Title: Explore Thailand 2017
Story: Tham Krasae Station
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane

Kanchanaburi is an important place for all Australian's to visit. It’s a place where Australian and allied prisoners of War made enormous sacrifices and underwent unfathomable suffering to build a railway that should never have been possible to build.

• To win the war the Japanese knew they had to build a railway from Burma right across Thailand to the port of Bampong. If they could do this they could get the recourses from Burma across to help them with the war effort. It was a massive feat - 415 kilometers. The conditions were horrendous and the toll was enormous.

• The logistics of building this railway in the timeframe Japanese had set for it was incredible. Hundreds of work camps sprung up along the line that would be cleared and carved into a railway.

• When the railway was up and running it carted thousands of tones of goods and its success was a threat to the allies effort to win the war so its destruction became a major focus for the allies and it was first bombed in February of 1945 and then later on in June, making the railway useless.

• Today most of the original railway has been reclaimed by jungle but a section still serves the local community today. The train begins its journey in Bangkok but Trev jumps on at the Bridge over the River Kwai and that undoubtedly is the most famous point.

• We are told the next destination, which is about an hour an a half down the train line Tham Krasae is equally spectacular. Soaking up this spectacular landscape around the outside. The station has a scenic overlook with restaurants perched above the now peaceful Little River Kwai.

• This was an impossible engineering feat and yet these POW engineers they achieved it and even more remarkable is the fact that the line is still being used today.

• Walking in the footsteps of the men who built this is humbling and meaningful and a little daunting and it's hard to fathom the enormity of the sacrifice these men made so close to our own home shores.

For more information about this story or any other stories featured in this episode of Guru TV, visit Tourism Authority of Thailand, at www.au.tourismthailand.org.

The Explore TV flew to Thailand on Thai Airways. For more information about flights, visit Thai Airways, at www.thaiairways.com