The Bridge on the River Kwai

Getting to the site of the famous bridge is not normally easy, as you have to go from Thonburi station which is the relatively inaccessible one to the west of the city. However on a Saturday and a Sunday  a special train to the bridge, the Allied War Cemetary and the Nam Tok waterfalls leaves Hua Lampong, the main station, at 06:30 so I decided this was the best opportunity for me.

The train left on time although my reserved seat found me wedged in a unit for 3 with a fat Australian and his not much slimmer wife. But for 120Baht you can't expect luxury - or much room.

This was the train at 06:10, by 06:30 it was packed, mainly with Thai families enjoying a day out.

The first 'time to get off the train' stop occurred at some obscure little town that had a market in full swing. I treated myself to a bunch of lady finger bananas, about 15 bananas for the princely sum of 20Baht, more than enough to get me through to the lunch stop. I was bemused at to why this shabby little town was a designated stop and a stroll through it did little to enlighten me.

The train rumbled on and on with little to see but a couple of hills that I snapped for David:

And so on to:

It's not the original bridge (that was damaged beyond repair during the war) but I duly walked the length of it, with memories of the remarkable film playing in my head:

There is always someone getting in the way of your photo isn't there?

Then we rumbled on for another couple of hours before we reached the train's destination:

I'm sure that in the rainy season it's an impressive sight, but at present, after months of the dry season, I've probably seen more water coming out of my shower:

But the children were enjoying it, despite the fact that there was little water, and what there was in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall was muddy and shallow.

We spent far longer at this 'treat' than any of us had anticipated, and even getting everyone back on board was a struggle:

There were several decent views to look at on the way back:

But the train had been so slow and we'd spent such a long time at the waterfall for the benefit of the Thai families that it was announced on the way back that we wouldn't be stopping for the scheduled hour to enable us to visit the Allied War Cemetary, which was a big disappointment as that had been one of the two reasons for my trip.

And despite missing out that stop we still managed to get back to the main station 2 hours late.

Still, I had seen a lot of the countryside, I'd bought bananas at a pretty shabby town, I'd walked the length of 'The Bridge', I'd seen a pathetic waterfall, I'd failed to see one of my day's objectives, I'd spent many hours wedged against a fat Australian whilst sitting on a hard wooden seat, I'd been trapped on a train with no air conditioning for the best part of 11 hours and I'd run out of water after about 3 hours. As they say: what's not to like?