Bangkok - Kanchanaburi (day 4)

In good spirits I got out of bed, this time my dad got some breakfast at the 7-Eleven. I could just sit down at the dining table, such a luxury! After breakfast, I packed up my luggage again, and we checked out of the hotel. Downstairs the taxi (that we ordered already yesterday) was already waiting, so we could just hop in and continue our way to our next stop: Kanchanaburi! This location is famous for the 'Bridge Over The River Kwai', a railway bridge which was constructed during WWII and led to India, via Myanmar (at that time called Burma). More about that later on... The taxi ride to Kanchanaburi approximately took 2.5 hours, where we also had a short stop for the toilet, and also we bought some things to eat and drink.

Upon arrival at the guest house we weren't able to check in yet, that's possible from 14:00 PM. But we were able to drop our luggage at the reception, and we got an explanation about the map that we could take with us. Then we walked a bit, first to find a place to have some lunch. After lunch, we went to the JEATH Museum (JEATH is short for Japan, England, America, Thailand and Holland. These are involved at the construction of the railway, it's also a reference to the word 'death' by the way). In this open air museum there is a reconstruction of a prisoner of war barrack, in there are displays of pictures and newspaper articles from / about that period. After this we walked back to the guest house where we now can check in and after that we ordered a tuktuk, when that arrived we could hop in, and then we drove to the bridge. After about  20 minutes we arrived at the spot and I immediately noticed that the bridge is smaller than I thought it would be. My guess was that it was a big and high bridge, but that wasn't the case even though it's still quite a long bridge. Nonetheless, still a nice bridge to see. Even though this is actually a replica, because the original bridge (which was made entirely of wood, unlike the current bridge) was destroyed. The bridge over the river Kwai was built during WWII by the Americans, British, Australian, Dutch and Thai prisoners of war under forced labor by the Japanese rulers and under miserable conditions. For example the P.O.W. (=prisoners of war) got only rice with some salt to eat, and they needed to work hard, otherwise you would get tortured. Furthermore, there are diseases like cholera and P.O.W had to face blisters covering their whole body during work. We also crossed the bridge (you are able to do so, even though there is still a train crossing the bridge a couple of times a day. Unfortunately we weren't that lucky to witness that.). On the other side of the bridge we saw a water monitor swimming in the river, along the shore. Once back we went to the nearby War Museum. Here you will find old vehicles, weapons etcetera of the Japanese but also from the allies. The museum wasn't that much, although there are some interesting artifacts between them. But the most imposing was an original steam locomotive used by the Japanese, this was located at the entrance... ? Next we walked some kilometers to one of the two War cemeteries, here's also a section with killed Dutch army men. After seeing this it was already time for dinner. Across the cemetery we had dinner at Bicycle Café. Here you can eat a delicious burger and the owner (who has an American wife) is also very friendly. So absolutely recommended! ? After dinner we walked back to the guest house, which was still about half an hour walking. In the lobby we had another drink, and we already booked the hotel for our next stop ahead, where we will go to the day after tomorrow.

Day 3

Day 5