Original subtitles

I'm in Southeast Asia with my 1913 Bradshaw's handbook,

published at the height of European imperialism.

My 100-year-old guidebook will lead me on a railway

adventure through archipelagos

and peninsulas, dotted with hills, forests and paddy fields.

I'll tour towering megacities and magnificent mosques.

I'll encounter golden Buddhas and jewelled temples,

and experience some of the world's most spectacular

and notorious railways.

As I travel through the diverse nations of this vast region,

I'll learn how they asserted their independence

against the British, French and Dutch empires, to become

the economic tigers and dragons of today.

My rail journey through Thailand continues.

I began in Chiang Mai

and travelled south to the former teak town of Lampang.

My next stop will be the old capital of Ayutthaya.

I'll continue to Mae Klong before I end at Kanchanaburi

and the infamous Bridge Over the River Kwai.

On my travels,

I have a close encounter with an astonishing railway.

I think I might lean back at this point!

TRAIN HORN BLARES

I'm sized up by a gentle giant...

She's just getting used to me now.

Feel the intake of air from that trunk.

..and discover the splendours

of the former capital of Siam.

Was one of the wealthiest cities

in Asia, let alone Southeast Asia.

I'm in the northern city of Lampang, a charming town which grew

out of the teak industry of the 19th century.

At the time of my guide, Lampang was surrounded by forests

rich with teak.

Harvesting this valuable commodity

was tough work with much of the heavy lifting

done by elephants.

Today, teak logging is banned,

but elephants remain an important part of Thai culture.

Just outside Lampang is a hospital

dedicated to these magnificent beasts.

The elephant has been fundamental to the economy

and the defence of Siam.

For example, they used to mount artillery on the back of one

of these animals to create a sort of prototype tank.

A person who owned an elephant was a figure of great prestige.

If you've ever had to give it tonnes of food each day, you realise

you have to be pretty rich!

The rare occurrence of a so-called 'white elephant' has to be offered

to the king.

And indeed, the white elephant appeared on the flag

of Siam until 1916.

It's a measure of the respect for this animal that the Friends

Of The Asian Elephant have mounted this hospital to deal with wounded

and damaged elephants.

This hospital treats everything from minor discomforts to major

complications, and they have a few long-term residents.

Good to see you. Good to see you, too.

What's the name of the elephant? Her name is Moesha.

And why does she have only three legs?

She step on land mine.

Oh, my goodness, a land mine.

How awful.

And how long has she been here?

Three years now.

Is the elephant quite well? Is the elephant otherwise OK?

Yes, OK, now. But she have prosthetic leg now.

Well, I see. Yes. This enormous false leg.

You want to help? Yes, I'd love to.

What should I do?

HE INSTRUCTS HIS COLLEAGUE

Of course, this weighs a great deal as well,

as you would imagine.

HE ISSUES INSTRUCTIONS

On it goes.

Elephant must be very used to this because she's very calm

as we do it. A few adjustments.

How is that, Moesha?

Is that a bit better?

So prosthesis back on.

The leg has been washed.

SHE TRUMPETS SOFTLY

Are you OK with me? You OK with me?

She's just getting used to me now.

Can feel the intake of air from that trunk!

She's just making sure that I can be trusted, I think.

Well done, Moesha. Well done.

And our three-legged elephant has become

a four-legged elephant again!

Conflicts with neighbouring Myanmar have left a border littered

with land mines, and this hospital has become a leading centre

for elephant prosthetics.

Faster than I can go.

I don't know what's going to happen when I...

MOESHA TRUMPETS SOFTLY

..finish.

I'm leaving Lampang to continue my journey south.

The line from Lampang cuts through the centre of Thailand

for 500km.

The landscape changes from the lush jungle of the north into the fertile

plains of central Thailand, that, for centuries, have grown

the bulk of the nation's food.

I'm making my way, not to Thailand's present day capital, Bangkok,

but to Siam's medieval capital, Ayutthaya.

It's located in the south central region of the country

near Thailand's most important river.

This is the mighty Chao Phraya River.

Upon its banks, the kings of Siam

built a summer palace.

