I'm getting seasick... on the River Kwai

[The Bigfella]

I'm staying at Sam's Floating Guesthouse... on the River Kwai - within (limited) sight of the famous Bridge on the River Kwai.

Just had a succession of the fast tourist boats go past - long pointed sleds with a big diesel rat-tail. They are rapid... very rapid and don't make much wash... but its still enough to rock the floating rooms.

Photos will come... some time later

[The Bigfella]

Just to put where I'm staying into perspective... the Bridge on the River Kwai is the second bridge here... past the new one. Not a good image of it... its a black bridge. Its a rebuild of the one built by the PoWs and slave labor under the Japanese in WW2.... but on the original piers. Bomb damage is still visible on the piers, I believe. Will check it out later.



The view downriver... bit hazy... light rain falling



Damn tourist boats

[Iceboy]

Bet they made that guy in the punt a bit mad.

[The Bigfella]

Yeah... I hadn't even seen him until I loaded the piccies.

I did that same run this evening. I went up to the Bridge on the River Kwai, and as I was crossing it a boat guy at the landing offered me a deal - a tour for 400 baht, down from 600 because it was getting late and he wanted to go home. I bought him a beer with the savings. More photos later. Just got back from a restaurant where a French guy was trying to die. I left before the ambulance, but he had some colour back by then.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Tom yum gang?

[The Bigfella]

Mate... tom yum is off the menu for me. I've been having a food allergy attack today, so I was able to offer up my adrenaline (Epipen) at the restaurant, but we didn't have enough medical knowledge present to know whether that's what he needed. What brought him back from the white skin slide to the big box was a wet towell around his neck and lots of effort to keep him awake.

[purri]

Tom yum gang. YUM!

[Lew Barrett]

I'll be there in February if it pans out. Will continue to follow with interest.

[The Bigfella]

I did some touristy things today... got a bit wet in the process, but such is life. I'll post some more pics later.

Lew... its a hard place to not love.

[bobbys]

I would like to hear about the bridge from facts and if the people remember the POWs.

If you please sir!

[The Bigfella]

Oops... just lost half a post...

Haven't seen any really old people here to discuss. Did in Penang... an old Chinese guy who was there when the Japanese bombed and occupied... and beheaded his mates.

Here's the Death Railway. I walked the section where the train is earlier this afternoon.





Over 16,000 Allied deaths and a further 100,000+ slave Asian labourers dead, to build 415km of track in 17 months. Over 5,000 Commonwealth and 1800 Dutch dead in this Allied War cemetery



Plenty of these



Here's a special shot of the Bridge over the River Kwai, just for Sophie, who's been telling me about my sexuality tonight... or my sex or something. I think she's got a thing for dirt bikes ridden by old men...



Oh, OK... two...

[The Bigfella]

A few more shots of the bridge. It had three spans taken out by allied bombers in '45. There was also a wooden bridge there about 100 metres downstream. The bombed section was replaced with the two different shaped spans after the war.



The bridge itself was pilfered by the Japanese from an oilfield in Java and relocated to Thailand



Over 700 American POWs worked on the railway construction with 360 dying. After its construction, 10,000 Allied soldiers were shipped to Japan - 3,000+ being killed on the way when their merchant ship transports were sunk by British and American subs. There's a memorial to the Americans that I have photos of but haven't uploaded yet.





Oh yeah... I'm in the middle room in the floating guesthouse on the left

[Lew Barrett]

I did some touristy things today... got a bit wet in the process, but such is life. I'll post some more pics later.

Lew... its a hard place to not love.

I'm very excited about this possibility, Ian. I need to convince Lindy that we want to go to SE Asia again, but that shouldn't be too hard. We are kicking around winter holidays and this one seems most interesting to me. Otherwise, Barcelona in the spring. Maybe both!

[The Bigfella]

Plenty of nice spots in SE Asia...

Plenty of nice toys for the boys too. I need to check my motivation for taking shots like this. Must be me over compensating or something like that.



Oops, I think I just under-compensated



Hell's bells.... where did I ever go wrong. A female elephant. Gawd I hate exploiting females like that. Oh yeah, that's Na, a friend of mine who came up for a day trip. She runs a sports bar in Hua Hin.... there's a very significant difference between sports bars (few and far between) and the other bars in that town.... and yes, she went home on the bus this evening.

[The Bigfella]

I just found this pic... some wooden shovels that were hanging in an antique shop that I had to walk through to get to a seafood restaurant in Hua Hin

[Syed]

Ian, do you have a picture of yours standing by an elephant. I want to know who is taller.

