Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Not a picture postcard beach by any stretch of the imagination, but as the grime of travel
washes away you probably won't care. This low-key Gulf of Mottama (Martaban) beach
is a very wide, brown-sand strip. The beach is lined with waving casuarina trees and has
been a popular spot for outings since colonial times.
Though a few locals stop by for a swim, almost no foreigners visit this area and facilit-
ies are minimal. At low tide you can walk along the beach to the small temple on the
rocks at the northern end.
You can stay at the privately owned
Shwe Moe Guesthouse
( 09 870 3283; r $20)
,
which has spacious but run-down beach bungalows. A few modest restaurants offer fresh
seafood, including the
Pyay Son Oo Restaurant
, which is very close to the hotel.
Getting There & Away
To Thanbyuzayat, there are frequent departures from a
stall
(Lower Main Rd)
near Zeigyi
(K1500, two hours, from 6am to 5pm). Kyaikkami-bound buses leave from a nearby
stop
(Lower Main Rd)
(K1000, 2½ hours, hourly from 6am to 4pm).
During the first half of the day there are regular pick-up trucks from Thanbyuzayat to
Kyaikkami (K500) and Setse (K500). The last return departure for both is about 4pm.
THE DEATH RAILWAY
The strategic objective of the 'Burma-Siam Railway' was to secure an alternative
supply route for the Japanese conquest of Myanmar and other Asian countries to
the west.
Construction on the railway began on 16 September 1942 at existing terminals in
Thanbyuzayat and Nong Pladuk, Thailand. At the time, Japanese engineers estim-
ated that it would take five years to link Thailand and Burma by rail, but the Japan-
ese army forced the POWs to complete the 260-mile, 3.3ft-gauge railway in 13
months. Much of the railway was built in difficult terrain that required high bridges
and deep mountain cuttings. The rails were finally joined 23 miles south of the
town of Payathonzu (Three Pagodas Pass); a Japanese brothel train inaugurated
the line. The railway was in use for 21 months before the Allies bombed it in 1945.
An estimated 16,000 POWs died as a result of brutal treatment by their captors,
a story chronicled by Pierre Boulle's book Bridge on the River Kwaiand popularised
by a movie based on the book. Only one POW is known to have escaped, a Briton
who took refuge among pro-British Kayin guerrillas.
Although the statistics of the number of POWs who died during the Japanese oc-
cupation are horrifying, the figures for the labourers, many from Myanmar, Thail-
