The Bridge over the River Kwai

Eleven of us on the tour were in Bangkok before the trip officially began and Ken McFarland, the organizer, had a day trip planned. First we went to a cemetery and museum for allied soldiers who were Japanese prisoners of war and who died building the railway from Thailand to Burma and the made-famous by the 1967 movie: Bridge over the River Kwai.  We bussed to the cemetery  and then caught a train (waiting about an hour an half since it was late) to the station near the bridge. Some of the bridge is original.  

The graveyard was immense; about 16,000 allied soldiers died (also about 90,000 asian laborers); 6,982 soldiers are buried here. It is well maintained - there were sprinklers in one section and a worker was trimming the grass.  We didn't go into the museum.

After this visit we continued by bus to lunch and then to a spot on the river for recreation, We rode up river in a longboat and then got on a pair of linked bamboo rafts to float back to where we had boarded.

Click here for a slide show


A 56 sec video of the view of the river from the train