Christmas in Khanchanaburi!

Over Christmas we headed to Khanchanburi!

Khanchanburi (I will refer to it as Kburi from now on as it driving my spell checker mad!) is 123 km West of Bangers, about 4 hrs on the train and is famous for the Death Railway. (If you have watched The Bridge on the River Kwai or The Railway Man - you will know they story! If not...watch em!) We decided to visit Kburi as when my Gramps was in the 2nd Word War he bombed a bridge in Thailand...on the River Kwai...and listening to all his stories over the years, we decided to visit the place he spoke about! Not the most festive place to visit over Christmas period, the Death Railway has a pretty dark history and Kburi town is dominated by a massive PoW cemetery, but was good to finally put a picture in mind of what Gramps had been talking about.

We had a brilliant train journey to Kburi...it was long, but was lovely to see the amazing views along they way - and made me fall more in love with Thailand! We were also the only Westerners (Farangs) on our carriage so were very popular with the local children who wanted to practice their English and pose for pictures with us - after endless photos with them  - I'm sure we appeared on many a Facebook page that day.

We arrived and headed straight to the Hellfire Pass - unfortunately the Museum was closed for renovations but we could still walk around and visit the pass. Hellfire pass is a section of the railway that was built on the former Burma Railway - Death Railway - It was know as the harshest section of the Railway that was built and for its 'hell-ish' conditions. It was very eerie walking through the pass, specially after recently watching The Railway Man and knowing how many PoW's suffered and died making it! It was also crazy hot and mozzie infested! 

After Hellfire we headed to our hotel for a well needed shower, delicious Thai dinner and ice-cold Chang! We sat along the river Kwai then hit Kburi town to celebrate Christmas Eve with strangers and spread the festive cheer! It was a fantastic night - we bumped into Santa and found a bar that sold shots for 10 baht (22p)! It was a very Merry Christmas Eve indeed!

On Christmas Day we awoke to presents from Santa and a delicious and well needed full English breakfast and a full fat Coke! We then headed to the PoW museum and cemetery in Kburi Town and walked along the River Kwai. We were back in Bangers in time to enjoy a lovely Christmas dinner at our local, celebrating Thai style with a green curry and chicky pad-thai!
Belated Christmas wishes to you all xx

Christmas Dinner!