RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (I)

Saturday , January 12 th 2008 ,near Kanchana Buri ,western Thailand.

I am sitting in a jungle clearing ,sipping a cold beer and contemplating the river.It is calm now as it flows sluggishly by – you can barely detect a current.On the far bank is more verdant jungle.The whole place exudes an atmosphere of peacefulness and tranquillity.Yet it was not always so.For this is the Khwae Yai river , near Kanchana Buri in western Thailand ,the river the world knows as the River Kwai. Here the notorious ‘Death Railway’ and the famous bridge were built by the Japanese It is said that for every sleeper of the track that was laid,there is a corpse .It is a place full of ghosts of the past and spirits of the departed , and it has a unique atmosphere. I have been here many times,but it never fails to have a strong effect on me.It stirs up powerful emotions and evokes half-forgotten childhood memories.It is like that today.