Hellfire Pass Kanchanaburi

Monday, 27th April 2009 we drove up to Hell Fire Pass in Kanchanaburi Province, about one hour west of Kanchanaburi proper on the road to Myanmar. Hell Fire Pass is of course the real story of The Bridge on the River Kwai and there is an outstanding museum and walking trail under the management of Australia’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

In fact I would go so far as to say the museum is probably the best of its kind in Thailand. Unfortunately it closes at 16.00h and we got there with 15 minutes remaining. However there are excellent displays written in perfect, simple English and Thai and they provide excellent information about the horror of the Burma Railway.

The curator is an Australian, William, I think, and clearly he is in the right job. He oozes enthusiasm for the place and could hardly have been more helpful. We nipped round briefly and in my few minutes I learned that 12,900 Allied prisoners died building the railway.

From the museum we walked down to the rail bed, now disused, and spent about 30 minutes in the cutting, locally known as Konya but in English known as Hell Fire. It's possible to walk the 150 yards or so of the cutting, which is big enough for a train to pass through and probably has a depth of 60 feet in places. The mind boggles at how the prisoners could have worked in the heat, add in insects like malarial mosquitos and other creepy crawlies, plus malnutrition, exhaustion and sickness. I can understand the reasons why some of the Burma Star veterans I knew in the UK remained so full of hatred for anything Japanese.

There are modern stairs, presumably complying to western standards of health of safety, which lead down to the rail bed so it is possible to walk the length of the cutting and indeed to walk a significant number of kilometres along what was the railway's route. It is sombre and wholly different in character from the beer and girlie experience available in Kanchanaburi town, where there is also a sound and light show which is rather an insult to the memory of the many people who suffered as a result of the Burma railway. The Hell Fire Pass is definitely recommended and worth the effort. Moreover the surrounding area is spectacular......forest, lakes and mountains, a bit like Scotland except it is boiling hot!