Kanchanaburi, Home of “Bridge over the River Kwai”

This is a city surrounded by mountains shrouded in smog/fog and situated on 2 rivers, one the Mae Nam Khwae (Kwai) Yai. It’s renown comes from events during World War II. At that time, the Japanese needed a more secure alternative supply route from Burma to Bangkok and choose to build a railroad through the jungles and mountains and over the river here in Kanchanaburi. The entire undertaking took only 16 months with many Allied prisoners of war and many more conscripted Burmese and Malay civilians losing their lives during the construction. Twenty months later the railroad became useless when the Allies bombed the bridge. The bridge is the focal point of this area. All visitors find themselves there pondering that time in our history.

The Allied prisoners who died were from Britain and Holland primarily but also from France and Australia. They are buried in 3 cemeteries. The 2 cemeteries we visited in and near Kanchanaburi were beautifully manicured peaceful gardens maintained by the Commonwealth. We were acutely aware of the contrast of this peacefulness to the violence and suffering that made “these hollowed grounds” necessary. One epithet on a marker was, “He died so that others could live in peace and freedom.” Why do we continue to think that through violence peace will be achieved?

February 2, Chinese New Year, became evident here with firecrackers waking us before the crack of dawn. Happy New Year, the Year of the Rabbit! There was no parade that we could find out about but we did see lots of scraps of red paper, leftovers of the fireworks, on the sidewalks and larger than usual altars of food (whole cooked ducks, fruit and teas wrapped in gold and red, bowls of rice with chopsticks) and incense set up in front of businesses and homes. We found ourselves at a small Chinese temple while we were finishing a ride out of town. Our cameras came out to record what Rajiv’s comment indicated, “Oh, what a wonderful fantasy dragon land in brighter than living color.”

One of the things we have read about in various places is the floating market. The pictures on the brochures we’ve seen made us feel we would really be missing something if we didn‘t visit one. The tour advertised here would be perfect, we thought. It turned out that of the 5 hour tour 3 hrs. were spent traveling in a mini-van. Without a doubt, this venture was the closest to a Disneyland touristy thing we have done in Southeast Asia. It is something we would have liked to have done at a real water market, if that’s possible.

Of the many temples we’ve visited, the temple of 9 caves was the most unique. It was also used as a hospital for the railway workers during WWII. Each room had its own theme. The first chamber contained a reclining Buddha and decaying folksy statues of people and animals. This led to other openings and passageways with incense burning. It was amazing to us to be allowed to wander around a cave, alone, without a flashlight. Rajiv wondered, “What would happen if the lights went out?”

 

Again, here in Kanchanaburi, we found a guest house in a beautiful garden on the river - at times a little smelly, we add with a chuckle. A neighbor has told us of a 3 ft. monitor lizard in the lily pads under our bungalows. His sighting is around 11 am, a time we are never there.

In a few days, we will be in Bali. Our next blog will come from there.

Rajiv and Marianne