Remember the movie?

We surely do so we decided to visit the bridge taking no more and no less – a  train 🚂 Adventure!

We took the 8 am train on Sunday that departs on the weekends from the Thonburi station on the other side of the river.

The bridge on the Khwae River is located some 80 miles from Bangkok, and the train runs for about 3 hours through the fields and the Thai “jungle” and in case you get hungry, there are several sellers passing by with some snacks, fruit and drinks.

Since Thailand has never been colonized, that meant it could be neutral during the WWII. Well, at least until the Japanese occupation in 1941. The pressure was due to Japan’s desire to conquer the British Malaya and Burma, that was possible only through Thailand.

In the autumn of 1942, the Japanese signed an agreement with the Thai government on the construction of a railway from Thailand to Burma, with the intent for the safe and (relatively) rapid supply for their warriors in Burma. They used allied captives for their plan, but many of them lost their lives during the construction.

The total length of the railroad was 415 kilometers, passing through some extreme inaccessible terrain. Jungle, mountains, heat, humidity, insects, wild beasts and the poor diet of the prisoners working on the railway was a deadly combination. Over hundred thousand forcibly wounded Asian workers and 12 000 prisoners of war died in the construction of the Death Railway.

The bridge was built some three miles from Kanchanaburi, because of the good soil and ground composition, but to speed up the process, they have built a wooden bridge some 100 yards from the metal bridge.

The temporary wooden bridge was built in three months and was used as a helping bridge during the construction of the metal one, that was done in summer of 1943.

The steel and concrete bridge was made up of eleven curved-truss bridge spans which the Japanese builders brought over from Java in the Dutch East Indies. There rest of this 328 yard long bridge was made from wood.

During the WWII the railway was heavily bombarded several times and after the war the Allies sold it to the Thai Railways.

Most of it was partly destroyed in the Allied bombing, and the reparation work afterwards was made by a Japanese company. What goes around, comes around, right?

The new railway line did not fully connect with the Burmese railroad network, but the Thai part of the railway is fully functional today and the bridge is the main tourist attraction.

The movie of the same name is a 1957 British-American epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï by Pierre Boulle.

Boulle was an engineer serving as a secret agent in Singapore, when he was captured and subjected to two years’ forced labor. He used these experiences when writing the novel, but since he was situated in the eastern part of the country, he didn’t quite know where the bridge was. He only knew that the Death railway was parallel to the Khwae river so he assumed the bridge should be next to it. The bridge was actually crossing the Mae Klong river.

After the movie came out, thousands of tourist came to search for the bridge over the river Kwae, only to find out non of it was there. First of all, the original bridge was partially destroyed in the WWII bombarding and the river had a different name. So, the Thai government decided to rename that particular part of the river to river Khwae. Like it was a big deal anyway 🙂

Another bizarre thing regarding the Khwae bridge is; the movie was filmed in – Sri Lanka, and the construction of the wooden bridge lasted two months more than the construction of the original bridge. Pretty heavy, when you think of it, right?

Nevertheless, the trip to the bridge is a great one day trip if not for the historical part, then for the train ride experience through Thai countryside.

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MOST NA RIJECI KWAI

Sjećate se filma?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFMmJMNRv-Q

Sjetili smo ga se i mi, pa smo ga odlučili posjetiti. Vlakom. Putničkim vlakom koji je u 8 ujutro kretao s Thonburi stanice, koja se nalazi s druge strane rijeke.

Thonburi četvrt nalazi se na desnoj obali rijeke Chao Praya, a za vrijeme Ayutthayinog kraljevanja ovaj prostor bio je snažno vojno uporište. Kad su Burmejci porazili Ayutthayu, general Taksin utemeljio je Thonburi kraljevstvo i sebe stavio za kralja. Naravno. Desetak godina kasnije, kralj Rama I, premješta kraljevski grad na drugu obalu i utemeljuje Bangkok.

