Today we did visited the Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre, which is funded by the Australian Government to commemorate all those POW’s who lost their lives building the Thai-Burma railway in WWII. We started by taking the walk along the railway line through the granite cutting referred to as Hellfire Pass. It is a very moving walk with stories being retold by survivors about their time there.
After the walk we went off to the Sommai Restaurant for lunch, which is in a village near the Nam Tok railway station, the last working railway station on the existing WWII rail line. Lunch was excellent, sitting out under an large open restaurant eating good food and drinking plenty of beers.
Since we missed the early train (as expected), we visited Erawan Waterfall which is also near the station. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise. The waterfall was beautiful and is a favourite picnic spot for locals, where they can sit and play in the waterfall, go swimming and relax. It doesn’t cost anything, but is very well set up with cafes and a small market.
We then went off to the railway station and bought our tickets for the 3:25 train. The train goes along the original route of the WWII train track and is very popular with tourists who want to see the train crossing Wampo Viaduct. The train was packed between the two stops either side of the crossing, but the rest of the trip was very quiet and peaceful with some beautiful views of the river.
Finally, when we got home at around 6pm , we had a well deserved swim to cool down and another couple of beers. Strangely, everyone was a bit tired so only three of us made it out for dinner that night.
A really great day.
