River Kwai Bridge Week

(November 24 - December 5 2008)

 Kanchanaburi Province)

Kanchanaburi, Thailand's third largest province, covers an area of 19,486 square kilometres, most of which is forested mountains. There are fertile plains around the meeting point of the Kwai Noi and Kwai Yai Rivers where the city of Kanchanaburi is located. Kanchanaburi Province borders Myanmar (Burma) to the West.

The city of Kanchanaburi is about 130 kilometres from Bangkok. Once you leave the confines of Bangkok city the trip is one of scenic beauty with a landscape featuring waterfalls, Neolithic caves, national parks and quiet riverside settings. Because of the infamy of The Death Railway and the War Cemeteries in the area many visitors make it a pilgrimage of remembrance to fallen family and friends.

 

The French author Pierre Boulle is best known for writing two novels which were adapted into iconic Hollywood movies. One of these was Planet of the Apes, the other The Bridge on the River Kwai. In the film of this semi-fictional book Alex Guinness, as the character Lt. Col. Nicholson, both builds and destroys a bridge crossing the River Kwai while a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. Unfortunately the film makes the conditions at the River Kwai look like a holiday camp. It was anything but. Allied prisoners of war were forced to build a 415 kilometre railway which became known as the Death Railway. While the estimated 16,000 European POW who died during this construction are remembered and commemorated those who are forgotten are the over 100,000 non-European, mainly Thais or Mon and other Asian nationalities who were used as forced coolie labour and who also paid the ultimate sacrifice of putting Japanese engineering skills into practice.

 

Although this hideous crime against humanity happened about 65 years ago it is not forgotten and Kanchanburi is one of Thailand’s premier places of pilgrimage and interest. Annually the Kanchanaburi Provincial Authority commemorates the notorious establishment of the Death Railway and the building of the bridge over the River Kwai (although not the one made famous by the film as Alex Guinness blew that up!).

 

The bridge over the River Kwai which is in use today was brought from Java (Indonesia) by the Japanese Army and reassembled under Japanese supervision by Allied prisoners of war labour as part of the Death Railway linking Thailand with Myanmar (Burma). It was the target of frequent Allied bombing raids during 1945, and was rebuilt after the war. The curved spans of the bridge are the original sections. It is this bridge which is the centre piece of The River Kwai Bridge Festival.

For a two week period at the end of November until the first week of December activities including a fair, historical and archaeological exhibitions, folk shows, products sale, entertainment, rides on trains hauled by World War II vintage steam locomotives together with a spectacular light and sound presentation re-enacting the bombing of the bridge are held for local and foreign tourists.

At this re-enactment the celebration is far from solemn. A party atmosphere prevails. Each night during the period a son et lumiere (sound and light) extravaganza takes place at the infamous bridge. This includes fake air attacks and explosions with lots of fireworks. The show has commentaries in various languages available in grandstand seating on the riverside.

 

Special trains run from Bangkok's Hua Lamphong station during the period of The River Kwai Bridge Festival and a special steam train excursion usually runs on the last day of the festival. You must book early as this is an immensely popular event. It can be done without an overnight stay in Kanachaburi but for most time spent exploring the Province is an added bonus.

 

You can experience a trip on part of the railway, which, for all the horrors of its construction, is an engineering marvel. The prisoners of war built wooden viaducts hugging the cliff face high above the Kwai River. The 75 minute trip from Kanchanaburi town to Nam Tok (waterfall) at the end of the line is very scenic. The rest of the line, which used to stretch to Moulmien in Myanmar (Burma), is in disrepair and in many places reclaimed by the jungle. Nam Tok is on the edge of the Burma foothills and from here to 3 Pagodas Pass is real border jungle country.

 

If you want to explore further you can take an overnight excursion by raft or boat. Also elephant trekking is available as well as walking. To explore the jungle, albeit only the edge, is a way to see what the prisoners of war had to experience in this jungle wilderness.