Do 130 km udaljenog mosta vlak vozi oko 3 sata kroz polja, zelenilo i tajlandsku ”džunglu”, a u slučaju da ogladnite svako malo pored vas prođe prodavač/-ica noseći košaru punu svježeg voća, ražnjića, grickalica ili sokova.

Budući nikad nije bio dijelom nekog imperijalističkog carstva, Tajland je mogao biti neutralan za vrijeme drugog svjetskog rata. Barem dok ga Japan nije napao 1941. Pritisak je nastao zbog japanske želje za osvajanjem britanske Malaje i Burme, što je bilo moguće isključivo kroz Tajland. Japanci su Tajlanđanima obećali nešto izgubljenog teritorija (Laos, Kambođa, Mijanmar) u slučaju suradnje, tako da je Tajland vrlo brzo stao na stranu država Sile Osovine.

U jesen 1942 godine Japanci su potpisali ugovor s tajlandskom vladom o gradnji željeznice od Tajlanda do Burme, s namjerom da sigurno i (relativno) brzo snabdiju svoje ratnike i zauzmu Burmu. Za svoj plan iskoristili su savezničke zarobljenike od kojih je velik broj izgubio živote za vrijeme izgradnje željeznice.

Ukupna dužina željezničke pruge bila je 415 kilometara, s tim da je teren kojim je prolazila bio izuzetno nepristupačan. Džungla, planine, vrućina, sparina, insekti, divlje zvijeri, loša ishrana zarobljenika doveli su do brojke od gotovo sto tisuća prisilno unovačenih azijskih radnika i 12 tisuća ratnih zarobljenika koji su umrli pri izgradnji Željeznice smrti (Death Railway).

Za gradnju mosta Japanci su izabrali malo selo nekih pet kilometara od Kanchanaburija zbog dobrog sastava tla gdje su ga odlučili postaviti, a da bi ubrzali gradnju naredili su izgradnju privremenog drvenog mosta stotinjak metara od metalnog.

Drveni most, čija je gradnja trajala tri mjeseca, služio je za prijevoz materijala pri gradnji metalnog mosta koji je dovršen u ljeto 1943. godine.

Tristo metara dugi most sastojao se od 11 željenih lukova dok je ostatak bio od drveta.

Za vrijeme rata željeznica je nekoliko puta bombardirana i oštećena, da bi ju Saveznici, nakon japanske kapitulacije prodali u staro željezo.

Most je dijelom uništen u savezničkom bombardiranju, a kako to obično bude sve se vraća, sve se plaća, radove popravka izvršila je japanska tvrtka. Za kaznu.

Film Most na rijeci Kwai snimljen je prema noveli francuskog književnika Pierre Boullea (napisao roman Planet majmuna) koja je nastala prema Boulleovim sjećanjima dok je bio ratni zatvorenik u Tajlandu. Boulle je bio smješten na istočnom dijelu zemlje, tako da nikad nije bio blizu mosta iz svoje knjige, ali znao je da Željeznica smrti ide paralelno uz rijeku Kwai, pa je pretpostavio da i most leži na istoj. Ono što nije znao jest da je most prelazio zapravo rijeku Mae Klong.

Nakon istoimenog filma iz 1957. godine tisuće turista dolazilo je u potragu za mostom na rijeci Kwai, da bi saznali da nema ni jednog ni drugog. Pravi most je dijelom bio uništen u bombardiranju, a niti rijeka se ne zove isto kao u filmu. Da bi doskočila ovom malom nesporazumu, vlada Tajlanda odlučila je dio rijeke Mae Klong oko mosta preimenovati u – rijeku Kwai. Tak svejedno kak se zove zar ne?

 

Još bizarnija stvar jest da je film sniman – na Šri Lanci, a gradnja filmskog drvenog most, koji je tada koštao preko četvrt milijuna dolara, trajala je dva mjeseca više nego gradnja pravog mosta. Pa si sad ti misli, što je stvarnost, a što imaginacija 🙂

Kako god, sjajan izlet, ako ništa drugo, a ono zbog iskustva vožnje vlakom kroz tajlandska sela i gradove.