So...once again I've fallen behind, so here's another picture blog to catch up on what's we've been doing since Christmas! (actually this is just from Christmas to New Years...)Bangkok river taxis run every 15 minutes on weekdays. It's a good thing they don't only run in the morning 'cause Milo doesn't wake up until afternoon! (Or maybe he was just trying to get close to the money.) Hmm...
Mmmm...coconut milk is lovely after a wander through the temples of Bangkok.
We headed out of town to Kanchanaburi for a few days at the end of December. We stayed in a raft house hostel. It was cute and quiet and served great food! It also offered rather brilliant views of the sunset over the River Kwai.
During WWII, the Japanese used prisoners of war and local labour to build a railway through to Burma as a secure supply route. So many of the POW's and labours died because of harsh treatment by the Japanese, that it became known as the Death Railway.
This part of WWII history was made famous, of course, by the book and movie Bridge Over the River Kwai. We visited the bridge (not the one made famous by the movie—that one was destroyed by the allies only a few months after being built). It was rebuilt in the same place as the old one and, as you can see, is still used today.
Other sections of the railroad are still original though...
This was a particularly brutal section for the labourers to build as they had to cut straight through soil and solid rock with minimal equipment. It was nicknamed Hellfire Pass by the POWs because of how it looked at night by torchlight. The work teams were required to work 12-18 hour shifts in orer to finish it in 12 weeks! By the time it was finished, 70% of the POW crew (and probably equal or greater numbers of local conscripts) had died.
Bamboo rafting on the River Kwai!
Okay, that's all for 2008--the first 2009 post will be arriving soon! :)
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