THAILAND ONE/ TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
KANCHANABURI: A SCENIC JOURNEY INTO A DARK PAST
Thailand-Burma Railway Centre Overlooking the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre is a recent curation similar to JEATH. It includes film achieves and interactive displays chronicling the railway’s construction. Open every day from 9:00am to 4:00pm. The entrance fee is 150 THB per person (70 THB for children). V ISIT the Bridge on the River Kwai. It wasn’t only the rail tracks built with slave labour. With a route crossing many valley rivers, bridges were also constructed by hand. The Bridge on the River Kwai is the most well-known of them all, made famous by the 1957 film that dramatized the Thailand- Burma Railway history. The first bridge, constructed in 1943, was wooden and later replaced by the steel bridge that stands today. Walkways on either side of the rails have viewing platforms overlooking the river. It is a poignant reminder of how and why it came into being as visitors wander its tracks between the two daily train journeys that cross it. »
H ELL Fire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail. The Hell Fire Pass is the largest rock cutting excavation site on the Death Railway, named because of the scene of flickering torchlight and the fires that burned as prisoners worked long into the night during the ‘Speedo’ construction period. The limestone rock passage is a 2.5km memorial walking path, honouring those who suffered here, drilling holes by hand for explosives used to blast the rocks, then cleared by hand. An interpretive centre is a place for reflection and learning before entering the cutting below. The area is also the 400 metres long and 27 metres high Hintock Bridge site, whose collapse and subsequent rebuild three times came to be known as The Pack of Cards Bridge. Open every day from 09:00 am to 4 pm. It would help if you had proper footwear when visiting the sites due to rocky climbs and stairways. » Hell Fire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail
River Kwai Bridge
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THAILAND ONE
JUNE/ JULY 2024
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