Kanchanaburi

After our stops at Thung Wua Laen and Cha Am Beaches, we headed for Kanchanaburi. It is not actually on the way but it is a small detour. It is less than three hours drive from Cha Am and I have always wanted to see it.

This was our first ever visit to Kanchanaburi so we decided to stay two nights. That is nowhere near enough to fully explore the area but it is a chance to look a round.

If you don't know the area, this is the place where the Bridge on the River Kwai was built. It is not actually called the River Kwai - that was a creation of the movie - but the basis of the story is true. This is the area of the death railway where in WWII, thousands of allied pows and locals were forced by the Japanese army to work under intolerable conditions building them a railway. 100,000 pows and locals died and the few survivors suffered incredible hardship. This horrible part of history is a sombering backdrop for what is actually a beautiful location.

We made our way to the river to look for accomodation and were soon given an interesting option. You can rent big rafts for a trip down the river and an overnight sleep on the river. These are big solid wooden affairs that can easily accommodate 20 people or more. You have a choice of basic rafts or a party option with karaoke or a disco. Since there were only six of us we went for the basic option - 2000 baht for the trip. The Karaoke rafts have their own generator and DJ provided and cost 3,500 baht.

They are towed by small motor boats down the river and you make a few stops along the way. We saw one of the war cemetaries, a well known local temple where one of the nuns meditates by floating in water (mae chee loy nam). There is also a fairly standard monkey show. In the evening you are moored up at the side of the river. You are sort of in the jungle but not actually very far from civilisation. There is a little shop and showers on the bank.

The only problem is all the other rafts are also moored here and the disco rafts make one hell of a racket. Still they all finish by midnight. You sleep out in the open air so a good supply of insect repellant is essential. I only slept for three or four hours but that was okay. At 3am I couldn't sleep so I sat at the back of the raft sipping a beer and watching the sky. It is amazing how many more stars you can see when you are away from all the lights of civilisation. It was actually very beautiful and relaxing.

The next day we found a nice bungalow resort in town by the river (1400 baht for two good air-con bungalows). We checked out the famous bridge and the nearby war museum. We did a little fun train trip across the bridge and back for 20 baht each. There are lots of great restaurants along the river so we had a good eat up in the evening.

There is still much to see in Kanchanaburi so we will have to come again. I want to see Erawan National Park and the waterfalls (although this is not the best time of year) and also the big dam and lake. Still we had to go because we wanted to reach Nakon Nayok before Songkran so they will have to wait for another time.