Our tour began at the Bridge on the River Kwai (แม่น้ำแดว) (pronounced “quail” but without the “l”). This picturesque bridge spans a now beautiful and serene area of the countryside. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a popular tourist destination complete with food and souvenir stalls, but is a beautiful landmark nonetheless. The iron bridge has been modified to include a walkway and several side platforms. We used these as viewpoints to overlook several restaurants on the river’s edge and a  nearby temple. The bridge also has a small train catering to tourists that slowly ran back and forth along the tracks. The best views are on the other side of the river. Here there ample shady trees and much fewer tourists.

Death Railway Museum and Research Center

Beside the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is the Death Railway Museum. We easily spent an hour exploring the various exhibits of the Thailand-Burma Railway. The museum’s founder, Rod Beattie, did a phenomenal job presenting the railway’s history. He did so through hundreds of black and white photographs of the railway and the skeletal men who built it, displays of artifacts (both tools and memorabilia of the Allied prisoners and Japanese guards), and models of the landscape, bridges, and railway path. One can only begin to understand the level of intensity demanded by the railway’s construction and the barbarity and suffering that tens of thousands of men endured. We respectfully followed the request of the museum and did not take photographs of what was inside.