This area is famous – perhaps infamous – for its role in World War II when the Japanese used forced labor to build the Thai-Burma railway.
We were picked up by van, then bus from Bangkok and traveled about an hour and a half before stopping to transfer to the little high-speed longtail boats that they call the James Bond boat because they were used in a James Bond movie.
It was especially dramatic to get our first view of the famous ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ from the boat and by passing under the bridge itself.
After walking over the bridge we went to see the war museum. There was great history and information about the building of the bridge. Much of it made us cry – we were especially affected by the optimism – the things the soldiers did to help the war effort and one another.
After the museum we visited the cemetery. When the war was over the bodies were recovered from the various grave-sites throughout the jungle and buried in this cemetery in town, the land was dedicated by the town for this purpose. Families of the soldiers put epitaphs and some of them were hard to bear.