I've decided to cross its noble waters, not by mere boat,

I'm being borne aloft.

This cable car is operated by monks.

Before I reach the old city, I've had a tip off about a curious

monument from the 19th century.

Well, this is a surprise, indeed. A Gothic revival chapel.

It's as though that cable car had, in a few metres, transported me

back to Europe.

But in no Gothic church

are you required to take your shoes off!

Wat Niwet Thammaprawat

is a Buddhist temple built by the modernising Chulalongkorn,

King Rama V in 1878,

and it's a mark of how far he embraced Western ideas.

Well, the Gothic theme is continued inside with the pointed arches,

the hammer beams, the stained glass.

But there's no doubt that this is a Buddhist temple.

And I think that in the late 19th century in Siam,

this would have been regarded as a symbol of modernity.

I'm just sorry that modernity apparently meant Westernism.

Off on the waters of the Chao Phraya River.

Siam's medieval capital was built along the banks of this major river.

I'm at what my Bradshaw's calls the former capital of Ayutthaya,

with its gigantic ruined temples just eight hours

by steamer from Bangkok.

It's a bit like visiting Winchester in England, or Toledo in Spain,

or Philadelphia in the United States - cities that were once

the seat of government that reinforced the national story.

In the decades before my guidebook, nationalism

had been the guiding spirit.

It had led to the unification of Italy and Germany, and given

stimulus to imperialism.

So Siam needed to be on its guard

with its own providential story of nationhood.

And the nation had a rich history that could be told

through its magnificent palaces and temples.

This is Wat Chaiwatthanaram, and any website will tell

you that these reliquary towers are known as "prang", and they form

a skyline as impressive as a modern-day New York City or Dubai.

And that is the way to think of this, because Ayutthaya

was a world-class city,

one of the largest in the world, a metropolis.

It sent ambassadors to Japan and China and to Versailles in France.

And yet it's all gone, because civilisations do not last,

so passes the glory of this world.

A hit historical drama on Thai television was set

in these romantic ruins.

So dressing as the characters and taking selfies have become

a popular pursuit here.

Hello, ladies.

THEY EXCHANGE GREETINGS

My name is Lina.

And you speak English, obviously!

Yes. A little bit. A little bit.

Have you come from far away?

From Bangkok. Bangkok, yes.

Where did you get the costumes?

Ahh...

From opposite temple.

Yeah.

200 baht. 200 baht. Very cheap.

Really cheap!

Is that to buy or to rent?

Ah, rent. Are you having a lovely day?

Yeah. Yes. Very happy. Happy.

Could I have a selfie? Yes! Shall we do a selfie?

Thank you. Lovely.

Bye.

I'd like to find out more about Ayutthaya and its significance

to the Thai nation at the time of my guidebook.

So I'm meeting Professor of History, Dr Diruwat Numphomphet.

Diruwat, this is absolutely astonishing.

The monuments that I've seen in Ayutthaya are grand

on an epic scale.

This must have been an extraordinary city.

Please describe it to me.

Well, it was the capital of Thailand or Siam, as it was called,

for over 400 years, from the middle of 14th century

to the middle of the 18th century.

And it was very prosperous.

It was a port city, as well as a city which had a large

hinterland of rice fields all around it.

So it had a big population.

It was one of the wealthiest cities in Asia, let alone Southeast Asia.

With whom did these people have trading relationships?

Oh, they were trading with China, with the Malay states,

with the Indonesian islands.

And then, as time went on, the Muslims from India

and the Middle East came in, and then the Europeans, the Portuguese.

You know, on all points of the compass, not

because Ayutthaya had spices,

we didn't have that, no gold,

but we had a lot of things which came in the entrepot trade.

Chinese ceramics, Japanese ceramics, Japanese fans,

spices from Indonesia.

And so, people could buy them and resell elsewhere.

And also, this land had a lot of forests. From these forests,

from these jungles, you could get a lot of goods

like elephant tusks,

ivory, you get deer skins

and even live, wild elephants, which were much sought

after in India, believe it or not, you know.

And so the Thais sold hundreds of elephants to India each year.

