Death Railway Train

During WWII, the Japanese occupied Thailand, Burma, and India, but their supply line to India was compromised by Allied submarines in the Indian Ocean.  To get supplies to India, they decided to build a railway from Thailand through Burma to India.  They encountered difficult terrain in western Thailand that was holding up their ability to resupply their troops in India.  Thus, they tasked their local commanders to build the railway with an incredibly unreasonable deadline.  To achieve the goal, they used allied POWs and local people, which cost over 100,000 lives because of the harsh conditions and disease.  The railway has since become known as the Death Railway and includes the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.  The train line is still open and takes passengers from Bangkok to the Namtok Station in Kanchanaburi Province.  We took this 5 hour train ride to a small town where there is a new elephant sanctuary.

This is definitely a no-frills train.  The seats were uncomfortable and it was very dusty inside since all the windows had to be open for ventilation (no A/C).

Here we're crossing the bridge over the Kwai River

Passing through Thai countryside.  Most of it was agriculture with cassava, rubber trees, and sugar cane.

Morgan wanted me to take her picture.

The train far above the river on a trestle hugging a rock cliff.  As we neared our destination, dusk was approaching and we had spectacular views of the mountains with the colors of the setting sun.  I'd love to have photos of the sunset, but the train was moving too fast to take usable low-light photos.