Kanchanaburi Day Two – Death Railway and Hellfire Pass

Kanchanaburi Guesthouses offer a myriad of tours ranging in price from 500 bhat to over 1,500 bhat for two day trips. The tours include a mix of the same general attractions: a ride on the Death Railway, a trip to Hellfire Pass, Erawan Falls, the Tiger Temple, a boat trip down the river and an elephant ride. Some of the attractions, such as Death Railway, Hellfire Pass and Erawan are general attractions, but others such as the Tiger Temple and the elephant rides are geared towards foreign tourists. Because I am on a budget and prefer the satisfaction of accomplishing things on my own rather than simply booking a tour, I decided to make my way to Hellfire Pass on the Death Railway on Friday and then catch a bus to Erawan Falls on Saturday.

Cutting through town with the help of my local map, I made it to the train station at 5:50 and walked up to the ticket counter. According to my train schedule, it was a mere 17 bhat to Nam Tok to catch the bus to Hellfire Pass, but a banner above the ticket office proclaimed a tourist car on the Death Railway for 300 bhat. Included in this exorbitant cost were snacks, 100,000 bhat insurance on your seat and a “certificate of pride.” Knowing that I could purchase some grilled chicken on a skewer and a bag of sticky rice for 10 bhat from the local Thais who boarded the trains at each stop and feeling that I could do without 273 bhat “certificate of pride,” I pointedly told the woman that I wanted a ticket for the 17 bhat listed on the train schedule. She seemed a bit perturbed, but handed me my ticket and change from a 20 bhat bill. Looking at the schedule, I noticed that while the early train was 17 bhat, the later trains making the same journey were 100 bhat. I took my ticket and settled in among the locals, quite pleased with myself for getting up early and not falling for the tourist gouging schemes.

The two-and-a-half ride on the portion of the Death Railway that is still functioning between Kanchanaburi and Nam Tok cuts through a beautiful valley of forests and farmland, stopping at small villages along the way to let passengers off and to let the people on to tout their wares. My car was almost empty for the first few stops, but soon filled up with locals and a Thai tour group. There was only one other “farang” on the early train.

The train stopped in Nam Tok and I decided to have breakfast before I headed to Hellfire Pass. I was soon joined by James, the other westerner on the train and we decided to eat and then head off together. After a breakfast of pork, rice and vegetables, we made our way to the main road to catch the bus.

There is no specific bus that goes to Hellfire Pass, but there are two buses to other towns that pass by on which you can ask the driver to let you off at the entrance. The museum sits at the end of a dirt road and has only a small inside exhibit consisting of a short movie on the circumstances surrounding the building of the railroad and a room with a war timeline and a few short explanations of the lives of the prisoners who worked on the railway. From the museum, you can also get a headset which you can listen to prerecorded messages at different spots on the trail.

The trail runs along the old railroad, which runs along the side of the mountains over a beautiful valley. Hellfire pass itself is said to be one of the toughest parts of the railway because of the hellish conditions of the camp and the lack of proper tools to cut a pass though solid rock. It was hard to imagine what it would have been like as you are surrounded by such natural beauty. The narrator on the headsets definitely helped to take you back into the past and to remind you why you were there.