500 men were wanted at Wun Lun for maintenance work and these were selected from the fittest at Chungkai, it meant a six kilometre journey which the men were dreading, but they travelled in the light diesel trains which were converted from diesel lorries. The light trains travelled over the twenty-five kilometres of line which Group II had built in the last four months. The country between Chungkai and Wun Lun was a kind of common land with bamboo jungle and attractive areas.
The station was a raised earth bank with an atap hut, there were two sidings each about 100 yards long.Wun Lun camp had held two to three thousand prisoners, when the group arrived there were less then 100. The huts were built by the Japanese, therefore the entrance door was very small in height, about 5ft 4in.
Wun Lun had a busy market, to reach it the square was crossed, this was always muddy, and the road through the Kapok Plantation was followed to the Japanese engineers camp by the river. Bearing right went straight into the 100yard busy market stalls.
The kapok plantation had the trees planted in rows and the silver coloured trunks grew straight up to a height of 30 feet. The light green leaves grew only at the ends of the rigid branches, the fruit of the tree was in pods, like the seeds of sweet corn.
The cookhouse was about a quarter of a mile from the camp over a swaying plank bridge which had a single hand rail, the food arrived cold most days.
White Egrets used the River Mee Kong and were often seen just skimming its surface, the Thais fished the river at night with a torch in one hand and a speer in the other, the fish attracted by the light came to the surface and were then speered.
Mangoes and hen eggs, were delecasies to buy off the Thais, although the Thais also grew papayas and bannanas in their small gardens
Information from Railway of Death by John Coast
|