[The Bigfella]

Hi Syed.... its interesting that... there's short elephants and tall elephants.

The tall elephants tend to be bulls. I've had my fair share of fun with bull elephants.

Interestingly, there were several road signs today warning of elephants... and I did see some, but they had mahoots on them.

[Syed]

Hi,
Ian, your traveling threads studded with fantastic pictures are a treat in the bilge. Inspired by this thread, I looked for Kwai river on bing map and noticed quite a few bluish rooftops in the vicinity. Any idea if those are solar panels?

[The Bigfella]

I have seen a shop selling solar panels, but I haven't seen any installed. From what I can tell, electricity prices are fairly low over here.... and PV panels probably aren't cheap. I'm a fair way out of town tonight... near the river, but about 60 km out of Kanchanaburi - and am on town power.

I'll take a look at the rooftops over the next couple of days.

[WX]

Good thread Ian. I like the truck loco.
The cemetery like the couple I have been to in PNG is very well maintained.

[The Bigfella]

Good thread Ian. I like the truck loco.
The cemetery like the couple I have been to in PNG is very well maintained.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Garry - with some Dutch input in this case. I applied for a role with them some time back, in the 90's, but my old comrade Gough Whitlam wouldn't give me a reference because his secretary didn't want to do it. Damn commies.

There was a spot at the cemetery gate for the graves register but it wasn't there... just a plaque in the box referring us to the CWGC in London. The remains of the 356 Americans were repatriated, the rest of the PoWs who died constructing the railway were exhumed and moved to 3 main cemeteries.

I've got a locally produced book on it that I bought here.... a woeful piece of editing, the worst I've ever seen... but one table gives the numbers of Prisoners of War involved in railway construction as British 30,000 of whom 6,540 are buried in the cemeteries at Chungkai, Kanchanaburi and Thanbyuzayat, Dutch 18,000 / 2,830 Aussies 13,000 / 2,710 along with 220 Malayans, 33 Indians, 5 Kiwis, 2 each Canada and Burmese and 149 unknown

The toll on the Asian slave labourers was far worse... of 200,000 who worked on it, only 30,000 were ever traced or repatriated after the Japanese surrender. It is presumed that 100,000+ died.

Where I'm headed this morning, Hellfire Pass.... This section of line - the two cuttings here - cost 700 Allied prisoners their lives. 69 Aussies were beaten to death by the Japanese and Korean guards - the rest died in accidents and from illness or starvation.

Back to the river though...

This is the transport interchange about 1 km downstream from my accom (I appear to be the only person here btw... other than a staff member who speaks no English)





There are some keen youngsters around though.... who want to displace the old men on dirt bikes



This is the commercial centre of the town where the tourists come to to visit the Hellfire Pass Museum. The tourists don't come through here though... they do a minibus to the museum and then are dropped at the station (or the other way around) and bypass the town. I can guarantee that, given the looks I was getting



..... and here's where my GPS sent me to yesterday... oops... it isn't here.



OK... time to stick my head under that rather murky river water for a tub.... and go sweat some more.

[bobbys]

What kind of fish are in the river?

[purri]

catfish and others.

[The Bigfella]

Some nice big ones. I had brekky there at the bus/boat interchange and the guys who went out in that 3 man long-tail showed me an 18" fish in the freezer that they caught on that trip. Looked a bit like a bream to me... but it wasn't.

Meanwhile... I've shed a tear or two at the bastardry of Hellfire Pass and headed west towards Burma. I'm three sheets to the wind with an octet of Thai guys... who've stuck about 300 beers and some Remy Martin Cognac Champagne in my hand... along with a bucketload of Thai food delicacies and press ganged me into visiting a Mon / Karen village and walking across the longest wooden bridge in Thailand. Apparently we're drinking until 3am.

Photos will have to wait

[The Bigfella]

Hi,
Ian, your traveling threads studded with fantastic pictures are a treat in the bilge. Inspired by this thread, I looked for Kwai river on bing map and noticed quite a few bluish rooftops in the vicinity. Any idea if those are solar panels?

Syed - the blue rooftops are blue-painted corrugated fibre cement sheeting.

I'm sitting in Sangkhla Buri, looking across the river at the Mon / Karen village (access to it is via the longest wooden bridge in Thailand... The Mon Bridge)... and I can see dozens of blue roofs. I saw some of the broken roofing material yesterday.

[Syed]

Thank you, The Bigfella.