2010 Quiet Lion Tour Report

By Maddison Platt

It’s hard to explain the feeling you get when you’re told you were chosen out of 12 students to go on a fully paid for tour of a life time. It’s kind of like the feeling you get when you’re at Hellfire Pass on Anzac day remembering the men that have died there. The feeling that I am talking about is the happiness and pride. Happiness because of the great opportunity I was given and pride because you’re proud to be an Australian and know that you have people in your country that will fight for freedom.

The tour was an experience that can’t be explained, the first three days are all about learning the history of Thailand, the tour guides we had with us are very smart and funny they told as a lot of history and explained ancient stories and any questions you had were always answered. But the trip also took me to places that I would have never heard about or learnt about in school, I was told stories that most of my generation won’t hear.

Standing on the railway you begin to realise the horrible story there is to be told, the ex POWs that came on the trip Bill Haskell, Snow Fairclough and Neil MacPherson all tell their stories to you when ever you have a question, they’re more than happy to answer them and they always have a funny joke to share here and there.

ANZAC DAY

The day starts at 3am and begins at Hellfire Pass, it was definitely the climax for the tour and made every thing that we had learnt over the past 10 days seem so much more real.

After Hellfire Pass there is another service at the cemetery where all the Australians are buried, across the road is the museum called the Thailand Burma Railway museum and it’s a walk through of the history with real collected items from the POWs.

The day is fantastic it was the best day of the trip for me because I got to reflect on the reason I was in Thailand and I got to remember all those soldiers that went through what the did for me and my country.

Friends were made over the duration of the trip not just Australian and they range from young and old, the Thai people are beautiful, the tour guides and the POWs are always helpful and always have so much to share. Food is beautiful and the Home Phu Toey resort has the best service I have ever had including in Australia. The resort itself is very welcoming and there are two pools one for the adults and the other for the children on hot days, which is every day.

I recommend the tour to whoever is or isn’t thinking of going. It’s an experience of a life time and I guarantee the best tour you will ever go on, it will make you want to go again because you can never learn enough from just going once.

I would like to say thank you to all the sponsors who have made it possible to give me the privilege to experience the Quiet Lion Tour.

Thank You

Cadet Madison Platt

Army Unit 504 Mandurah