After a very long travel day/evening we arrived at Kanchanaburi and walked in the hot sun for 15 minutes to get to our hostel- T guesthouse by the river. It was only 11ish but thankfully we were able to check in. This was a great relief as it meant we could put our stuff away and shower after the night and day train and walking in the heat, we were a bit of a mess by this point. The room itself was very basic with twin beds that were as hard as rocks and a small gecko and ant filled bathroom- but this is what we could afford here, as things were a lot more expensive generally here. We had splashed out a little so that we still had AC and a hot shower, the even cheaper options were fan bungalows on the river which we weren’t feeling in all this humidity. The room itself had a nice private terrace area that looked out over the river Kwai. At this time of day it was peaceful and beautiful. The hostel itself had a nice communal terrace with what was supposed to be a bar area although no one attended it the days we were there.
Now much fresher we wanted to make the most of our time here as we only had a couple of days. Our first stop was to walk to the Death Railway Museum (150B entrance). This museum was very informative about the history in the area and of the Death Railway that was built under Japanese occupation using prisoners of war from a host of countries. It was something that I knew the name of but didn’t really know any of the history of this brutal place and the museum did a good job at explaining it with lots of information boards, displays, videos and memorabilia from the time. At the end of the exhibitions we sat in the small coffee shop having our free tea/coffee and reflecting on what we had just learnt about whilst overlooking the war memorials opposite. The plan after this was to walk to the Bridge on the River Kwai- part of the structures built as part of this operation to carry the train across the river and into the jungle towards the border of Thailand. First we needed food though so we popped into a local restaurant and asked for our standard order of thai basil chicken (Pad Kapow gai). For a very side of the road, local place it had good spice levels (70B each).
From here we made our way through Kanchanaburi town to the Bridge over the river kwai. It was a straight run but it was midday and it was roasting, as well as being a much longer walk than anticipated- 40 minutes to the bridge. We kept getting beeped by taxis but we had committed to the walk and wanted to save ourselves some money. We did have to get ice creams though to help with the heat! We eventually made it to the bridge and there were a lot of people everywhere as well as a huge market. It is a huge tourist attraction and a lot of people also come from Bangkok on a day trip to see the bridge and to ride the train. After learning about the history and horrors of this place, with so many deaths from building this bridge/ railway it was strange to see lots of people posing for photos and selfies at it. The scenery itself on the river is stunning but still…
We wandered over the bridge and along the tracks the otherside where there were no longer railings and the tracks started to disappear into the jungle. It was much quieter this side with a lot of people only wandering a short journey. After taking in this place we started the long walk back in the sun to the hostel.
The walk did reveal the main strip of Kanchanaburi which was not as I had pictured. All the pictures you see are of quaint raft houses on the river. The main strip is filled with bars and quite western restaurants with a lot of white old men in them (especially in the evening with all the thai women sat out front). This was helpful though as we managed to find an Aussie pub filled with blokes where we could watch the England vs Australia rugby game and have a couple of Chang's each (75B each). We spent the game chatting with an Aussie guy that lived in Thailand and his young son which was entertaining in itself!
Now dark we made our way to find some food. On the map we had seen that there was supposed to be a night market by the train station. At first it looked mainly like it would just be clothes but after walking through to the back we found the biggest food selection of our trip with a huge variety of foods. After scouting out what there was, we went around a second time to buy various foods- red chicken on sticks (10B each). chicken and ric (35). spicy sausage (22nd), pandan waffle (10) and coconut juice (25B). We took all our goodies back to have a feast on the terrace of our hostel. We made use of the communal terrace as well to catch up on some bits in the evening.
Unfortunately the peaceful place it had been in the day was not the same at night. The hostel itself was quiet but across the river was a bar/festival area on the water that blasted out music and people horrendously singing karaoke until 5am! Thankfully despite the rock bed and the music we did actually manage to sleep quite well as we were so exhausted from not sleeping on the day before. We were up and ready early anyway though as we were going to visit Erawan waterfalls today- this will be in the next blog!
Thanks
Alex
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