TRAVELMAN in THAILAND (again): The Bridge Over The River Kwai ...is not over The River Kwai.

Funny fact, the bridge over the river Kwai is not over the river Kwai. The bridge is actually over the river Mae Klong outside of Kanchanaburi. I bought a tour from my hostel in Bangkok that took me to Erawan Falls. We stopped at The Bridge Over The River Kwai that is not on the river Kwai on the mini-van ride back to Bangkok.

(Before reading further, scroll down and hit play on the video, then scroll back up and read as you listen to the song. Just a suggestion to heighten your reading experience.)

Here’s another fun fact- Kanchanaburi is not pronounced the way it’s spelled. The Thai people at the hostel won’t know what the hell you’re talking about if you say you want to go to Can-Chan-a-Burr-ee. But they will know what you’re talking about if you say you want to go to “Can’t-a-nop-a-lee.” It rhymes with “Can’t monopoly.”

Oh, we had a good laugh at me when me and the travel agent, and the front desk agent, and the other employee of undetermined job description finally figured out where I wanted to go. -Sorry, my Thai...Not so good.

When I first moved to Los Angeles to become a big time movie director/writer I got an apartment in Hollywood. It was down the street from the historic Cinerama-Dome which is now part of the Arc-Light Theater. The Cinerama Dome was showing a two week celebration of classic Columbia Pictures Films. I had nothing else to do so I went to see this movie starring Alec Guiness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and William Holden (never in Star Wars).

I was blown away. It was filmed in Cinescope, which means it was meant for an extra large screen (and always looked funny on TV because they couldn’t easily fit the shots on the television screen, even with the machine that finds the meat of each shot).

Alec Guiness became an acting god to me. His performance as the commander of the British POW troops was mesmerizing.

The movie was directed by David Lean who also directed Lawrence of Arabia and other epic type movies of the time. He was known for grandeur.

I remember walking out of the Cinerama-Dome feeling electrified. I wanted to make films so much more after seeing that movie in that venue... I never did, except for low budget short films, but that’s another story.

So even though the real location was not all that special in reality, it was special to me.

The book was a work of fiction loosely based on the construction of the bridge over the river Mae Klong in 1943. Also fictional is the fact that it was blown up shortly after being built. It wasn’t.

It was in operation (along with a temporary wooden bridge alongside it) for two years... then the Allied forces bombed it. ...Then it was rebuilt.

...Then many years later, I stood on it and had someone take a picture of me. ...I didn’t like that picture enough to share it here, so I’m sharing a selfie of me looking like a guy weary of the guy taking the selfie.

If I could whistle, I would’ve whistled the song from the movie...

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Another funny fact, and something else I learned from Wikipedia- David Lean was angry that the extras could not march in step. So, out of exasperation, he said something like, “Whistle if you have to!”

Some dude started whistling “Colonel Bogey.” It became a huge part of the soundtrack. Thanks Wikipedia!

It was crowded with tourists and hard to get a shot. There’s a market next to the bridge. A little girl about eleven years old stood at the side of the tracks busking with her guitar and her voice. She wasn’t very good, but she was putting herself out there. I didn’t get a picture of her. She would’ve made a killing if she was whistling Colonel Bogey!

The market smelled BAD! At least where our mini-van stopped. I’ll remember the sunset, the eleven year-old busker girl, the smell, and remembering how incredible I felt walking out of the Cinerama-Dome so many years ago.

!steemitworldmap 14.0679 lat 99.5821 long Visiting the Bridge Over The River Kwai, Thailand, d3scr