Bridge in Muang Boran (Ancient Town) near Bangkok (Thailand)

“Thai culture, together with ancient Thai lives, flourished in the past. Should we be able to preserve it with wisdom and thorough understanding, our today and tomorrow would be embraced with enduringly precious meanings."

Lek Viriyaphant

founder of Muang Boran

Bridge over the Kwai River in Kanchanaburi (Thailand)

"One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people that use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it. Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers...."

From the film Bridge on the River Kwai

Ratchadapisek Bridge across the Wang River in Lampang (Thailand)

Deep valley, homestead, flowing river
Skyline a fence climbing up to clouds white
Clad with peaks stretching out in a long chain
A sparkling mass whose arms hug the land

The heart dreams of peace
Amidst sorrow and ceaselessly rampant fire
Life percolates slowly and knows how to hear
Love and hope like rain poured to douse the heat.

From Thai poet Angkarn Chanthathip

Suspension bridge over the Mae Kok River in the Lam Nam Kok National Park (Thailand)

Rice fields – mountain jungle – river – overseas
People – distant countryside
Each and every town
Always strange in the telling
Adrift – wandering
Like your soul
O gypsy…
How to tell the hot wind on its way here
That dreams are fast asleep
In the safe houses of fairy tales

By the thai poet

Angkarn Chanthathip

Bridge over a canal in Rajburi Floating Market (Thailand)

Bridge over the Damnoen Saduak Canal in Rajburi (Thailand)

Krungthep Bridge across the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok (Thailand)

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.

Lyrics of One Night in Bangkok

Murray Head

Supension bridge across the Pai river in Chiang Dao (Thailand)

Espesa bestia pura,

San Elefante

animal santo

del bosque sempiterno,

todo materia fuerte

fina y equilibrada,

cuero de talabartería planetaria,

marfil compacto, satinado,

sereno comol a carne de la luna,

 ...

Beginning of Oda al Elefante

Pablo Neruda

Bridges on the Chao Praya River in Bangkok (Thailand)

"His fancy was rich with pictures of Bangkok; the scents of the Orient intoxicated his nostrils "

William Sommerset Maughanm

Krungthep Bridge over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok (Thailand)

'There it was, spread largely on both banks… an expanse of brown houses of bamboo, of mats, of leaves, of a vegetable-matter style of architecture, sprung out of the brown soil on the banks of the muddy river. Here and there in the distance, above the crowded mob of low, brown roof ridges, towered great piles of masonry, King’s Palaces, temples, gorgeous and dilapidated, crumbling under the vertical sunlight, tremendous, overpowering, almost palpable, which seemed to enter one’s breast with the breath of one’s nostrils and soak into one’s limbs through every pore of one’s skin.’

Bangkok by Joseph Conrad

Bangkok Memorial Bridge across the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok (Thailand)

My driver points out and say, "Memorial Bridge." The way she raises her eyebrows tells me she thinks this is important information. It's a plain metal truss bridge. I can't imagene what it would be a memorial to. I smile and nod.

From the novel The Butterfly Trap

Dennis Jon

Drawing of Rama IX Bridge over the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok (Thailand)

"It is true, there are many bad people; there are more of them than in the past, but that is because there are more people, meaning the population has tripled; there must be three times more bad people."

Bhunidol Adulyadej (Rama IX)

Bridge on the river Kwai in Kanchanaburi (Thailand)

    1. During the Second World War the Japanese Army constructed a military railway line branching off the southern line at Nong Pladuk (also known as Non Pladuk) Station, Km.64+196. This line crossed over the River Kwae Yai at Kanchanaburi, traversed along the bank of Kwae Noi River, cut across the Thai-Burma border at Chedi Sam Ong, continued on into Burma and joined the Burma railway line at Thanbyuzayat. The total length of line constructed was 419 kms., being in Thailand 303.95 kms. and in Burma 111.05 kms.
    2. Construction work started in October 1942. A year later on 23 October 1943 rail laying was completed. About 60,000 men consisting of Indian, Burmese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese and Thai labourers as well as prisoners of war took part in the construction work.
    3. The diesel power traction car shown here was used during the construction. It could be run either on road or railway track. The road wheels would be lowered into position when required. The steam locomotive shown was employed for military transport service on this line.

Text in a plaque in the River Kwai Bridge

Bridge over the river Kwai in Kanchanaburi (Thailand)

In front of us, made up of bridges stolen from
the Dutch East Indies, lies the bridge whose every
nail is still struck home in nights of old men.
With you wedged next to me

I hear them lie there listening to the hammering
on sleep. Orders ring out across the water.
In echoes the frail voice of grandpa, and the angry one
of his son who struck you with it till you bled

In a poem by Albert Hageraars