Traveling along the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Hello Steemians,

Today I will talk about the Death Railway, aka the Burma Railway.

The Death Railway was a 415 kilometre (258 miles) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built by Japan in 1943, to support its forces in Burma during World War II.

More than 180,000 Southeast Asians and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war worked on the railway. Because of the harsh conditions they endured, thousands of them died during the construction, which included 6,904 British, 2,802 Australians, 2,782 Dutch, and 133 Americans.

The construction of the railway has been the subject of many novels and an award-winning film, the Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Most recently, Richard Flanagan's 2013 book (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), winner of the 2014 Man Booker Award, and the Railway Man (2013) (film starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth), depicted the conditions and suffering endured by the workers of the Death Railway (1).

I visited Kanchanaburi, the Thai province in which the bridge is located, in July 2008. It also hosts a cemetery, where most of these POWs were buried, the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.

The Bridge over the River Kwai

Reminders of war

I went there on a guided tour. After we walked along the bridge, we boarded the train that would take us for a ride along the Death Railway. One could see, high up in the mountains, the tropical forests of Thailand, in which apparently roamed tigers. I wouldn't think there are any left now in the wild.

Views from the train

Inside of the train

And we all pop our heads out of the windows

We reach a narrow point, when the train slows down. The tunnel through which the train is driving now was dug by the prisoners.

The train slows down

After that narrow point the train picks up speed, and the views are lovely. The sun is not out, but I can still get pictures. A beautiful ride along the river.