Post a pic of where you are now

[RED-DOG]

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[Kev B]

Fabulous photos Tom. Is that the bridge over the river Kwai? More info on all pics please.

[booder]

Well Jealous.  Enjoy.

[RED-DOG]

Fabulous photos Tom. Is that the bridge over the river Kwai? More info on all pics please.

OMG! I could bore everyone into a coma, I'm so wide eyed and enthusiastic when I'm travelling.

[RED-DOG]

Is that the bridge over the river Kwai?

Yes, on the Death railway. So called because countless British and Australian POWs died when they were forced to build it through virgin jungle using only hand tools.

Imagine, a railway line has to be more or less level so when they came to a hill they had to cut through it, and when they came to a ravine or a river they had to go over it. All the while fighting against disease and starvation.


Each man had to chisel out and carry away this much rock for this much rice.

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They worked day and night. One particular section went through about 4km of solid rock and was lit by flaming torches. The POWs said it was like walking into Hell and they christened it Hellfire Pass.



Look closely at the pics and you can see the chisel marks and even the end of a broken chisel in rhe rock.

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The original bridge over the river Kwai was made of wood, which then allowed the Japanese to run trains carrying heavier materials and equipment and so a new iron bridge was built alongside the wooden one.

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[RED-DOG]

Here's an interesting fact. When David Lean's film Bridge Over The River Kwai was released in 1957, lots of tourists came to see it. This caused some embarrassment because the bridge actually spanned the Mae Klong river. The the film makers had got it wrong.

The Thais solved the problem by re-naming the river, so now the bridge crosses the Kwai.

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From a distance the jungle looks pretty benign but as soon as you look closely it's teeming with plants that want to tear your flesh and creatures that want to bite or sting you.

This is a still from a video I took of a pencil sized centipede being dragged away by a column of ants.

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Apart from being starved and working to death, the POWs suffered terribly from malaria, dysentery, beriberi, cholera etc, but tropical ulcers must have been an indescribable torture.

These babies could eat an arm or a leg down to the bone in a couple of days and were often fatal.

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[Kev B]

Here's an interesting fact. When David Lean's film Bridge Over The River Kwai was released in 1957, lots of tourists came to see it. This caused some embarrassment because the bridge actually spanned the Mae Klong river. The the film makers had got it wrong.

The Thais solved the problem by re-naming the river, so now the bridge crosses the Kwai.

Didn't know that.

[RED-DOG]

More info on all pics please.

The first pic I posted is of a proper Bangkok Market. We had visited a couple of touristy ones that day but had to go to a non tourist location to find a big pharmacy that was located next to a hospital.

It turner into a nice adventure because although the pharmacy was only a couple of km away from our hotel it was on the other side of the river, quite a trek by road and tuk tuk drivers, like London cabbies, don't want to take you "Sarf of the river". This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it forced us to discover the river ferry system, its cheap, fast and very exciting. We used it a lot after that.

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[Kev B]

Is it your first visit to Bangkok? The city is very marmite, personally I love it. Do you have an itinerary you could post?

[Karabiner]

I hope that puppy in the pic you posted earlier wasn't on the menu!

Have a wonderful time - I'm sure you are

[RED-DOG]

Is it your first visit to Bangkok? The city is very marmite, personally I love it. Do you have an itinerary you could post?

Not my first visit Kev, but I was only a boy the lat time I went over 30 years ago.

I agree that Bangkok is not everyone's cup of tea but the people have a wonderful gentle manner and a smiley, non confrontational outlook. If you take the time to realise that they are mostly very poor and that we seem incredibly rich it helps a lot.

I like the hustle and bustle and the endless haggling and as long as you keep a smile on your face no one takes any offence no matter how small your offer is vs their asking price.

Pretending to faint or have a stroke is a great opening gambit.

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We don't have an itinerary for what we're going to do, we're making it up as we go along but I'll tell you a bit about what we've done so far....