No.36: Kanchanaburi - PoW Cemetery

Kanchanaburi War Memorial
15th August 2006

On the way to The Bridge of River Kwai (previous post), we stopped by at the Allied War Cemetery also located in Kanchanaburi, about 3 hours drive west from Bangkok. This is one of the two Cemeteries in Kanchanaburi Province.

About 7,000 PoW victims are buried there and the cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It was very moving to see the wartime photos, original PoW relics and artifacts and graphic life size displays of amputation surgery and ulcer patients undergoing treatments in the War Museum located next to the cemetary. The hardships they went through is unimaginable.

The victims buried in this cemetery are mostly of Australian, Dutch and British nationals. I had very little knowledge of the history of the Burma-Thailand railway construction other than from the movie I've seen several years back. I wasn't aware that Indians were involved in the construction of the railway. Naturally, I was quite surprised and touched to see a plaque at the main entrance to commemorate Indian war prisoners who lost their lives during the construction of the Death Railway.

The headstones bear the national emblem, rank, name, company/regiment, date of birth, age and epitaph of the fallen victims.

Rest In Peace

No.35: Bangkok - Bridge on the River Kwai

15th August 2006

Trailing the 'Death Railway' tracts built by the Prisoners of War along the River Kwai.

No.34: Bangkok - Cultural Show

18th August 2006

I went to Bangkok for 10 days during my summer holidays in 2006. As soon as I landed in the airport (old airport then), funny thing is, I felt as though I reached home. There were Mizo's everywhere, or so I thought, as we have very similar features :) Though a bit humid, the climate seems to be most agreeable with my skin which glowed with a tone I never realised possible. I toured several places and has since become my favourite place on planet-earth. I had the most amazing and exciting time of my life. I looove Bangkok! The pictures in this post were taken in a cultural show. Well...I'll stop ranting and just post pictures instead...here you go..

Just called 'Thai Bamboo Dance" I don't exactly know what it's called in Thai.

Note the looong nails. Will be great for a miewww....cat-fight :P

Too bad, my other pictures of the wedding were blurry as I sat about a few metres away and was a bit dark inside.

I remember having watched Muay Thai on TV several years back. The thought of watching it live (though on a show) never crossed my mind.