The Battle to the River Kwai--and the Rose Garden

The River Khwae Yai became famous to most of us with the production of a movie released in 1957, "The Bridge on the River Kwai," starring William Holden and Alec Guiness, one of the most brilliant actors ever produced by Britain. Most of you probably know the movie story of the POWs and Asian slaves forced by the Japanese to build the bridge to link Siam and Burma during WW 11. Guiness' character is the architect, as I recall, and becomes obsessed with finishing the project. Holden, an American POW works on the bridge, but wants to blow it up to aid the war effort. In the climactic scene, Guiness is shot and, as his eyes roll up in his head, he spins stumbles and falls on a detonation plunger, destroying the bridge with dynamite.

In reality, after several efforts, the US Air Force bombed the bridge into submission. It has been resurrected down river from the original structure and is both a working railroad to the northwestern part of Thailand and a tourist attraction. The Thai government has recently announced that they will extend the railbed to connect with Mynamar (Burma), in an effort to improve relations with their sometimes-feisty neighbor.

A trip to the river is a battle, but well worth it. A car or bus can reach it in about 2- 2 ½ hours. One hour of that will likely just involve getting out of Bangkok. Even on Sunday (which is also the day of rest here for a good portion of the population) the streets were clogged at 8 a.m.). The route will take you through Nakano Pathom and past Buddhism's tallest chedi, definitely worth a stop.

My recommendation is to rent a car and go early , beating the droves of tourist busses. Many others will have the same idea and it will still be crowded when you arrive, but not overwhelming. Upon arrival at the little village near Kanchanaburi, you will realize that tourism rules here, but I never felt I was in the proverbial tourist trap. Sure, the ubiquitous T-shirt stand were everywhere (low quality, lower creativity), but prices were fair, the bridge was free and so was petting the elephant we found.

It was bizarre to walk across the steel structure of the new bridge, elbowing through an international steam of traffic, including German, English, American and Japanese and Thai visitors. Checking out the kreng chai of each individual was amusing. As I understand kreng chai, it is the consideration of how what you would like to do will affect others. The wooden walkway covering the sleepers (wooden railroad ties) was maybe two feet wide. Negotiating the bridge from one end to the other meant continually turning sideways to edge past people coming the other way--that is if one was polite and observing kreng chai. Many didn't, of course. They bulled along, as though the narrow planked pathway was their private concourse. Leaping lithely onto the ties to avoid collisions was often necessary. Making a game of it, however, kept me from becoming frustrated with the thundering touristic herd.

We hired a long-tail boat and shot up the river for an hour. Wind streaming through our hair, motor roaring behind us--it was great. The broad brown waters curved through the flat green valley. Away from the tourist trappings, we passed a few small homes abutting the river. I wondered what happened to them in flood season. We began to see barges, pulled by tugs, plunging downstream towards us. They seemed alive with gyrating bodies. Soon the music, Thai rock & roll, I guess, overpowered the noise of our motor. They were floating discos, some crammed with boogying teens, lonely others wishing they were jammed.

Our helmsman wanted us to stop and view a cave that seemed to be swallowing a never-ending trail of tourists, but we waved him on, just wanting to explore the river. Around a bend, hills erupted ahead of us on the western side of the river. Great verdant monoliths that appeared unclimbable. One smoked and flamed, victim of a small forest fire that had ambition.

I'd have been happy to cruise upriver for hours, but eventually, we turned and literally flew back to the bridge. It seemed we danced across the waves, barely touching the water. Teens on the barges--I counted at least a dozen--waved as we rocketed by. The helmsman, a tourist pro, slowed to a drift near the River Khwae bridge and motioned me to take one more photo, and then we docked.

We lunched on a balcony overlooking the river and the streams of pedestrians fighting each other across the bridge. Shrimp, rice, Singha for under $3.00. Then, we escaped just as the squadrons of buses arrived, jammed with package tourists. Excellent planning.

The Rose Garden is perhaps ½ hour northwest of Bangkok and we stopped there to be "real" tourists and see their folkloric show. It was an action-packed hour of dancing, Thai boxing, sword fighting (the latter performed by two energetic kids with a great sense of humor), and even a re-enactment of a Thai wedding. At the end, the children and adult performers congregate on stage to allow tourists to take photographs. I wish I had brought my Polaroid camera that day. It would have been nice to take several shots and leave them on the proscenium for the kids. Next time.

We lingered outside the pavilion afterwards, then ambled into the back of the elephant show and almost into the back of a pachyderm. Maybe the tourists across the lagoon watching the performance thought we were comedic relief, as we kept bobbing and weaving to stay out from under the trunks and other thick gray body parts of the animals.

Our stay there was too short I recommend the Rose Garden as a lingering cool afternoon by itself. Take the time to see all the exhibits, watch the craftspeople work, catch a show or two and take in a typical Thai lunch.

Without doing research, I don't know if our day was cheaper than a package bus, but the freedom to not be herded like elephants and to come and go as we wished made it worth while. Our costs for two people?

Car & chauffeur: $80.00

Boat at Kwai: 11.00

Lunch: 7.00

Rose Garden: 16.00

Total: $114.00 or $57.00 apiece, and well worth it.

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Last updated: January 9, 2000.