Halfway between China and India,

this thriving commercial kingdom was one of the great powers of Asia.

But that came to an abrupt end in 1767

when neighbouring Burma invaded,

burning and ransacking the city.

Ayutthaya never recovered.

What happened to the dynasty and to the people of the city?

The last king of Ayutthaya died either in the action or immediately

after the battle leading to the fall of the city.

We're not quite sure how he died.

But the people, tens of thousands were taken away

as war captives to Myanmar, to Burma,

and quite a few of them escaped.

And about a year after that, a leader rose up,

who was half Chinese, half Siamese, general.

And he managed to reunite quite a lot of the country

and drive out the Burmese garrison.

That dynasty lasted until 1782,

and the Chakri dynasty came to the throne.

The Chakri dynasty is, of course, the dynasty which still reigns

at this time.

Now we're into the tenth reign of the Chakri dynasty.

The Chakri dynasty did not resurrect Ayutthaya as the capital,

choosing to start anew in Bangkok.

Ayutthaya was left to decay

until around the time of my Bradshaw's, when a strong national

story was needed to bolster Thai nation building.

Diruwat, quite a contrast in architecture here now.

Why have you brought me to this spot?

Well, Michael, mainly because it was built in the early 20th century

by King Chulalongkorn

to associate himself with the Ayutthaya kings.

Did kings not normally come to Ayutthaya to associate themselves

with the old dynasty?

Before that, there'd not been any ceremony of this kind, but with him,

it was a very conscious effort to link Bangkok for the Ayutthaya

and this kind of formation of a national history was considered

to be necessary in order to make us, I don't know, civilised,

and with a historical

heritage that stretched back hundreds and hundreds of years.

King Rama V declared Ayutthaya a protected zone in 1908.

And its great past was written large into the history books

of the Thai nation.

I'm up with the lark

and I've made my way to Ayutthaya Station, ready to catch

the train heading south.

BELL RINGS

With the ring of the bell, everyone leaves the safe shade of the ticket

hall and comes across to Platform 3 for Bangkok.

But I'm not going to the capital.

I'm travelling 80km west of Bangkok

to a place known today as Samut Songkram, which locals

still call Mae Klong.

It's an old fishing port and every day holds a market, which I'm told

I particularly will like.

Oh, my goodness!

Here is the railway going straight through the market.

The stalls come right up to the track!

The canopies hang over the line.

It is clearly active.

You can tell because the rails are not in any way rusty.

And I just hate to think what happens when a train comes along.

This narrow-gauge track opened as a goods line in 1905,

carrying produce from fishing ports to the main markets of Bangkok.

Extraordinarily, today trains pass along this line

up to eight times a day.

As far as I know, the train is due in a very few moments

and no-one yet has shown any inclination to move.

In fact, the situation's now got worse because there are trolleys

actually on the tracks, and nowhere that I can see that people

could escape to.

The clock is ticking.

HORN BLARES

OK, the train is now clearly coming.

We can hear it.

And the business of clearing the produce away

from the track is beginning.

Here we go!

The canopies are moving back.

HORN TOOTS

At last, the stalls begin to move back.

The most amazing sight!

HORN BLARES

Think I might lean back at this point.

Absolutely amazing!

Shaving the stalls, passing on top of the produce,

the low lying baskets are just left in position

and the train goes over them,

with maybe a centimetre or two to spare.

Surely one of the bizarrest sights

ever to be seen on a railway!

They call this The Railway Cafe.

I wonder why?

HORN TOOTS

It's the last day of my journey and I've come 130km

north west to Kanchanaburi.

It's a western province that borders neighbouring Myanmar.

These beautiful historic balconied houses, which are just dimly visible

behind the tangle of electric cables, are the sort of heritage

that attracts foreign visitors.

But in fact, most people who now come to Kanchanaburi are part

of a curious modern form of tourism,

which has to do with war and death.

Here in Kanchanaburi is a notorious railway.

During the Second World War, Japan occupied much of Southeast Asia.

Prisoners of war and slave labourers were forced to build

a 415km line.

