“Kanchanaburi – the scene of the World War II Death Railway – And now home to The Tiger Temple”.
This is a little far away from Bangkok (2.5 Hours) but it’s worth it!!!
Kanchanaburi is a town in the west of Thailand and connected to our neighbor “Myanmar”.
Kanchanaburi, which is located where the Khwae Noi and Khwae Yai rivers converge into the Mae Klong river, its location at the edge of a mountain range keeping it much cooler than the other provinces of central Thailand.
You can make this trip even if you will only be in Bangkok a few days , just try to get up early and leave Bangkok around 7.30 in the morning, it will take about 2.5 hrs to get to Kanchanaburi.
Start at the World War II Cemetery:
There are 2 cemeteries in Kanchanaburi called “Dok Rak” and “Chong Kai” cemetery. But I went to Dok Rak Cemetery because this cemetery is bigger than the other one.
The cemetery contains the remains of 6,982 Allied prisoners of War who perished during the construction of the “Death Railway” (while the other cemetery contains 1,740 allied prisoners)
The cemetery is beautifully maintained and very peaceful, but very sad. Reading the inscriptions from the families whose loved ones are buried so far away from them was heart wrenching.
And now let’s move over to the Death Railway… this iron bridge (THAI: Saphan Kam Mae Nam Kwae) across the Kwai Yai River is the main attraction for many visitors.
You can cross the bridge on foot but just be careful of small children!
The Kwai river provides a beautiful view with the mountains and trees , and wonderful landscape. Nearby the Bridge you can stop for lunch at the restaurant on a raft, it’s a great relaxing moment.
The bridge is still used locally, it is possible to take one of the trains that cross the bridge every day. The ride from Nam Tok to the River Kwai Bridge station takes a bit longer than 2 hours.
I wished I can take the train ride but today, we took the long tail boat first…!
You can find a long tail boat service very easy near the bridge, the price is about 700-1500 baht depends on the tour program along the river and your negotiate skill.
Today, I got the long tail boat at 700 baht (Not sure it’s the best price I can make – but don’t forget I’m Thai!) I asked to stop for Monkey school and The Cave (as we would like to go the Tiger temple today, but if you have time, you can pick more stops from their program…but I think these two stops were the best choices!)
There are too many disco boats on this river, these are barges turned bar that float or stay tied to the bank… The floating ones are usually private parties.
It’s a really nice ride and our first stop at “Monkey School” (unfortunately they have shut this Monkey School down since my visit in 2011).
This was a real school to teach monkeys to gather such things as coconuts. The show was pretty impressive!!!
The monkeys also demonstrated basketball slam dunking, harvesting coconuts, diving for a watch and riding a bike..they throw a little humor into the show which had us laughing!
One of us was part of the monkey show!
And I found a good thing about the monkey school is, they will start the show right away when you get in, no matter how many tourist (some place, they have to gather people or they have the show time and make you wait!)
But anyway, it was just good time – I hope they will be back in the school business again!
The next stop and the last stop for us is Khao Poon Cave.
There is a temple in front of the cave. The admission is 50 baht each.
When you walked-in, there will be some small tour guide (watch out- they are really small!). The local students will offer you to be your tour guide.
Inside this cave are many beautiful Buddha images in different postures which make the climb worthwhile. The stalactites and stalagmites are interesting.
At last we took pictures with our small tour guides – they didn’t ask to charge for the service but it would be nice to tip them some money for hard working (at least they walked with us – and it’s a long walk!!!)
By the way, when you walk back to the boat – stop to take some picture right here, it’s really cool spot!!!
(รูปอชาเบกับคนขับเรือ)
