The Story of Hintok River Camp Museum February 2016

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Mervin Allison
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The Story of Hintok River Camp Museum February 2016 The future Sir Rodney Beattie bought this house and property on a beautiful site along Thailand s River Kwai.

1 The Story of Hintok River Camp Museum February 2016 The future Sir Rodney Beattie bought this house and property on a beautiful site along Thailand s River Kwai. During the building of the Death Railway made famous by Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Railway Man (which Rod was technical advisor on), it was home to some 300 British POWs, 79 of whom died between July-September The house is built on the site of the old kitchen.

2 He didn t know it then but the building would in the future house The Hintok River Camp Story Museum.

3 It s upstream about 40 miles as the hornbill flies from the real Bridge over the River Kwai at Kanchanaburi, 120 west of Bangkok. Here s how it looked at war s end.

Not far from the house is a limestone sinkhole which the POWs used as a refuse pit. Here seen with Capt. Norm Baker, Thor Heyerdahl s first mate on the Ra and Tigris voyages, and one of our crew.

4 Not far from the house is a limestone sinkhole which the POWs used as a refuse pit. Here seen with Capt. Norm Baker, Thor Heyerdahl s first mate on the Ra and Tigris voyages, and one of our crew. Out of curiosity Rod excavated the two feet of garbage, finding a plethora of brass buckles, buttons, toothbrushes and the like. As he reached the bottom, thinking he was done, to his astonishment he discovered a polished Neolithic axe!

5 Freshly adrenolated that s my coining of a new word he continued digging some 35 feet to the bottom over the years. This is to the first ledge. It s a hairy descent.

6 This shot is taken from the third level looking up at The Dragon Lady on the second. As Rod dug, he passed through the Neolithic, to the Mesolithic, to the Paleolithic. I joined him during the Mesolithic. A

7 fourth level was part of an impassable watercourse which wended through the limestone a half mile up Hintok Mountain. Sink holes and caves, some enormous, mark the route.

9 It s evident people lived here loooong before Rod. (These were shot at Ban Kao Museum 20 miles away.)

10 There s nothing he enjoys more than getting down and downright muddy. Uh, actually me too. And The Dragon Lady. I ll tell ya, it s great having a girl friend I can go out and play in the mud with.

11 Here s a stone tool in situ this season emerging from the mud. It s wet because it s still a sink hole and monsoon water pours down here.

fantastic! It s a Hoabinhian Sumatralith. It s quite a feeling when you know you re the first to see it in at least 6,000 years. That a fellow human, back in the Stone Age, used this very tool.

12 fantastic! It s a Hoabinhian Sumatralith. It s quite a feeling when you know you re the first to see it in at least 6,000 years. That a fellow human, back in the Stone Age, used this very tool. It s a feeling akin to finding a dinosaur tooth in the field (and I ll be team leader on a 16- person expedition with renowned Paleontologists Phil Currie and Eva Koppelhus as field leaders in Alberta in June incidentally).

13 We had a helluva good season, adding another fifty or so tools to our collection!

14 Two Mesolithic Hoabinhian Sumatraliths bookend a Neolithic axe at top. At the bottom is a simple Paleolithic cutting tool and to the right a pottery shard with characteristics Neolithic cord design. The Neolithic axe was particularly interesting because it was made of limestone, which is a soft rock and practically useless. Why go to the trouble? We found five Sumatraliths, a record.

15 Over time, Rod sold the property to Suparerk Soorangura, our patron, who developed it into one of his 16 themed resorts around Thailand. His first, a bamboo raft theme, was used for the Russian roulette scenes in The Deerhunter. This one pays homage to the POW camp. This drawing was done by a prisoner. Note the tents.

16 Like the POWs, the resort utilizes tents. The railway was a steep (40 degree) 250 foot climb up the mountain in the background.

17 Some of us did it and it was tough. Although cameras are lousy at grasping steep angles, you can get a sense of the sharply steep grade as we descend. A moment later The Dragon Lady was on her hip with a good bruise to show for it. She wears it, and others she added on her arms when she slipped while ascending Hintok cave, as a badge of honor. My thighs burned for two days after this climb.

18 The railbed is still there, of course, though the rails were removed after the war. Rod has explored the entire Thai half of the railway, hacking his way through the jungle that overgrew it. He is the expert on the Death Railway and the author of a couple of books on it. I ve been obsessed as well with it since 1982 but I m a grade schooler in comparison.

20 When we re there working the dig, Suparerk a great, happy, relaxed, down-to-earth guy for someone with 1,000 employees tears up the bills. We re doing this as volunteers, as we do most things, like our canoe expeditions. That dino bone expedition this summer will be our third with Phil incidentally. The other two photo reports can be found by scrolling down the 2012 and 2014 offerings.

22 Did I say it s a beautiful site? It s worth repeating. There s two pools on the right fed by a stream that flows through the caves during the wet season.

23 We ve been working on this museum for years. There s still finishing touches to do but for all intentions and purposes, it is open. There s no admission charge. It s part of the offerings at the resort.

24 Please come on in and look around. We still need to add a display case to the left wall and one in the middle of the room. But I can no longer wait to show you around what we ve been doing for so many years!

25 Rod knows something designing museums. He built the magnificent Death Railway Museum in Kanchanaburi. It s for keeping the memory alive of the horror that took place here that he s been knighted by the Dutch, awarded the Australia Medal by the Aussies and had an MBE pinned on him by Prince Charles. Like Phil with all his awards, he clanks when he walks.

26 The Death Museum is nothing less than incredible. If you want to learn about the railway, this is the place. There s two other museums in town but one is a simple bamboo knock up of the living quarters with mildewed pictures, and the other, near the bridge, is an abomination. A junky mish-mash of anything the owner wanted to throw into it, much of it having nothing to with the stated theme.

27 The Death Railway Museum is across from the war graves cemetery which Rod was also the commissioner of until recently.

28 Ours is much simpler. Of course. But we re proud of it. I sure am!

29 The dig is an on going Explorers Club Flag expedition.

31 The Stone Age stuff is my area. I wrote the placards.

32 The baby skeleton we found in the nearby Death Cave is on the right.

35 The POW room is Sir Rod s.

38 We re still stocking the cases, and they ll need labels.

39 Finds from along the railway.

40 Video room for the loops fellow Explorers Club member and filmmaker Les Nordhauser produced showing us at work in Hintok and the Death Cave, and being interviewed.

41 There s still lots of finds to be made along the railway. This resort employee brought this to our attention.

42 It s the guidance system for a Brit early smart bomb, and operated a fin. Rod bought it from the fellow for 200 baht, or about $8CAN, and it was added to a display case at the big museum in Kanchanaburi the next day.

43 And we ll finish with a genuine descendent of cavemen: my DNA reveals I m 4% Neanderthal, higher than average. Yes, it explains a lot. And this also reveals my new haircut. I love being free of the humungous hassle of long hair and I m sick of seeing man buns on everyone from 18 to 80 all over the world.

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