Death Railway Train

During WWII, the Japanese occupied Thailand, Burma, and India, but their supply line to India was compromised by Allied submarines in the Indian Ocean.  To get supplies to India, they decided to build a railway from Thailand through Burma to India.  They encountered difficult terrain in western Thailand that was holding up their ability to resupply their troops in India.  Thus, they tasked their local commanders to build the railway with an incredibly unreasonable deadline.  To achieve the goal, they used allied POWs and local conscripts, which cost over 100,000 lives because of the harsh conditions and disease.  The railway has since become known as the Death Railway and includes the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.  The train line is still open and takes passengers from Bangkok to the Namtok Station in Kanchanaburi Province.  We took this 5 hour train ride to a small town where there is an elephant sanctuary.

We're waiting for the train after getting lunch at 7-11.  If we only knew that the restaurants in the area were going to open at noon...

This is the Thon Buri train station on the west side of Bangkok.  It's a small station with only a few lines going to less in-demand destinations.

The cars are open seating with fans on the ceiling, many of which are functional.

We went through quite a bit of urban area on through the outskirts of Bangkok and then finally broke out into more rural areas.

Here is one of the walls cut out of the rock by the POWs in the 1940s.

More rural countryside.

Mae Kwae, incorrectly known by the movie as the River Kwai.

This is a pretty famous scary trestle supporting the rails.

That's Hanna taking in the view through the open windows.

We had some beautiful sunset vistas as we continued westward.