Hellfire Pass

A few weeks before Christmas, Pinky and I took a road trip to Kanchanaburi Province with a colleague of hers from work. We had a nice time staying on the river in one of my favorite parts of the country, but for me, the most memorable part of the trip was our visit to the infamous "Hellfire Pass", one of the most deadly stretches of the Burmese Death Railway.

Allied POWs and captured laborers were forced to carve a cutting straight through a mountain for the infamous railroad, and thousands died. Today, it's a beautifully maintained museum and memorial run by the Australian government, and a beautiful and somber reminder of the war.

 After walking through the small visitors center, you can climb down into Konyu Cutting (AKA "Hellfire Pass") itself to see the part that the men carved without proper tools and equipment, through the mountain. The railroad ran from the Bridge on the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi town through Three Pagodas Pass and into Burma.

Now, only a short stretch of the railroad is still in use. This part has been preserved as a monument to the solders and laborers who died during the construction.

After many years of visiting Kanchanaburi, I am very happy to have finally gotten the chance to visit this museum and memorial. It's a bit far outside of the town, and hard to get to without a car. It was a wonderful and moving experience.

That night we stayed at a floating guesthouse right on the River Kwai, at a quiet district in the more remote part of the province.

It was a beautiful evening, and as always, the sunsets over the River Kwai did not disappoint!

We also paid a visit to Wat Tham Sua on our way out of town. The "Tiger Cave Temple" (it doesn't have any tigers!) is one of the biggest and most famous in Kanchanaburi. You can climb up a set of steep stairs to the top of a hill, or pay 20 baht to ride the funicular up, which was kind of fun.

The views of the surrounding countryside were spectacular!

And the temple itself was beautiful.

It was just a short trip out of town - just one day. It was a lot of fun traveling with friends! Having a car made it much easier to get around and let us see some places we otherwise couldn't have. Hopefully we can do it again soon!