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Published: June 19th 2010
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The Khwae Yai River
The legendary River Kwai, as we call it. You can see the new bridge in the background Kanchanaburi
In the interest of saving time and still seeing as much as possible close to Bangkok, we signed up with a mini tour (8 people) to take us to Kanchanaburi, made famous by the 1957 movie, "Bridge on the River Kwai".
I was not prepared for the beautifully maintained cemetery grounds, or the poignant words inscribed on the headstones. There, in simple eloquence, parents, wives, siblings, children and other relatives spoke last sentences to soldiers who lost their lives in unspeakable conditions, as slave laborers on the Death Railway. The Thais have enormous respect and appreciation for these soldiers, and it's obvious by how well they maintain all the displays. There are books written on this subject, so I won't go into any detail, but it's very interesting and very emotional.
The river was much more beautiful than I ever imagined, with its quaint little houses built on rafts. We walked across the bridge and at the end, there was a little old man with a violin. When we told him we were American, he started playing the theme song from the movie, Bridge on the River Kwai. It brought tears to my eyes!
Kanchanaburi was
The Infamous Burma-Siam Bridge
Part of the original wooden bridge. so charming, clean, and one of the nicest, friendliest towns we visited. And fun to say. You should try it: Kan chan a bur EE. We wished we had all day to spend there.
But the tour people had other plans for us. There was the mandatory elephant ride through the jungle (and photo for a price). Then came the floating down the River Kwai on a bamboo raft to a place where we had a nice Thai lunch. We stopped at a waterfall that had more people than water, but was still nice. And for the grand finale, the Tiger Temple, which is actually a huge nature preserve for all types of animals, from piglets to peacocks, horses, monkeys, goats and so on.
The next day, we took another mini van to Ratchaburi, where we went to see the oldest floating market, the Damnoen Saduak. It was still pretty touristy, but you could get a sense from the amazing array of fruits, vegetables and spices that it was not just for tourists like the markets immediately around Bangkok.
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