We first went to see some waterfalls in 'Erawan National Park'. It was about 2 hours drive from Kan, but when we got there, it was well worth it..
There were at 7 levels and at level 5 and level 2 you could go for a swim, so we bought our swimwear..
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Each waterfall had fish which rasp at your skin and apparently remove the dead stuff... 'fish spas' in thailand use these fish (you sit with your feet in a tank).. the big ones feel pretty uncomfortable when they rasp at you and i couldn't stay in for long, but these 2 dutch ladies i met couldn't get enough of it... :
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This was the level 5 pool and was the best. I went for a dip with these Finnish guys and girls here..
Next we went to 'Hellfire Pass'.
When the Japanese took over Malaya, Singapore and Dutch East Indies in the Second World War, they found their advance was so rapid that their supply lines became stretched. Sea routes were open to attack from allied submarines & destroyers, so they decided to build a railway across land to connect the ports in Burma to Kanchanaburi in Thailand.
With plenty of British, Australian (and Kiwi?) POWs from their rapid advance, and indentured labourers and their families (incl women and children) from Asian countries (India, Burma, thailand), they decided to use forced labour to build the railway quickly. The railway which engineers say should have taken 5 years was built in 16 months.
Even though they had signed the precursor to the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners, the Japanese and especially Korean guards treated the prisoners in a very brutal way. Prisoners died of malnutrition, over work, Malaria, dysentery and beatings. As the death toll started affecting the work rate, patients from the makeshift hospitals were forced to work and often died very quickly. The POW doctors tried their best to prevent this & often received beatings as a result.
It's not well publicised that though something like 20,000 allied POWs died building the railway, 90,000 asian labourers and their families (incl children !!!!) died.
Hellfire pass was the most infamous part of the railway. This part of the railway had to be cut into sheer rock using basic manual core drills and hammers and then dynamite at lower points. The railway was behind schedule and so the prisoners were made to faster and work late into the night ('Speedo' as the Japanese called it..) The eerie torch lights at night time and the silouhettes of malnourished prisoners as they quarried into this rock, gave rise to the name 'Hellfire Pass'...
When i came out of the Memorial museum, i felt like beating up a few Japanese, but you have to realise, this was all in the past...
The second photo shows 2 of the Finish group - we all crawled through the hole in the tree stump in the background...its said to give you a long life.. (which i need, having led the life i've led!!!)
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Memorials to those who died .. even more poignant as it was Anzac day 3 days later...
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Next we had a ride on the Thai-Burma railway for a short distance, which wasn't spectacular to be honest...and lastly visited the bridge over the River Kwai.
It was a bit of an anti-climax. Not much of the original wooden bridge remained and it had become a real tourist trap....but i'm glad I saw it...
Hi Chan
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather, Piet Lugt was a prisoner of the Japanese in the 2nd World War - and worked on that railway line. Thankfully he survived (and was repatriated by the Red Cross a year after the war ended), but never forgave the Japanese.
Hi Rob,
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in this part of history and learnt quite a bit on this trip. I couldn't put it all down on the blog. The Memorial museum was really informative. I'm sure your grandfather had lots of very interesting but harrowing first hand accounts from this period...