Bridge Over the River Kwai

I don’t quite know how we came to the idea of visiting the site of the famous bridge, but it sounded interesting enough – and since I had seen the movie, I suppose I was interested in seeing just what it looked like now.

It turns out that the current site of the famed bridge is not the actual site of the original.  It’s close …  The current bridge is the permanent, steel and iron replacement for the original wooden bridge that was built some 100 meters upstream.  The bridge that now stands was begun concurrently with the original – the first one taking much less time and engineering effort – but a substantial toll in human life.  It turns out that of the 200,000 prisoners and conscripts that were brought to the area to build the Thai-Burmese Railway, only 100,000 survived.  Upon reflection, that was something in the nature of 8.3 thousand deaths per month. 

Our visit was simple.  Park the van and walk to the bridge.  Take some pictures and look some more.  The bridge is about 2000 meters across and the girls opted to shop rather than walk the bridge (it’s a bit narrow).  George and I decided to walk to the other side just for the adventure of it all.  Unbeknownst to us, there is a small hamlet on the other side that hosts a few trinket stands and two Indian elephants, where for 50 Bhat per bag, you can feed sugar cane to the elephants yourself.  About 20 pictures of greedy trunks later, we had exhausted our supply of cane and headed back across the bridge.  The girls got to see the pictures – we got to take them.  ‘nuff said.

The museum near the bridge is called “The Death Bridge Museum”.  (The sign says “Jeath Bridge” – but you get the idea.  The museum is a bit run-down, hokey, and ramshackle, but nonetheless heart breaking.  It’s a tribute to the 100,000 or so humans who were compelled by the Japanese to give their lives so that their empire could extend into India.  Much of the display is poorly arranged and badly preserved.  There are a few interesting displays: a pair of human skeletons, a number of bombs retrieved from the river, sundry weapons and ammo (including some very nicely preserved Lugers (were there Germans here?) Japanese rifles and pistols, and some Colt .45 model 1911s that would be very nice to have …  Among the other things that were entertaining about the display were the BSA motorcycle with the word “Japanese” painted on its side, a similarly adorned Triumph, a US M-151 Jeep with Japanese officer (dummy) driving and who-knows-what-else …

The drive up to the river is about two hours North from Bangkok.  We hired a driver and van from the hotel.  If you don’t count the charge for the occasional terrifying near misses (sugar cane trucks, tuk-tuks, and bicycles) the price – a paltry $200 or so – was well worth it.  After our visit to the bridge and museums, our driver took us to lunch at a riverside café that served us a native Thai lunch of fried rice and various concoctions of beef, shrimp, noodles, and cocoanut milk made *interesting* with the skillful addition of ginger and peppers.  The four of us and our driver dined on what seemed to be an endless supply of continually delivered food and drink (Coke from glass bottles!) and all for the sum of 520 Bhat.  (about $13 US)

As a result of the bridge’s notoriety, a small village of vendor’s stands and a couple of museums have sprung up on the Eastern side.  One may buy everything from Bridge souvenirs to knock-off designer clothing for less than half what one would pay for it in Bangkok (still a bargain).