Visit to Kanchanaburi
My father has been out to stay with me on an extended visit since the end of August which has been a very special time for me, the more so because earlier this year he was very poorly and I didn’t think he would pull through and also because he had stated categorically that once he reached his mid seventies he wasn’t going to make any more long haul flights as they were too debilitating. The human spirit is indomitable!! He has recovered to full health and here he is in Thailand, at 83 years young, that’s quite an achievement.
My father is a veteran of World War II, and I thought that he would be interested in a look back at history so we decided to visit the Bridge over the River Kwai at Kanchanaburi and the war cemeteries there. I arranged for transport to take us up there and for us to take the train up to Namtok, the end of the line. This journey would prove especially poignant for my father as he is Dutch and so many soldiers from the Netherlands were conscripted by the Japanese to work on the railway along with their British and Australian compatriots. The Dutch were out in Java, part of what was the Dutch East Indies.
We started out on the train, which was running an hour late ( this is Thailand ) for the two hour journey in the Executive Class of the train. There are no windows but you do get drinks, a snack, cold towels and a toilet! Dad was approached by a gentleman in a smart safari suit who asked if he might join us. He was in fact Mr Rod Beattie who is the Director of Research for the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, the museum directly opposite the war cemetery.
He had obviously spotted in my father a man of advanced years and was curious about our visit. He had my father tell him about his war time experiences in German occupied Holland. My father and all the young boys of his village were rounded up for helping a young British pilot whose plane had grounded in their tomato beds. Their punishment was to be shipped to a concentration camp. Fortunately being young and daring he escaped to Switzerland and after being wounded by gunshot found his way back to Britain to recover. He finally joined the Royal Dutch Free Army but in fact never returned to fight as the war ended.
Rod had a party of young Australians with him visiting the site of a POW camp along the banks of the River Kwai. He introduced my father as a living specimen of history, which indeed he is! They were all very respectful and my father indeed felt like a celebrity which was wonderful.
The train journey is very memorable especially when you realize that you travel for nearly 2 hours and every sleeper that you cross represents a man’s life. A number of the original trestle bridges have been preserved, the train moves very slowly over them.
We went on to look at the Hell Fire Pass Memorial run by another Australian, Bill who again realized the age and experiences of Dad and made him feel important. We didn’t attempt to take the 4 kilometer walk down to Hell Fire Pass, but it is a very moving place should you venture up there, the spirits of all those who died there still present. We spent the night in a hotel called the River Kwai Village set on the banks of the river in spectacular grounds.
The following day we left early so that my father could visit the War Cemetery, so many young Dutch men are buried there, it is always very moving to go and look at the names and see how young they all are. The cemetery is beautifully maintained by the War Graves Commission, so many families come to find a relative, there are registers kept, although not on site, for those interested.
We went on to look at the Thailand-Burma Railway Museum. It is a very comprehensive, well laid out museum, well worth a visit. My father spent a long time looking at all the exhibits, although not in the Asian Arena himself, his wartime memories were all re-lived.
Our final call was the floating restaurant right on the Kwai, overlooking the bridge itself. It is a very dramatic sight, especially if you walk over it or you can watch the train cross it. Every year in November they have a special Sound & Light show over the bridge to commemorate its role in WWII.
Our two day journey was coming to an end, we returned to Bangkok by car, dad was genuinely pleased with everything he had seen and for me it was a pleasure to see others respect him for his experiences of over 60 years ago.
