we meet Steve and Kai in the restaurant on the 7th floor,
fully stocked buffet,
with eggs cooked how you like them outside,
then downstairs to check out, complete with essential supplies,
it took about 3 hours to travel to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok, our first stop was to visit the war graves from the death railway, this is the entrance to the cemetery,
it is hard to think that upward of 200,000 perished building the railway,
also we tend to think of mainly British soldiers who had been killed here, but as this plaque shows soldiers from all of the allied forces gave their lives to the railway,
the graves are kept in immaculate order,
this view is from the rear of the cemetery,
the focal point is this cross,
around the base there are many wreaths from relatives of the dead, some from families,
and some from organisations,
this note from an individual,
for some their bodies were placed in a communal grave,
their names listed here,
there is a permanent army of workers tending the graves,
the girls pose for a picture,
Diana in a borrowed hat,
not many people when visiting the allied war graves know that next door there is a Chinese cemetery,
again kept immaculate,
one thing out here is that there seems to be a new art form is in the shape of painted coaches, some of the designs are really eye catching, like this one,
it was then to the main tourist area,
to park up and have a spot of lunch,
the bridge itself,
the train which we will later cross the river on,
what food to order?
next to the bridge some new work was taking place, the foundations for I guess a new restaurant were being piled into the river bottom,
I spotted this in the restaurant, a slightly reworked version of events, with America and Japan starting WW 2 in 1942 then 'England' later became involved, I am sure the writer meant Great Britain and seems to forget for us WW 2 stated in 1939, or at least that is what my history master always said, I wondered where this piece of information came from,
the food arrives,
Thai food for everyone,
Steve and myself then took a walk to the station, looking towards Bangkok,
and Burma,
some of the engines have been preserved,
but never to run again I fear,
as well as the one above
there was this truck driven 'train',
6 cylinder in line engine,
this was the other engine on display,
slightly different couplings to my model train set upstairs,
I looked for the boiler plate on the first engine but could not find one but on the second engine I found this, The North British Locomotive Company, although started in 1903 this engine was made in 1919,
like it or hate it, tourists must always pay more than locals,
the through train to Bangkok arrives,
and after a brief stop leaves,
this is the offical memorial to the fallen in the construction of the death railway, it was written by the same person as the poster in the restaurant, or I should say the poster in the resturaunt was a copy of this offical version of the events,
'smile' for the camera from all of us,
a view from the bridge to the restaurant we stopped at for lunch,
all of a sudden the train appeared from the sation to take us across the bridge so it was 'all aboard!'
I was hoping for a full sized steamer, but it was a diesiel powered new train,
all comfey and off we go,
it was a bit of a bumpy ride,
the worry was that we were getting closer and closer to an unmaned level crossing with bikes seeming to cross just in time,
and cars, we were getting closer all of the time,
by now it was getting really serious, when at the last moment the driver applied the brakes and we came to a shaky stop,
then it was reverse and back over the bridge, a quick shot of one of the waterside restaurants from the train,
we had then a 2 hour or so drive to get us to Sai Yok, our home for the next few days,
the last time I visited here it was 40 baht for Thai's and 400 baht for tourists, yes 10 times more for tourists, but the government has now decided to make tourist pay only 5 times more than Thai's, so for us only 200 baht each, bargin!
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