The River Kwai

[Braveheart]

The River Kwai, more correctly Khwae Noi (Thai: แควน้อย, English small tributary) or Khwae Sai Yok (Thai แควไทรโยค), is a river in western Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. It begins at the confluence of Ranti, Songkalia and Bikhli Rivers. At Kanchanaburi it merges with the Mae Klong river, which empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram.

 

The river is chiefly known from the Pierre Boulle novel and David Lean film The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which Australian, Dutch and British prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese to construct two parallel bridges spanning the river as part of the Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway for the many lives lost in its construction. One bridge was wooden and temporary. The other was made of concrete and steel and still exists. Ironically, the bridges actually spanned the Mae Klong, but as the railway subsequently follows the Kwae Noi Valley, the bridges became famous under the wrong name. In the 1960s, the upper part of the Mae Klong was renamed the Kwae Yai (big tributary).

 

Vajiralongkorn Dam (formerly named Khao Laem Dam) is a hydroelectric dam on the river.

 

Extracted from Wikipedia: Kwai River

[gs joe]

Just a few photos .

 

The river

 

 

The bridge

 

 

 

The cemetery .

 

 

 

Joe

[Braveheart]

Thanks for the pics Joe. Much appreciated.

[The Professional]

Piccys

[Braveheart]

Thanks Ben, nice pics.

[Gman_j1w071a]

Great pics it is hard to imagine what those men endured while building it under the daily threat of torture......

 

Cheers!!!

 

Gman

[nus01]

Ben & Joe

 

Is it worth the trip to have a look?

 

I think its only about 5 hours from Pattaya I thought of going on my last trip.

[gs joe]

Ben & Joe

 

Is it worth the trip to have a look?

 

I think its only about 5 hours from Pattaya I thought of going on my last trip.

 

I'm glad I made the trip ,

its about half a days ride from Pattaya .

 

Joe

[The Professional]

Ben & Joe

 

Is it worth the trip to have a look?

 

I think its only about 5 hours from Pattaya I thought of going on my last trip.

 

 

YES!!!

 

Book a 2 night, three day tour - cost about 4200 baht per person......including transport, hotel, breakfast, luch, dinner + all activities.

 

I booked with an agent between soi7/8 but you can e.mail the tour company directly [email protected]

 

call: 01-1920413

 

Picking you up at about 5am the first morning, you will enjoy the following activities:

 

World War 2 Museum

World War 2 Cemetery

Bridge Over River Kwai

Historical Train Ride & Death Railways

Elephant Riding

Bamboo Rafting

Erawan Waterfall & National Park

Kayaking

Floating Market & Long Tail Boat

Woodcraft & Thai Silk Centre (surprising enjoyable)

 

I have nothing but praise for this particular company. Lots of operators offering this tour but I'd use these guys again.

 

The settings for lunch and dinner were STUNNING!!!

 

Every minute of every day held my attention.

 

You will not regret making the effort. I guarantee it!

 

Every single activity is simply an awesome experience.

 

So many memories of these three days but I often recall the moment I stood on the bridge (safe area) watching a train go past full of schoolkids. Anyway, these two boys saw me and leaned out the window. Then motioned they wanted to 'high five' me. lol.............so it was 'high fives' all round, with the boys laughing their heads off!

 

All other activites, simply fantastic. Value for money 110%

Edited January 24, 2007 by ben99

[nus01]

thanks for the reply guys.

 

I saw the tour advertised and when I did a bit of reading and found out it was half a days drive away I thought I could either take the tour or hire a car and get one of my GFE BG to come along for the ride and show me the way.

None of them knew.

 

I think next time in July when I am back for 3 weeks I will definatley do the tour.

Edited January 24, 2007 by nus01

[whitespider - RIP]

thanks for the reply guys.

 

I saw the tour advertised and when I did a bit of reading and found out it was half a days drive away I thought I could either take the tour or hire a car and get one of my GFE BG to come along for the ride and show me the way.

None of them knew.

 

I think next time in July when I am back for 3 weeks I will definatley do the tour.

