The Funky Site

Our first request was the JEATH War Museum, standing for Japanese, English, Australian, American, Thai and Holland, the countries involved in the war in Thailand..A collection of newspaper cuttings, artwork and war artefacts described conditions in the POW camps along with torture methods - the film seems romantic in contrast to actual events here. The POW's were forced to work on the rail link between Thailand and Burma, now known as the Death railway due to the high number of deaths during its construction. It is estimated that for most of its length one soldier died per sleeper on the track.

From here we were driven to a field apparently in the middle of nowhere but which our guide insisted was a station on the Death railway, the railway line built by POW's. Our guide departed advising that we thumb down the train, leaving our group wondering if we'd been abandoned. Ten minutes later a train came into view and indeed we did stick out a thumb! This is definately one improvement which British Rail should consider! The train journey took us all the way back to Kanchanaburi and over the infamous bridge although due to darkness we were unable to really see much of it.

The following day we took a day trip with our hotel, C&C Guesthouse, to the Erewan National Park. Within this park is a long waterfall with seven distinct stages which take around one hour to climb. It's a well worn path and was popular even midweek although not everyone made it to the top, involving as it did a bit of rough climbing and getting your feet wet. Stage two is the biggest with space to swim (see photo) but watch out - the fish are out to get you! No really, they are. This pool if full of many hundred fish, all of which will eat any old flesh straight off your body. It tickles more than being painful, and it's fish like these that soldiers relied on in the POW camps to clean their wounds. The fish aren't afraid of people at all, you could wade into the middle of a group and apart from avoiding grasping hands they'd quite happily swim around you.