3 Buses in a Single Day

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We woke up early yet again to catch a 7am bus to Kanchanaburi which we had booked ourselves onto the night before. Our choice of booking with a less-than-reputable-looking travel company had us panicking when our bus had failed to turn up by 7:10. It turned out that the bus was waiting outside our hostel, rather than outside the travel company "office" (a table inside a bar) where we were actually told to wait. Luckily we didn't miss it and were headed off on the 2 hour drive west of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi.

Our main reason for visiting this area was to view the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai". It was a bridge that the Japanese Army forced thousands of allied PoWs to construct during WWII under horrific conditions, with the aim to directly connect Japan with Burma. Due to these conditions, over 60,000 people died (16,000 being PoWs) during the construction and subsequent bombings by the Allies. Over 7000 of these PoWs have been laid to rest within the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery which was the first place we visited. The cemetery was vast and beautifully kept, with some very touching quotes on some of the graves stones.

After about 20 minutes of wandering around the cemetery, we boarded the bus to head to the JEATH WWII Museum which was situated in full view of the Bridge. JEATH standing for the countries where the PoWs came from - Japan, England, America, Australia, Thailand and Holland. On our way however, our bus driver managed to collide with a biker (the bus driver's fault) and so we were stranded for a good ten minutes while we waited for another to pick us up. Luckily the biker was alright, only suffering bruises. The museum was filled with a fair few artefacts, newspaper clippings and written information of the construction of the bridge, which was very interesting to view. On the outside balcony of the bridge, we were able to view the bridge and a train crossing, however for some reason our tour guide disappointingly did not take us to the actual bridge itself.

We boarded the bus again (our new one) which took us to the river edge where we were given lunch in a floating hut which was quite surreal. Following lunch, we boarded the bus again to visit the Sai Yok National Park & Waterfall, although we managed to get a burst tire and so had to yet again, swap to another bus, this time returning to our original and now dented bus. The park resided at the end of the "Death Railway" with the line terminating at Nam Tok Station, and was in nice surroundings. The waterfall was quite impressive and since the source was only a 800m walk-away, we decided to pay it a visit. On our way up, we took a look at a cave and clambered down inside the darkness, managing to appear out the other end in one piece.

Our final leg of this tour was to take an actual trip on the train which leaves Nam Tok Station. As we found, this was a normal public train, well-used by the school children in the area. Our journey didn't really amount to much and we didn't stay on long enough to cross the bridge as we had to meet up with the bus which was to take us home. The views from the train as it traversed along the cliff edge were quite impressive giving views of typical Thai forests and farmland, as well as the frightening view downwards to the river below.

After arriving back at the hostel and taking a much needed shower, we did the usual and headed out for a sit-down meal, a few drinks, and a stroll around the markets on Khao San Road.

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Photos

Bridge over the River Kwai
A view of the famous bridge from the JEATH museum.

Lunch on the River
The place where we stopped for a spot of lunch.