What a day this was! In the morning we visited Hellfire Pass. A sombre visit... And in the afternoon we had swarms of fish nibbling any part of our body under water while we swam in a pool under a waterfall. A crazy afternoon..
To reach Hellfire Pass we travelled 2 hours from Kanchanaburi on the little trucks used for transport here. The Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre and Memorial Walking Trail has been built and is maintained by the Australian Government. We were lucky the centre and trail were open as they were closed for most of May for refurbishment. PM Paul Keating made the decision to build the centre in 1994 when he attended Anzac Day at Hellfire Pass. Both trail and centre are beautiful memorials for the prisoners of war and Allied labourers who worked here, and especially to those who died here. 
On the truck to Hellfire Pass
Once there we walked down a track to Konyu Cutting, which became known as Hellfire Pass. Work on the cutting started on Anzac day 1943. The cutting is in 2 sections, one 73m long and the other 450m. 
On the track down to Hellfire Pass
This bamboo had massive thorns
Looking down on part of the cutting
The workers had to hack back the jungle, remove the earth and drill into the rock. all with the most basic of hand tools. As work fell behind schedule, the men were forced to work up to 18 hours a day. The lights used at night, and the shadows of the men and the guards caused the cutting to be named 'Hellfire Pass'. More than 12,500 of 60,000 Allied POWs and 90,000 local labourers died in building the railway as a whole. Shocking figures.
Cut by hand
Bob walking
Beautiful views from the area
Our group had elected to add the next day's planned activity to the afternoon. This was to save another long drive the next day. Therefore after viewing the displays in the Interpretive Centre and then lunch, we drove to Erewan Falls in Erewan National Park. The falls have 7 tiers, We opted to swim in picturesque pool at the second tier. Pretty it may be, but it is hell to get ino the water. I felt like a dill. talking ages to get in as the sides were steep, rocky, and there are tree roots. When I finally got to the waters edge then how to enter over such slippery rocks? Once the feet are in the fish swim to your feet. Not those tiny fish, but decent fish who nibble at any skin they can get. My feet looked like a mophead of fish!
Once in the deeper part the fish weren't as bad, but they were still pretty active.
Entering National Park
The water temperature was lovely. From in the water I had time see others trying to enter the water. Nobody got in easily. Not even teenage boys, so I didnt feel so bad. Just as we relaxed, there was yelling. Wondering what the issue was, we looked where people were pointing and saw a large Monitor Lizard swimming right by us. It was quite a memorable day.
Monitor heading to pool
There goes the Monitor
(No pics of us in the water. They are on someone else's camera, still to be downloaded)
This featured blog entry was written by jannettek from the blog Time to travel.
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