During World War 2, the Japanese used Allied prisoners of war to build a railway from Thailand to Burma so they could supply their army without the dangers of sending supplies by sea. Many prisoners died under appalling conditions during construction and the line became known as the 'Death Railway'. It was immortalised in David Lean's 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai which centres around one of the line's main engineering feats, the bridge across the Kwae Yai river just north of Kanchanaburi. Although the film was shot in Sri Lanka, the Bridge on the River Kwai really exists, and still carries regular local passenger trains from Bangkok as far as Nam Tok.
May 2015 | Kanchananburi, Thailand
May 2015 | Kanchananburi, Thailand