Because of the somewhat joyful atmosphere from happy tourists and the scenic aspects of the territory, it is sometimes hard to imagine the gruesome events here during the Second World War. When people come to Kanchanaburi (The Golden Land), a lot focuses on one bridge. This is due to a movie that owes it to a book. Yes, I am talking about Pierre Boulle’s Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï and David Leans Hollywood blockbuster starring Alec Guinness from 1957.

This movie premiered on Swedish television in 1986, shown on at least three occasions before my arrival to Thailand in 1994. I had seen it and I could whistle The Colonel Bogey March,” the soundtrack.

At the time of my first visit to Thailand, it just accorded me that the story took place here in Kanchanaburi. So I felt a lot of interest and came to visit. At that time, I didn’t know that I would be back here operating tours to this place for more than 20 years.

Pierre Boulle(a prisoner of war in Malaya) couldn’t quite get the name right. The river’s real name is Kwae, and it divides into two estuaries. Kwai in the Thai language translates to water buffalo, in fact often used as a derogatory word about a less clever person. The main river at the time of WW II bore the name Mae Klong.

The attention should go to the whole situation, sleepers and bridges and the construction of the Death Railway. A Japanese initiative to connect Singapore to India via Thailand (Siam) and Burma through dense jungles on land. After the Japanese lost the critical battle of Midway to the US navy, they were no longer in control of the seas.

Allied prisoners of war, and not to forget numerous Asian labourers were brought here to work under horrific conditions to build railway and bridges in the scorching hot sun. Prisoners died from malnutrition, tropical diseases and Japanese torture. And some were unfortunate to die from allied bombing.

The Japanese built the railway without any concern, no matter how high the cost, in human lives or money. The numbers for how many deaths differ from source to source but an estimated 15 000 – 20 000 allied soldiers and up to 100 000 Asian workers paid with their lives for this Japanese War effort. The railway is 415 kilometres long and with 15 kilometres of bridges. Two hundred sixty kilometres of rail is on the Thai side and the remaining on the Burmese/Myanmar side.

The railway was functioning between October of 1943 and June 1945.

Things you have to experience in Kanchanaburi

• Visit the bridge on the River Kwai
• Visit Hells Pass
• Take the train from Nam Tok to Thakilen
• Overnight in a Floatel or Hin Tok River Camp
• Visit a War Museum, JEATH or/and the Hellfire Memorial Museum.
• Enjoy a meal in a floating restaurant
• Visit a War Cemetery in Kanchanaburi

The Bridge over the River Kwai

What about the bridge you see as a visitor in Kanchanaburi?

Bombs fell over the bridge in the spring of 1945.

In 1944, the bridge over the Khwae Yai River was subjected to systematic attacks by heavy bombers. It took until 1945 before a direct hit threw the central span down into the river. When bombs destroyed bridges, the Japanese transported goods with barges across the Mae Khlong River.

The restoration took place after the war, and the famous bridge received a new centre span, delivered free of charge by Japan. That is why the bridge we see today has a truss span in the middle while the other sections are arch bridges.

The railway itself was after the war for long distances in miserable condition. Workers tore up sections and rails, and sleepers found use in other railroad works.

Despite the horrible history, the terrain here is spectacular, and to stay in Kanchanaburi for two nights is, in my mind, a minimum to see the main sites and have a chance to reflect and enjoy the landscape and nature.

One of the more pleasant experiences we have had through the years has been to get on a floating restaurant after the visit on the bridge and let a small long-tail boat pull the raft – restaurant on the river for an hour or so and then get off at the Chung Kai War cemetery.

This cemetery used to be one of the Allied POW camps. The cemetery holds the graves of around 1800 soldiers from the Commonwealth and of Dutch origin. It is smaller than the War Cemetery in Kanchanaburi.

The train ride from Namtok to Thakilen

It is hot, but only an hour ++ of your life. All your senses are with you when you take the train on the railway. Vendors enter to sell doughnuts, samosas, tapioca crisps, postcards and t-shirts.

Have some nice Thai food at the small restaurant run by the stationmaster himself and wait for directions from him when the train is arriving.

The train is often delayed 15- 45 minutes. One of the highlights is passing the wooden construction by the so-called Death Cliff.

Where to stay in Kanchanaburi?

For many years I always stayed with groups at the classic River Kwae Hotel. However, after a particular tour company became too dominant with too many clients simultaneously, we changed to the Hin Tok Glamping site, which was a great experience. Every night there would be a BBQ buffet in the middle of the campgrounds and a small bar.

Some suggestions for hotels

On the map below you find some suggestions for hotels in Kanchanaburi with surroundings. If you book from these links I will earn some small commission from it but with no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Thailand Tidbits.

Booking.com

The legendary movie

The movie itself was recorded in Sri Lanka. But it is worth seeing because this story created the modern “legend” surrounding the River Kwai. The trailer from YouTube.

The Real Colonel Nicholson from The Bridge of River Kwai.

