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Published: January 26th 2007
Bridge Over The River Kwai
A modern perspective of a historic bridge before sunriseAfter little excitement in Bangkok, Kanchanaburi has been what we consider to be the real start of our backpacking journey. The immediate difference was the drop in accomodation price from 800 baht for a hostel in Bkk to 275.- for a floating bungalow on the river kwai... we arrived at Kanchanaburi via bus from Bkk (skytrain, boat, taxi and then bus to be precise) at 6pm. On arrival we quickly learned that tuk tuk drivers make thir money from comission off the guesthouses... we didnt like his recomendation so said we would look ourselves, now we are quite indecisive so it was probably an hour later when we handed over the baht, but when we did he pops up out of knowhere to claim he delivered us to the guest house!
kanchanaburi was beautiful, most of the places can be visited via the travel agencies which do organised tours to see all of the local atttractions for around 1500 baht per person. instead we decided to hire motorbikes for 150.- in total this was probably 500 baht as we needed a couple of days and fuel. it was great because we were able to save money and were completely flexible
Hellfire Pass
Displays the enormity of the cut-in POW's created without machines... im sitting at the base of the tree in how much time we wanted in each place. If you havent riden a motorbike before tho i wouldnt recomend it... road rules over here seem to be a little... non existant. for a start, the motor bike rental agencies dont ask if you know how to ride, they just get your passport and make you sign that you are completely liable for anything that might happen. so dont screw up, or you will be spending your hard earned cash on buying someone else a brand spanking new moped! when driving, we had people driving up the wrong side of the road, cars overtaking us whithout moving into the other lane because another car was overtaking them at the same time, and oncoming cars overtaking in our lane as we went past... we learnt to drive outside of the lane whenever the road was good enough!
of the major attractions at kanchanaburi were the tiger temple, elephant camps, erawan waterfall, hellfire pass, krasea cave, The bridge over river kwai and the various temples and museums...
the history behind the attractions relates to the second world war, in which japan wished to take over southeast asia, it had already
Erawan Waterfall
one step of the 7 stage waterfall, that falls in various places over 1.5kms. About a 2 hour hike/climb! infiltrated thailand, malaysia and burma and had recieved the unconditional surrender of singapore. because of this it had a massive amount of asian slaves and western POW's. They ignored their obligations to provide acceptable conditions for the prisioners and set them to work constructing a railway from bangkok to burma, in order to bring in reinforcements to their troops in burma more efficiently. With this railway came the need to cross the river kwai and to cut through various mountains up to 8 metres deep. This whole project was to be done with hand tools, and under a timeline such that work was continued late into the night. Many died under the harsh work, lack of food, and torture by the japanese troops.
The tiger temple was an amazing experience also: we arrived at the bus stop late, and worked out that we would not make it back it time to catch the bus to suphanburi - so we caught a taxi ( a ute with bench seats in the back) for 600 baht, that waited for us at the tiger temple and then brought us back in time. We got to pat like 5 tigers and got our
Tiger Cub
We caught this one at feeding time, you can see the traces of lunch on its nose! a very special, rare moment photos taken with each one, it was pretty rushed, more of a photo shoot than a tiger experience, but i got to see one of the tigers get angry as i sat near it, it went for one of the other tigers.... then coz we were there late, the monks put food on the road for all the other animals, there were all sorts there that we got to pat. Once everyone left we wondered over to this little cage, where 2 tiger cubs were...! the monk opened the cage for us and then just left so we were sitting there playing with the cubs!
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John Morgan
non-member comment
Great Blog
Hey great Blog guys, those tigers are bloody huge, I know your having a ball and don't want to waste time with the internet but Max is dying to see a few pics from the elephant safari, okay me to. Take care Love Dad xx