Like a bridge over troubled water...

Well, thankfully no crappy song, the original or the Australian idol copy, but a trip out to see the bridge over the river Kwai. The purpose of this site is not to be educational, at least on my behalf, so if you don't know the significance of the bridge, watch the movie. Actually, that's not very nice on my behalf so I'll tell you what I know. This area of Thailand was a key section for the Japanese to move across Thailand to get to other countries, (I think maybe Burma) forgive me if I'm wrong. The story we were told was that Thailand was not really wanted for any other reason than it connected to lots of other places. It was also a key site for a really large prisoner of war camp, where many of our Aussie forefathers were held, along with British, Dutch and Thai soldiers.

So, the day started at 6.30am... guess who wasn't thrilled by that early start... yep, you got it, Jodi... I was bright as a spark! Only one of those things is a lie! So, we headed out of Bangkok until we reached one of the major war cemeteries. I didn't realise how many Aussies went down there... Having seen war memorials, I found this the most moving thing I have been to... It wasn't just plaques commemorating sacrifices made for the benefit of the country, these were real graves. The number of deaths under 23 were horrific. The saddest part was the graves that simply mentioned the country they fought for. Bought back memories of that old Steve Grace song, "The Unknown Hero". One of my favorite recent Aussie songs is the Herd's version of "I was only 19". Puts it in a whole new perspective!

Having been sobered by the cemetery, we headed to the bridge by boat. A lighter moment was a westerner who "forgot" to close his river doors while he changed. I didn't think it was that cold... but anyway... We visited the museum. The story is really sad. Realising the bridge really needed to go the allies sent in bombers. Unfortunately, the Japanese knew they were coming so they sent the POW's out onto the bridge to try and stop them. Unfortunately, this didn't stop them and the bridge and everything on it were obliterated! Not really a nice thought!

After this we headed to the "death railway". This was built by the POW's. I think some 20,000 people died whilst building the bridge, hence the name. It would have been some sort of building expedition, as some of the cliff faces are extraordinarily tight. You would definitely need an even spread of people on both sides of the carriage! The scenery was unbelievable!

I can't say that a good time was had by all. Unless Harry Kewell or Lleyton Hewitt are involved I'm not usually too patriotic. The sight of Howard in the wallabies tracksuit makes me positively sick. But it did inspire some of those "Johhny loves OZ" feelings, and made me want to learn more about what went on all those years ago. Maybe we shouldn't throw jaffas at Cornesy when he goes around in the motorcade. Actually I have never done that, nor seen anybody else. It also made me understand views that our older generation have and why they have them. I can't stand the Italian soccer team and all they did was take a dive in a game of soccer. Pretty petty really! But if a game of soccer can make me that disappointed I can only begin to imagine the feelings when real countries and real people were involved.