Death railway

After a couple of days relaxing in Bangkok, it was time to get back on the tourist trail....so decided to go on a 12 hour tour to Kanchanaburi where the infamous death railway is located, you know the one ....bridge over the river Kwai.

01 Bridge over the river Kwai

The trouble was that it was 6 hours in a mini bus with a driver who thought he was on a race track and with a death wish !! in fact, everyone on the road seemed to have the same desire.

The old wooden bridge on the river was removed some years ago as it was too low for boats, but the metal bridge is still there and being used....in fact, we went on a train journey as part of the day over one of the sections.

02 Remains of old bridge

We thought the whole tour was badly done.....there was a distinct lack of respect for the historical significance & loss of life that occurred, not just to POW's but 100,000 Malay people.....far too many pics being taken in the war graves.

The afternoon was no better, we thought we were going to see tigers in a sanctuary run by monks.....but it was really a tourist zoo.....and the tigers looked decidedly docile...we were convinced they were drugged up, probably due to the fact that a Thai child was mauled while having thier photo taken some time ago...decided ot to queue up to have photo taken holding tigers head !

So all in all, we got back feeling ripped off & concerned for the days ahead as we had booked more excursions !! 

03 Lunch by the river

04 Docile tiger