Hey Hive! Today I’ll show you the last bit of Kanchanaburi - the Death Railway. This was actually the first place we stopped by before going to the rafts. It is a place holding great historical value and many tragic memories.

Death Railway

The Burma Railway or also known as “The Death Railway” is 415km long, connecting Burma to Thailand. It was built between 1942-1943 by the Empire of Japan to supply weapons to the Burma campaign of World War 2. It gets its infamous name from the deaths surrounding it’s construction - over 100 000 laborers lost their lives during it’s 16 month construction.

There is a resort built under the railway now, on the opposite side of the river. Once we parked we had to pass by it and get on the rails. The day we visited was a Saturday on a bank holiday weekend and the place was a bit crowded. We arrived midday at around 12 o’clock so it was pretty hot as well. (Really regretted dressing all black)

The very first bit of the rails is hanging high above the river. There’s no secure walls or fences, you just walk in the middle of it or you fall.. 😄 Occasionally had to jump out to let people that are walking in the opposite direction through. The middle part you step on is supported by some pretty old metal plates that weren’t giving me much confidence but seemed strong enough to support all of the people walking through each day.

The scenery changes a bit after a few curves. The rail road leads you through solid ground for a while and wraps around a pretty big cliff. Until you reach the end you go through another unsecured area through the rails.

Right before the end there is a little viewpoint. It’s a nice place to stop, rest and take some nice photos, but it gets crowded really quick.

This is the only photo I have from the viewpoint. Had to wait under the sun for like 15 min to take one photo becuase people would just hang about right infront. In the end the photo didn't turn out very good.. but oh well.

Finally we reached a cave made into a Buddhist shrine. Here we did something that was a first for me. There was this wooden cup filled with numbered wooden picks inside. They were half hanging out the cup and you would yank it until one of them falls out. The number on it brings a “prophecy”. All of these you could read on a board right at the entrance.

Pretty convenient that we got two numbers next to each other. Mine was 22 and Nat's was 23.Some of the wishes were oddly specific and strange for a foreigner, but mine was a good one.

Past the cave there is a small market and food area. I was melting already so I had a really needed ice cream.

We swapped places on the way back and Nat was the one taking the photos. Here are some shots with me in the frame as well.

So i really wanted to take a shot from a far at one of the high curves on the rails. As I was going Nat started shouting behind me. “Train! Run!”. Turns out there is an actual train going through this way two to three times a day. And it happened to be when we were at the part which wouldn’t allow us to just hop on the side. We did the one thing we could do.. Run! 😄

Fortunately the train goes really slow through this area and we even managed to take some nice photos of it coming our way.

If it wasn’t for the train we would’ve maybe had a few more good shots but now we have photos of the train itself. I wanted to get the drone out and take some videos and photos with it but we were running so late that we really had to leave and get to the pier that led to our hotel.
This is the last place I have for you from our trip to Kanchanaburi. Hope you liked the photos and stories. I just came back from another small trip that brought quite a lot of exciting content to share. Can’t wait to dig in all the photos from the camera myself! Keep an eye for that one and have an amazing start of the week meanwhile!