Living on the River - Kanchanaburi

On Sunday we said goodbye to Joe and Bangkok and set off for Kanchanaburi. Kanch is a region made famous by the move, "The Bridge over the River Kwai," but also has many other things to offer the tourist/backpacker.

We arrived at the bus stations and took a pcik-up truck taxi to the main backpacker strip (for whatever reason, all taxi rides in this area consist of getting on the backs of covered pcik-up trucks - nice breeze). A really cool thing about this area is that many of the guesthouses have accomodations that are literally on the Kwai River (see pics).

View from our room at Sugar Cane

Though our rooms are far from luxurious and we have discovered that we are sharing them with a family of salamanders, waking up to sunrise right on the river is really really cool (and so is paying 5 bucks a night).

Our Deck (comes with mosquitos free of charge)

Sugar Cane Guesthouse

On Monday we decided to take a guided tour that coveed the highlights of Kancha. First off was a hike and swim up the incredible 7-tiered waterfall, Erawan Falls. Virtually a water playground paradise, this was easily the highlight of the entire trip so far, an one of the coolet experiences I've ever had. Something about jumping off rocks through waterfalls into crystal-blue water just does not get old. The waterfalls were breathtaking, and we even saw a group of monkeys during the hike.

At the bottom of Erawan

Mike gets major air

Fall #2? (i think?)

Next we visited Hellfire Pass and its War Museum.

Hellfire Pass WWII Memorial Museum

Hellfire Pass was a stretch of railroad cut through solid rock (a sort of gorge) that the Japanese forced POWs and other Asians to build during WWII.

Hellfire Pass

Following this, we saw a cave that was a war-time malaria hospital now converted to a Buddha-filled temple, and the bridge over the River Kwai itself (they try to hype it up, but it's really just a bridge....).

Cave near hellfire pass. I don't know why my hat is so shiny.

Bridge over the River Kwai

One of the most entertaining parts of the day was conversing with our Thai guide, Mai, who was very charismatic, though had a very poor grasp of the English language. Her answers to our questions were basically always an oblivious "Yes" accompanied with a smile and a laugh, even when we her answers contradicted each other. Often she would not even realize we were asking questions. Example:

Us (sweating vigorously after our hike): Hey Mai, is there AC in the restaurant we are going to?
Mai (smiling and laughing): hahahah
Us (shrugging): ....

Though we perhaps didn't learn as much as we could have, our conversations ended up being sources of constant humor throughout the day.

After our tour, we hung out at some of the bars around the strip that were all somewhat empty and desperate for clientele. It seems like, in general, whether due to the economy tanking our it just being the off-season, the tourist trail is significantly less crowded than what I expected. This is a great thing when it comes to sight-seeing (we had the waterfalls to ourselves most of the time) and having cultural experiences, but it would be nice if there were more travelers out to meet. This will probably change, for better or worse, when we get to the islands down south.

Today (Tuesday) we will wrap up here and head to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. More later.

written by

bhkann on June 23, 2009 from Kanchanaburi, Thailand

from the travel blog: Ben's SE Asia Voyage

tagged Kanchanaburi and ErawanFalls

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