Landlord drove me around a couple of places today, for a price. Bit expensive but as we are out of the way it is to be expected as not much in the way of transport.. Grab/Uber does not extend to here. There is a local bus that would get me to Hellfire Pass but only runs every hour or so. I saw a couple on the road and they always looked packed anyway.
First stop was Hellfire Pass, Kunya cutting, the deepest and longest cutting on the death railway. All cut out of the jungle and granite rock by hand. The prisoners of war and asian labourers worked upto 18 hours a day, at night they used oil lamps and bamboo fires for lighting. The light and the noise from constant hammering, drilling and dynamting the rock seemed like a living image of hell. Hence the name Hellfire Pass.
There is a small museum and an audio guide you can listen to as you move down the pass. It is actually a nice place to visit, beautiful scenery. But for the prisoners suffering from malaria, malnutrition, daily beatings, the heat, monsoon rains, mosquitoes, wasps and other nasty things it would have been hell.
The photo of the rocks and a bowl is the amount of rock each person was meant to move in a day, the bowl contained the daily ration of rice granted by the Japanese to the prisoners, about 370 grams if memory serves. Measure it out and see if you could survive 18 hour work days.
There was a touching photo placed at the cutting of Signalman Jack Thompson, he was in the Royal Corps of Signals. Had a google and he was from Bury and was 22 when he died there in 1943. Nothing to say who placed the photo or any further info about his sister Elsie.
It is Anzac day on 25/4, Australia and New Zealand rememberance day, they have a dawn ceremony here on that day. They light the pass with candles.The Aussies/NZ forces were having a practice when I was there. Sorry about the sound, didn’t turn it down
Not sure how far down into the valley we were but it was quite a drag going back up the stairs, but there wouldn’t have been stairs for the prisoners and they would have had to drag themselves there and back under harsh conditions. So stop moaning Bri and get on with it.
Second stop was the Lawa cave, not sure why I decided on this as the last time I visited a cave it did not go too well.
Truth be known my current body type is not built for caves. True to form this cave was up a steep hill by stairs for about 200 metres, hot and sweaty, but it was not such hard going as the Vietnam one. Had an entrance fee as it is in the national park which was bit steep at 300 baht – £7.24 – but you get a guide with that. It is a school holiday so the guides were all kids about 10 or 11 years old…. they move faster uphill than I do.
Once you get in the cave the first “room” is a Budha shrine.
The next room is where most of the bats seem to hang around, even if you couldn’t see them by the light you would smell them. Very pungent, need smello vision to do it justice. There are thousands, the floor and the hand rails for the stairs are covered in Bat do do.
The rest of the photos didn’t come out very well, the only other visitors were a family. Didn’t realise until I got outside that the lady was actually carrying a baby in a papoose on her chest as well as a backpack. No idea how she managed, dad was obviously in charge of taking the photos and showing their other kid what to look out for.
The boy in blue was my guide, he was a bit shy about having his photo taken but managed to get him when he was playing the organ,
Not really got a clue what the stuff is but I can remember there was a dog and a monkey.
This was a crocodile
All in all it went better than the last cave visit, I only banged my head once and fell down once. An outstanding achievement of which I am very proud. Although it was a spectacular fall and I ended up with a sore knee and back…. wasn’t helped by the guide deciding to turn into a comedian and saying “mind your step” before bursting into a girly giggle. He was a good lad though so still gave him a tip
Go with Brian 