 

its not really surprising - Thai history teaching (usually) makes no mention of the alliance with the Japanese as it is something they would rather forget. It ws after-all a rather "forced" alliance created by the then leader to avoid a full scale occupation by Japan.

 

Oddly enough, they DO make a great deal of fuss over the USAF bombing of Bangkok which claimed several thousand lives over 3 nights.

 

Finally, YES - do try and make the trip. Its a bit like going to the Concentration camps if you are in Germany - eerie and unpleasant but an absolute "must see". When I say unpleasant I mean the "feeling" - the place itself is breathtaking.

[oliver]

Going to take a look this time around... also hope to play a couple of rounds of golf in that vicinity.

[blacknight]

Firstly forgive me if this question is bullshit as a pissed up French guy told me about this in a bar last trip.

 

He said that you could visit the "River Kwia" and then catch a hotel boat and travel overnight back to Bangkok. Has anyone heard of this option or is it just a load of Sh_t ?

 

I have tried to find out if this is actually possible with little success. Any info would be greatly appreciated as I plan to go there in June.

[Braveheart]

I don't know whether that would be possible or not as I believe The Khwae Noi flows into the Mae Klong which itself flows into the Gulf of Thailand. I think there may also be a couple of dams in the way but I'm not sure. It might be possible if there are canals connecting it in other ways.

[gs joe]

its not really surprising - Thai history teaching (usually) makes no mention of the alliance with the Japanese as it is something they would rather forget. It ws after-all a rather "forced" alliance created by the then leader to avoid a full scale occupation by Japan.

 

Looking in the museum , at photograph and models of the bridge being ,

constructed ,

 

a brief description says , bridge being built by allied forces , supervised by the Japanese Army .

 

Joe

[Braveheart]

Doesn't get much more PC than that does it? Shows they have a lot of Japanese tourists as well as Westerners. Heaven forbid someone should decide to get upset at them if they told it correctly.

[whitespider - RIP]

Looking in the museum , at photograph and models of the bridge being ,

constructed ,

 

a brief description says , bridge being built by allied forces , supervised by the Japanese Army .

 

Joe

 

Yes thats 100% true Joe - not sure what point you are making including my quote? Thailand was allied to Japan during WW2 but did not have anything to do with the building of the railway - just allowed them the access to build it.

[gs joe]

It was just that your post ,

gave me recall of what at the time seem a strange statement ,

but after reading your post I can see why they wish to portray it this way ,

 

Joe

[jte]

Here are a few more pics of the River Kwai bridge, of course it was raining off and on the day we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

[bundy]

if pattaya gets all too much and you have a favourite girl, suggest a couple of days up there, it realily is peacful and quiet

[m mike]

Thanks for the photos felt I was there was going to make the day trip to early for me 6 am start next time over wil go up for a few days

[SirDougless]

An interesting travel article from the Australian newspaper last weekend.

 

Truths too far

 

If it gets archived I've a copy of it so PM me.

[wolfy]

Interesting read. My thanks Sir D. Cheers T

[Frank La Rue]

My wife is from Kanchanaburi.

 

What made most of an impression on me ( that was 2005) was the Japanese tourists out on the bridge laughing and making pics of each others. THey did not seem to have a clue about the background of the bridge.

A strange coincidence for me was that, as we stayed in the Felix Resort a couple of kilometers away (it was our honeymoon) I incidentally wathced a program on History Channel about the bridge.

One of the japanese commanding officers from the bridge construction was interviewed and explained that the prisoners of war fared so badly as they were fed ample rations of rice every day but their digestive systems could not take it, so they hungered and became ill-

 

BTW, the floating restaurant on the right hand side of the bridge (you see it on some of the pics) is pretty good. When I ordered a whisky soda before dinner, I had to buy the bottle, but it served me nicely in the room for the week.

There is quite a bit of P4P action, the road allong the river by the foot-end (or whatever) of Kanchanaburi Town has quite a number of beer bars and the River Kwai Resort has a disco which rocks. See field reports from Local Yocul.

Edited May 12, 2007 by Frank La Rue

[soami2]

very nice pix thx