A couple of hours from Bangkok in western Thailand, Kanchanaburi province holds a more sombre message than most Thai tourist destinations. While nowadays it boasts a thriving backpacker scene, Kanchanaburi town is steeped in the gruelling history of the Death Railway, and is home to the Bridge on the River Kwai. Of all the remnants of war history in Thailand today, those in Kanchanaburi – less than a three-hour drive west of Bangkok – are probably the most well-known, significant and poignant. Subsequent to their invasion, with unfettered access to and the use of Siam’s infrastructure, Japan sought to create a transport route through Siam into Burma, which it also occupied between 1942 and 1944, in order to reduce its reliance on sea transport and facilitate onward moves into India.

This took the form of the now infamous Death Railway, constructed by the Japanese using the forced labour of hundreds of thousands of civilians from southeast Asia and prisoners of war from the Allies’ forces. These soldiers – relocated from camps in Singapore and elsewhere – were principally from the UK and its colony in India, the Netherlands and its Dutch East Indies colony and  Australia,

The Death Railway earned its name from the sheer number of lives lost during its construction, including that of "Railway Bridge number 277" in June 1943, to having the track crossing the Khwae Noi River.

 Estimates vary but, of more than 60,000 prisoners of war enslaved on the Death Railway, almost 13,000 are believed to have died, This figure was topped up by 90,000 southeast Asian civilian forced labourers.


At indescribable human cost, Japan’s Death Railway – in fact the most famous of a total of four that the Japanese used forced labour to build around this time – was completed in October 1943. For a time it was operational, although damage caused by British and American air raids rendered it unusable in June 1945. Following the railway’s completion, many of the prisoners of war who worked on it were taken to Japan.

It wasn’t until the war’s end in 1945 that Allied forces liberated the Death Railway’s remaining prisoners. The railway itself was fully closed in 1947. That section to the Siam-Burma border, with track not destroyed by bombing was ripped up in an effort to put the railway irreversibly beyond use.

For this page on the Bridge Over River Kwai, it is done in 3 parts.

Part1 - Our visit on April 28th, 1996

1. The River Kwai

Years ago these were the road side stall that offered 2 major products - sweeping brooms made out of plants and Deep fried Bananas Chips

2. Restaurant & Children playing

The thatched stalls - all selling identical products

3. Fruit stalls along River Bank

Here are the display - deep fried bananas chip is all types of profiles and sizes

4. Fruit stalls along River Bank -

Jackie Souvenir

6. The River Kwai

In the midst of a sugar cane bush - nothing mentioned in today's publicity. Those day sugar refineries was big business here.

7. The River Kwai

Another model - same picture

8. The River Kwai

This is Tambon Ang Thong site. Dozens of stalls selling fresh bananas (ripe or green), fried bananas, bananas baked in honey, and rattan products. Oh! the brooms were still on offer and complete bunches of ripened Bananas - some not so ripened yet. Same scene as picture No.1 but different era.

9. The River Kwai

A repeat from the intro above - Kamphaeng Phet is a "banana capital". Its local speciality are "egg bananas-in khaiin Thai), whose fruit are only about 10 centimetres (4 inches) long, almost oval shaped (hence the name) and much more aromatic then the run-of-the-mill long, bent banana varieties sold in most non-tropical countries. re out, the species of Bananas

10. The River Kwai

Very much unlike us where we would offered almost ripened Bananas in combs. Here Fully ripened in Bunch: Kamphaeng Phet province depended on  bananas as a cash crop. Take years to generate this level of income in the province. No less than 300 million were planted and the plant was a symbol of the province province A good publicity  and at festivals, bananas are featured as part of the October month long festival - Sart Thai Muang Kamphaeng Phet, People love the taste of this sweet and tender choice. Not all the bananas. e.g species Sea is not considered hard core. Then the Thais  created the banana mixture to taste like delicious food. Overall the public consumption of fresh fruit in fruiting season.

The "Chakungrao Grass Jelly" A speciality from this provinces

22. The Touristy River Kwai Bridge

22. The Touristy River Kwai Bridge

22. The Touristy River Kwai Bridge