Hellfire pass

25/5/11

We woke to a cool and overcast day and were overjoyed. That said James did enquire as to why I thought he was not going browner and whether I though his malaria pills were causing this. With as much tack and diplomacy that I could muster I suggested that the cause of the none browning was that we have spent the last month avoiding the sun and UV light is a important ingredient when trying to get a sun tan. This predictably was not the answer he wanted as it was not a medicalised response but en environmental cause. Moving swiftly on…
So despite the original tour office being closed yesterday we had managed to book ourselves onto an organized tour with a nice AC bus. Our first stop was a set of waterfalls that can only be described as underwhelming but as we were only allotted 30 minutes at this attraction we were not to dismayed.

1 hour later we arrived at the hellfire pass memorial museum which commemorates those who lost their life constructing the Burma- Thailand railway. The 100 KM railway line claimed the lives of 12399 allied prisoners of war and some 90,000 civilians which essentially equates to one death per meter of the track. The museum/ memorial center was a sobering place and detailed the human misery encounter by those who worked to connect Thailand to Burma. We spent one hour walking along a stretch of track and after that felt like we had heat exhaustion. One cannot imagine having to dig by had a pass though the rock or construct bridges using only the most rudimentary hand tools. If ever there was a case for adhering to the Geneva Convention this was it as this kind of forced labor is outlawed.

After this sobering visit it was lunch time and being on a tour we had 30 minutes for lunch and despite the fact that most of us had not finished chewing our last mouthful of food we were instructed to go to the toilet and then get back in the mini bus. Oh the joys or organized tours. That said it was incredible value and air conditioned so there can’t be too much moaning!

Our post lunch activity was a tip to a natural hot spa were we lounged in incredibly hot water for an hour. One pool was as hot as a bath I we would have at home. As James is pining for his bath also know as his seconded sofa he was in heaven.

Our next stop was a section of elevated tract that had been built by hand. We walked along this amazing structure marveling at how it was possible to construct something as large as this without cranes ore many tools. We wondered if the modem British person would be able to cope with such conditions or whether the British psyche would see people just lay down and die. We thought that if it came down to a option of being killed or beaten savagely our nation would probably rise to the challenge but how long we would survive was questionable.

On the matter of surviving the bridge nearly had two more facilities- us. As we were walking along the raised section down the middle of the tracks I began to think what would happen if the train that we were due to catch was early and we were on the tracks. Low and behold the train was in fact early and a casual observer would have seen us have a double take and look a little concerned. Fortunately we were not in the middle of a long section of elevated track and were able to get to the side of the track and out of harm’s way before the (admittedly very slowly moving train passed by) but even so the incident did make us think about those horrific videos that the transport police show to children to warn them about the dangers of playing on the tracks!

Once safely back at the station we boarded said train and set off along the track that claimed a life per meter. Again very sobering and a huge advertisement for pacifism and human rights.