Alec Guinness character Colonel Nicholson in real life, was Philip Toosey. He was born in 1904 outside Liverpool. As a teenager, his parents sent him to a boarding school, where he excelled in sports but not studies.

Perhaps as compensation for a general impracticality, Toosey developed an extraordinary social ability.

First, he worked as an apprentice at a company in the textile import industry; he graduated as an officer for the army and worked for a famous bank.

In August 1939, the country called up for active duty appointing him commander of an artillery battery and shipped him over to the British Expeditionary Force in northern France.

On the other side of the canal, he took part in May 1940. His experiences during this catastrophic time for the British profoundly affected him.

After undergoing senior command training, Toosey was assigned in the summer of 1941 as commander of a three-battery field artillery regiment. In October of that year, the unit was shipped to Singapore and participated in defence of the Malacca Peninsula in early 1942. Toosey’s leadership here attracted the attention of his senior commanders.

Toosey received a medal for his courage, and when it became clear that Singapore would fall, orders came to look after an evacuation transport. Efforts were made to save as many officers as possible for efforts on other fronts. Toosey refused with the motivation to follow his soldiers in captivity.

As prisoners of war, the Japanese moved Toosey’s regiment to Thailand. Their prison camp, the Tamarkan camp, is about five kilometres outside the town of Kanchanaburi. Together with 2,000 other prisoners of war, they built bridge 271, which would later gain fame as the bridge over the River Kwai. This was the most significant river crossing in the Japanese’s major railway construction and crossed the Khwae Yai, an approximately 150-meter-wide tributary of the greater Mae Klong.

Toosey and the other prisoners had a problematic situation. On the one hand, by working with the bridge, they did not want to contribute to the Japanese war efforts; on the other hand, this work was a prerequisite for survival.

No work resulted in beatings by the camp guards, sometimes to death.

Toosey, as the highest-ranking British officer, became camp commander. He fought to make the lives of the prisoners as bearable as possible.

Toosey’s method was to administer the camp with its staff and with maintained orders, partly to reduce friction areas with the Japanese, achieve a functioning and fair distribution of food, accommodation conditions, workload access to health care and so on.

Toosey was beaten by the Japanese many times but eventually won their respect. His main argument for the Japanese to treat prisoners humanely was that they worked better if they were healthy than sick. In this way, the bridge could be completed more quickly, which was in the Japanese self-interest.

Toosey consistently defended his men in conflicts with the correctional officers, visited the camp hospitals daily and attended every funeral.

The contrast between Tamarkan and other camps along the “Railway of Death” was striking. In camps further west, anarchy and the power of the strong sometimes prevailed, but Tamarkan was well managed under Toosey’s leadership.

When the bridge was completed, Toosey was kept at Tamarkan. There he was given the task of reorganising the camp into a central hospital for prisoners. The Japanese later placed him as a commander in other concentration camps. Toosey survived the war; he lost weight but regained much of his physical health. Like many other prisoners, he suffered from post-traumatic stress for the rest of his life.

The Railway Man and the building of the Death Railway

Not as famous a story as The Bridge over River Kwai. The autobiography The Railway Man is also a true story. I have read it many times in the shorter version in Readers Digest. And it was filmed in 2013, just a year after Eric Lomax passed away, a Scot that also worked here to build a railway after the mass capitulations of fortress Singapore.

Jonathan Teplitzky directed the movie.  Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine play Lomax at different ages. Nicole Kidman plays Patti, the nurse who befriended and married Eric Lomax. 

Lomax suffered major ordeals at the construction of the railway, torture, such as waterboarding, and he was interrogated by a Japanese interpreter, Takashi Nagase, that had no choice but to follow his officer’s orders but was very reluctant to do this work for the Japanese War Machine. In his heart, he didn’t agree with the Japanese’s methods.

Before the war, Takashi Nagase was an English teacher in Japan. Lomax book is about the reconciliation with his captor and it is very gripping. How he first constantly is on the search to find the interpreter that was present during all the torture because he wants to punish him, and finally end up in a lifetime friendship with him instead.

The Narrow Road to Deep North, a story of impossible love and mateship among Australians during WWII, by Richard Flanagan and James Clavell’s King Rat about the POWs in Singapore’s Changi prison, are also good reads about this time in history.

Bombing the new bridge every year

The yearly festival of bombing the bridge takes place at the end of November or early December yearly. It is a sound and light show that reenacts the World War II bombing of The River Kwai Bridge.

Other places to visit

The ancient Khmer ruin Prasat Muang Singh, a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, the most western ruins from Khmer Empire discovered in Thailand. Prasat Luang Singhs construction dates from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Erawan waterfall in the Erawan National Park has seven separate tiers. One of the prettiest waterfalls in Thailand. In the park, you also find caves in Limestone rocks to explore.

If you have time continue to Sanghklaburi for an immensely picturesque and unique feeling of a small Thai town.

Forgive but don’t forget

That is the mantra at Kanchanburi today. Five million people visited this area in 2015, so if you sometimes feel it is rather hot on the train or somewhere else. Please remember the prisoners and labourers that worked here during WWII.