They were treated brutally, and so it became known

as the Death Railway.

I've been joined by Poom,

who works at The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre.

Poom, many of us think we know something about the railway,

but why did Japan need to build it?

Because they want to use the land transports supply to Burma.

Otherwise they would have had to go a long way by ship?

Yes, right. In the wartime, ships sank.

They load a lot, looking for where

the safe route to Burma.

So there was an existing railway in Burma, and there was one

in Siam, Thailand, and they needed to join the two together?

Yes, they want to do that.

How many prisoners of war and how many civilians were used

in the operation?

About 60,000 prisoner of war

and about 200,000 civilian labour.

Tell me about the terrain that they had to cross.

They had to cut the mountain.

They had to build the bridge.

And sometimes a corridor, because the location

in Kanchanaburi and Burma,

really difficult to build a driveway

and then they had to build just one year only.

This cutting here... Yes.

..how long did it take to make this?

About two week.

That's extraordinary.

Men were forced to work impossibly-long hours

with little food or medicine.

In Japanese Samurai culture, imprisonment was a disgrace

and captives were treated with contempt.

Starvation, disease and torture

led to the deaths of more than 12,000 prisoners of war

and 90,000 civilians.

It's said that one man died for each sleeper laid.

Tell me about the finishing of the railway line.

They start work in about October 1942

and railway completes October 1943.

Yes, about one year.

It's a fantastic achievement, isn't it? Yes.

This railway can use for two year, until August 15th, 1945. Yes.

When the Japanese surrender.

The appalling events surrounding the building of the railway

were dramatised in a film in 1957 -

The Bridge On The River Kwai.

Tourists, but also veterans and their descendants, are drawn

to visit this infamous place.

Some of those who died building this railway are buried

in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.

This beautifully tended, and very moving, war grave at Kanchanaburi

is the resting place for about 7,000 prisoners of war,

mainly British, Australian and Dutch,

and thousands more lie in two similar cemeteries,

and tens of thousands of Southeast Asian civilians also perished

building the railway.

They died of starvation and disease

and cruelty, and some perpetrators were executed when the peace came.

The slave labourers, with very little in the way of food or tools,

in about a year, constructed 400km of railway,

over 600 bridges, through the jungle.

They are heroes, all.

And the wonder is that ANYONE survived.

The line was dismantled after the war, but in the late 1950s,

some sections were reopened and it's become

a place of remembrance.

Of the many railways that I've travelled, this is perhaps

the most poignant.

The line follows the river in the direction

of Myanmar, formerly Burma.

I've been thinking about whether it's right to enjoy riding

on the Death Railway.

And I think it is because international tourism is a sign

that now Southeast Asia is at peace.

And tourists from countries that were previously at war

are enjoying the sights together.

And isn't that the sort of world that the prisoners of war

were hoping for and fighting for?

The train has slowed down to a walking pace for one of the most

spectacular parts of the journey.

We have rejoined the river, but now we are suspended above it,

crawling along a little wooden platform, high above the water.

I'm reaching Tham Krasae,

the last station on this part of my journey,

which has been enlightening

and at times emotional.

When Britain and France had carved up

the rest of Southeast Asia,

Siam's King Rama V swiftly annexed

the old kingdom of Lanna around Chiang Mai.

He denied the Europeans excuses for colonisation

by granting them trading privileges

and modernising his country.

The monarchy survived

and during the 20th century,

unusually for this region,

Communism was kept at bay.

Thailand has endured some turbulent history,

but at least it has avoided

the post-colonial, anti-Communist wars

that devastated Vietnam,

Laos and Cambodia.

This is truly a country of exceptions.

Next time in Thailand's capital, Bangkok,

I'll snack in its biggest floating market.

You can get street food almost anywhere,

but canal food has to be Bangkok.

I'll discover the impact of a royal railway gift...

Queen Victoria sent King Rama IV, king Mongkut,

a train set and I think that inspired

a lot of people.

..and take my life in my hands

in one of the city's iconic tuk-tuks.

You certainly feel every bump in the road,

but in Bangkok's notorious traffic,

it sneakily finds its way through.