Transport
So we had an early taxi from Bangkok (around 4 hr drive) which took us to an area close to the bridge over the river kwai. Here we could take a speedboat to the bridge to get a good view of it from below. This was great fun, the boat was very speedy!!!
Once arriving at The bridge over the River Kwai, we had time to walk over it and take pictures as well as read signs that explained different parts of the bridge. There were also some of the old original trains on display. It was very interesting and just the start of a day learning about the bridge and the prisoners of war.
After the bridge we went to the. Museum & Cemetery. The museum is great and explains all of the history in detail with some impressive displays and artefacts.
We really could have spent over an hour in the museum alone but had to do both the museum and cemetery in an hour which felt rushed really. The cemetery was very eerie but beautifully kept and a lovely place to come and pay your respects to all of the brave individuals that lost their lives during the building of the railway.
Once back on the bus we made our way to our hotel for the night...somewhere we were very excited about...The River Kwai jungle rafts. We were going to be spending the next 24hr on a floating hotel!
We obviously had to take a boat to the hotel which was great fun, winding down the river at quite some speed! On arrival we were given lunch which was a mixture of Thai dishes with rice and were told everything we needed to know about the stay and what we would be doing.
As soon as we could we had our swimsuits on and were jumping into the river! It wad lots of fun and once in it was literally a giant lazy river where you could be carried by the current from one end of the hotel to another! It was certainly fun trying to grab onto the hotel at the last minute before being swept away!
In the early evening we walked onto the land and to a village next to the rafts which is home to the Mon people. A lot of them are employed on the rafts, but otherwise they run elephant trekking and make handicrafts to sell as a means of making a living. It was interesting walking round, meeting some locals and seeing how they live. It was amazing that despite the village being small, there was still a rather large and beautifully adorned temple!
Once back to the rafts we had dinner before watching a traditional Mon performance. It was again interesting and the dancing was great, but we did find the music very noisy and were unable to understand the rhythm!
The next day after breakfast we were taken to the Hellfire pass & museum. This was one of the areas that was most difficult to build the railway and lots of PoW lost their lives here. We were able to walk on where the railway once was -there are actually quite a few sleepers remaining. And see the memorial there before heading into the museum. Again this was incredibly interesting (despite there being some repetition from the previous museum). We left, well informed and feeling incredibly grateful to all of those who lost their lives. Also thankful to live in a peaceful world without wars on this scale.
After the museum we had lunch and were able to take a ride on a small amount of the railway line that is remaining. This included one part that is on a rickety looking wooden bridge over the water!
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