Destination BangkokBangkok is a city of astonishing contrasts, a city that never ceases to amaze. The capital of Thailand since 1782, Bangkok is now a throbbing metropolis of some seven million people ranging from urban sophicates to tribal migrants. Golden temples are found nestled between skyscrapers and modern office blocks. Barefoot, shaven-headed Buddhist monks in bright orange robes babble away on mobile phones. Street vendors of traditional fare vie for custom with foreign fast food chains. Ramshackle markets compete with air-conditioned shopping malls. And both modern cars and “tuk tuks” – noisy, three wheeled, open air taxis – clog the streets.

Bangkok is a city of astonishing contrasts, a city that never ceases to amaze. The capital of Thailand since 1782, Bangkok is now a throbbing metropolis of some seven million people ranging from urban sophicates to tribal migrants. Golden temples are found nestled between skyscrapers and modern office blocks. Barefoot, shaven-headed Buddhist monks in bright orange robes babble away on mobile phones. Street vendors of traditional fare vie for custom with foreign fast food chains. Ramshackle markets compete with air-conditioned shopping malls. And both modern cars and “tuk tuks” – noisy, three wheeled, open air taxis – clog the streets.

The National Museum in Bangkok is said to be the largest museum in south east Asia. Among its permanent exhibits are collections of traditional musical instruments from Thailand and neighbouring countries, porcelain, royal regalia, weaponry, textiles and Chinese art. Free guided tours are conducted on Wednesdays and Thursdays in a variety of languages including English, German, French and Japanese. Other museums in Bangkok are the Museum of Railway Heritage with steam locomotives on display, the Thai Airforce Museum, home to a world-class collection of vintage aircraft including a World War II era Spitfire, and the grisly Museum of Forensic Medicine housing the preserved remains of notorious Thai murderers. One of the most famous museums in the city is Jim Thompson’s House, the former residence of an American spy turned silk entrepreneur who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1967. On display is Thompson’s Asian art collection plus traditional Thai rural homes which Thompson saved from dereliction and reassembled in Bangkok in 1959.

There is, of course, more to Bangkok than palaces and museums. I resolved to see this other Bangkok. In a bid to avoid the choked streets I took to the waterways. What a pleasant surprise it was too. No sooner had I boarded a “rice barge” at the River City wharf than a beautiful refreshing breeze replaced the humid, fume-filled, sluggish atmosphere of the streets. After a jaunt along the Chao Phraya river we headed into a labyrinth of canals. “The highways of Bangkok are not streets or roads but the rivers and canals. Boats are the universal means of conveyance and communication.” While the advent of the motor car means that things have changed considerably in the years since British diplomat Sir John Bowring penned those words in 1855, it is fascinating to see how many homes remain orientated towards the water. Post is delivered and refuse collected by boat and electricity poles rise up out of the canals. And the waterways of Bangkok still play an important role in the city’s grocery trade with several major fruit and vegetable centres located on boats in colourful floating markets.

Not all of Thailand’s waterways are as enchanting as the tributaries and canals of Bangkok, however. A grim story surrounds the rivers of Kanchanaburi, a town of 33,000 inhabitants situated 80 miles west of Bangkok. For Kanchanaburi is the site of the infamous Bridge Over The River Kwai. Although Thailand was the only country in the region never to be colonised by a western power, it did fall to the invading Japanese during World War II. In preparation for an attack on British India, eager to secure a supply route to their forces in Burma safer than the existing sea passage, the Japanese Imperial Army decided to build a 260 mile railway linking the Thai network to the Burmese. Because of the mountainous terrain and thick jungle, engineers estimated that the route would take five years to complete. Begun on 16th September 1942, the link was actually ready in January 1944, a mere sixteen months later, but at a horrendous price in human lives. It is estimated that up to one hundred thousand labourers from Thailand, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia perished during the construction of the “Death Railway” as it became known. And row after row of small headstones in two Kanchanaburi cemeteries mark the final resting place of some of the sixteen thousand British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war who also lost their lives. For all this suffering and sacrifice, the railway was only in use for twenty months. The bridge was blown up by allied bombers in mid 1945. Although it has since been restored and is still in use today, further along the track jungle has been allowed to reclaim the line that took so many lives to build, with the result that once again, fifty years later, there is still no railway link between Thailand and Burma.

The sombre, sobering experience of visiting the Death Railway certainly put things into perspective. Where I now pursued pleasure and leisure, others had found only death.