DEATH RAILWAY BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

When I was in primary school I learned about the bridge over river Kwai. Also, I watched the movie and I still can remember the melody from the movie. After many years I decide to see it with my own eyes. I'm going to remind you about history.

         

Railway bridge over the river Kwai is located in Kanchanaburi Province about 130 km west of Bangkok.
The construction began on September 16, 1942. Materials for the bridge have been brought from Java (Indonesia). It was estimated that the construction would take five years to link Thailand and Burma by rail, but the Japanese army forced the Allied POW-s (Prisoners Of War) to complete 415 km railway in just 16 months. So, you can imagine what a brutality was engaged in this project. About 16.000 Allied POW-s died during construction and about 100.000 laborers from Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia also lost their lives. Bridge was in use for only 20 months before the Allies bombed it in 1945.
After the end of World War II, the Allied forces placed the remains of the dead people in the two war cemeteries near the bridge. Every year during the first week of December, there is a light and sound presentation detailing the construction and the bombing of the historic railway bridge by the Allied forces.

              restaurants on the river (photo taken from the bridge)



                

This is very interesting place for Thai people and for tourists from all over the world. Plenty of people waiting to take a ride over the bridge with a small train and of course me :-). The train start very slow because a lot of them walking on the bridge, but later on when we almost cross the river, it start to go quite fast. In one moment I had feeling that something is going to be broken :-). Train is all the time rock left and right, but finally everything was absolutely fine. We went forward and back and that was my unforgettable ride on famous railway bridge over the river Kwai. 

                  war museum (it is not allowed to take photo inside) 


Near the bridge is Museum dedicated to the people that they lost their life's during construction. The Museum was not so impressive for me (to be honest). It is composed of the plenty of photos and articles from newspapers, that shows you how terrible life they had and how terrified was behavior of the Japanese Army.
Death railway bridge over the river Kwai was very impressive for me. It is a part of the history, not just Thailand's   history, it is a part of the Worlds history.