Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Hellfire Pass

Today I went to Hellfire Pass, 80km closer to the Burma/Myanmar border. It was the longest cutting along the 'Death Railway' and lots of the POW's died there, but also a lot of the Malaysian workers who came for work also died but they are undocumented. The

Museum and the general overall improvements on access was a joint Australian-Thai government thing, there's a plaque on the wall of the museum that said John Howard was there to officially open it.

Here's all the details in photo form so I don't have to write it out. Also there's a reflection of me!
And here's some more info if you want to read up on it too.

Walkway to the cutting along the railbed.

This is a bit of the original railway, but as the plaque below explains it was put there in 2006.

See, it explains it. Also looks like visitors from Melbourne have been here.

The cutting. It's a lot longer and taller than it looks in the photo.

A broken drill bit.

A memorial at one end of the cutting

The little crosses at the bottom.

After the cutting the trail continues, this is where there would have been a bridge however.

The view over Kwae Noi valley. With virtual GND applied.

The monument at one end of the cutting.

Looking down on the cutting.

The stairs out. There were many more of these than I would have liked. This was also the long way out which I accidently took.
I'm staying in Kanchanaburi for an extra two nights. I looked at the map and realised I had traveled half the country in ten days, I've got 30 days to get to Laos so I'll waste more time here looking at the museums (and drinking beer).

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