. Rather reminiscent of the present UK Government tribulations.....one rule for them etc.

I digress. At the southern end of this street is the railway station, another museum called the 'Death Railway Museum and Research Centre' and the most impressive Commonwealth Graves Commission War Cemetery plus an equally impressive 'Chinese' cemetery. On south you move into the more commercial area. At the southern end of this, next to the river, is the JEATH (Japanese, English, Australia/USA, Thai, and Holland) museum. 

All will be revealed in the next edition. No doubt you are quivering with anticipation. 

Left: Just found this photo of a floating bandstand on the river. Curious.