Blogs from Kanchanaburi, Western Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 51

Backtracking...currently we're in Vientianne, Laos, heading south to Pakse. We have a 10 hour overnight bus tonight. We're just hoping the "V.I.P. bus" is as good as it claims to be! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok on the 11th July and headed west to Kanchanaburi on the 12th. Only a two hour bus ride that took us into the the green hills. A small city, Kanchanaburi is home to the "Bridge over the River Kwai" and the infamous Death Railway. During WWII, the Japanese set up POW workcamps to build a railway line to get goods through Thailand and into Burma. The living conditions were poor, and thousands of men died, including many Westerners. We visited the Death Railway Museum which explained all the history and displayed some graphic photos. Next to it ... read more

We took a day trip from Bangkok up to Kanchanaburi to have a look at the famous bridge over the River Kwai. We made a stop at the war rememberance garden where soldiers from both sides were buried. It was quite an emotional place to visit. We also caught a train ride, lucky enough we caught it with a school outing, which was loads of fun, thai kids everywhere. The train ride over we headed on over to a local water fall to take in the sights.... read more

Our hotel, the "Blue Star Guesthouse", is located on River Khwae Road, which runs parallel to the river. We pick a beautiful little wooden bungalow on stilts at the back of the hotel. Our balcony looks over to the river. I'm a bit worried we'll be flooded with mozzies but it turns out there aren't any really at all round here... I'll try not to waffle on in this entry - the photos will speak for themselves. Suffice to say that Kanchanaburi is a town with a fascinating albeit painful history, but one which has an awful lot going for it. It is beautiful here - deeply relaxing, with people even friendlier than usual, many delicious eateries (not to mention a profusion of snack vendors), and a fantastic setting nestled between wooded hilly ranges. The photos ... read more

We bussed down from Sukhothai back to Bangkok on a very tight time schedule as we had one day scheduled in Bangkok and our sole aim for that day was to do a tour to the Kanchanaburi province to see the bridge over the river Kwai and also to see some tigers at a buddhist monastery. Our bus was due to arrive in Bangkok at 3.30pm so we had about 2 and a half hours to get to a travel agent to book ourselves on the tour, easy - or so we thought. Unfortunately we ran into a massive thunderstorm about 2 hours away from Bangkok which brought traffic to a standstill and numerous accidents occurred. We eventually arrived at the bus station at 5pm to find our bags were soaked as they were at the ... read more

Ok guys so as you know we arrived in Kanchanaburi yesterday. We have read that there is loads of stuff to do here so we hope to make the most of it. We have found ourselves to be enjoying Asia loads so far, the weather has been red hot, it never lets up. When we occasionally get an air con room, we find ourselves with the air con on full whack and us under the blankets to keep warm. Strange. Today our intention was to see a few sights around town and maybe book on a tour for tomorrow. We set off walking down to the JEATH museum. Now for the history lesson. JEATH stands for Japan, England, Australia, Thailand, Holland, all the people who were involved in the building of the bridge over the river ... read more