Kanchanaburi Chapter 1 (Travelogue : Journey to the "Death Railway" Town)

It was the morning of 9th April 2017 at Kokotel Bangkok. Yesterday was a long day experiencing the city of Bangkok. Today, the journey will continue out of the bustling city to the west of Thailand , Kanchanaburi Province.

We checked out one of the room and leave another. The reason was, to put all the bags in one room so we won't have to carry everything to Kanchanaburi, oh yes we will stay a night there. TIPS: Some people go to Kanchanaburi in the morning and come back at night, but honestly that will be very tiring, it is better to stay a night there.

We leave Kokotel around 8.30AM and took a taxi to Southern Bus Terminal or Sai Tai Mai. We won't have the time for proper breakfast so biscuits from 7Eleven it is. The fare from Surawong to Sai Tai Mai was 250THB per taxi. Actually, the night before i already asked the receptionist to wrote down this bus terminal in Thai. TIPS: Bangkok has 3 bus terminal, Southern, Eastern and Chatuchak (MoChit), each serves a different routes & destination. So by writing it down in Thai, you will reach the correct terminal, u don't wanna end up at a wrong one for sure.

the terminal Sai Tai Mai

The terminal is quite big with buses and taxis. It was around 8.30AM at that time. Before we went and buy the ticket to our destination, our eyes were stuck at the clothes they sell at the entrance. It was so cheap!, u buy one for 100THB, u buy two for 150THB, for almost all of the items.

booths selling clothes and bags

Without further ado, we crashed into the booths, hiks :P . I got myself a pants that i can wear for jogging or running. Jenny got herself a pair of sunglasses, 10times cheaper than Patpong or Silom for sure. They also sell girdle and tops here. I think this tiny booths at the entrance of Sai Tai Mai maybe open just on Sunday or the weekend. But aint we lucky hmm?.

After the 'accidental shopping' hihi. we went up to the ticket counter. There was one local girl that actually showed us the way to the counters, she saw we were looking around and offered help. I've to say that Thais are generally nice people.

Ticket booth to Kanchanaburi

There are sooo many counters up there homaigerrd!, I was looking for ticket booth number 80, but there were just too many and the numbers are scattered. I can see Pattaya, Phuket, Surat Thani, Chiang Mai at the front row. So i decided to ask, Ija did at one of the counter and she said 'back counters'. The counter actually located at the last rows. TIPS: The counter for the ticket to Kanchanaburi is 79 and 80. Rows from 70 and upper are located at the back rows, u just have to search the number and ask around if u cant find it. The bus ticket from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi is 110THB. The bus number is 81 and the platform number is 10.

walking to the bus station via car park #hancing

The salesgirl told us to go down the elevator and the bus station is there, so we did. However, the station below it is for the chartered van. I showed the ticket to the staff there and she said 'no this van, bus u go over there' while pointing to the inside parking area. So we followed her advise and walk through the dark parking space to the other side, creepy. And there we saw rows of buses waiting for passengers.

the ticket and the station, yawnn

off we go!

We hop onto the bus, air conditioned thank god, hiks. The bus departed from Bangkok at 10AM and like the older days, a ticket inspector checked our tix, hihi felt like im in 1990's. It made 2 stops to pickup passengers along the way. The journey took around 2.5 hours through the countryside and small towns with everything written in Thai, so i dont know where we were. Until I saw the sign Sangchuto Road, yep we are now in Kanchanaburi.

Kanchanaburi Bus station - welcome!

The bus made it final stopped at the Kanchanaburi bus station, yeay! Welcome to Kanchanaburi, a city established by King Rama I. First thing i feel was the heat, the extreme heatwave from the sun. It was like my skin peeling off me. The bus station is not so big since Kanchanaburi itself is a small town. Our arrivals has been welcomed with the offers from TukTuk. I do wanna negotiate with the TukTuk for our trip here.

in the TukTuk - taken by me for Bella via mamamuezza.blogspot

Luckily, the guy can speak English, so he started showing us places he can bring and all. But i already know where i wanna go. So i made the itinerary for him, and he agreed. He promoted Elephant tour and Tiger Kingdom to me, nope wrong person. Honey, i dont support animal abuse for tourism. For the first day tour, i got the deal of 1500THB for 3 destinations. Where will we go?, well u gotta read this entry till the end, hiks. TIPS: If you wanna do ur trip with the TukTuk, you can deal with them here. They will be your tour guide and take you to places you want. You have to negotiate the price to get the best deal. The price is per TukTuk not per person. They put info and police number inside it, good ay?

tourist police number in TukTuk, keep it in case of emergency!

First thing first, check -in to our hotel. He suggested that we do the tour first and check in later, but i prefer to check in first as i don't want my booking to be cancelled. Our hotel is VN Guesthouse, one of the floating hotel by River Kwae. From the bus station, its just around 5minutes drive to our hotel.

VN Guesthouse by River Kwai

The receptionist was expecting us at that time, weird. She said 'yes u book 4 raft rooms?'. We paid 550THB per room per night, we booked 4 rooms in total as 1 room accommodate 2 person. Btw our TukTuk driver name is Nam. I asked him to gave us 10min to put our bags inside.

VN Guesthouse, purrfect for 1 night stay by the River

The raft rooms are located on the edge of the River Kwae, the surrounding area of this hotel is pretty with flowers and water plants. Staying for one night here would be perfect for me at least. TIPS: There were several others floating raft rooms along the river, next to us is Tara Raft House. So you can choose from a few hotels available.

The balcony at raft rooms, amayzing huh?

The hotel is basic with private toilet, 'interestingly' it cant be flushed, cos there are no flush, i guess all your 'production' goes directly to the bottom of the river? Idk. What i love the most is the balcony, u can sit and enjoy the river from here, unique! TIPS: If you are planning to choose this hotel, there are choices whether u want a raft room or non raft, the options widen with air conditioned or fan with the latter is a bit cheaper. My advise is, choose airconditioned cos Kanchanburi is friggin hot esp in mid year. The raft rooms sometimes will swing just a bit when a jet-ski pass by (yes idk why they have jet-ski here, its a river not a sea), and u will maybe feel a bit dizzy, just a bit at first. The center rooms can connect well to the Wifi and the last room cant connect at all (sha and bella got this room, sorry girls!). Video below aken by Ija showed how our room looks like!! <3 Thanks Kakak!.

We then hop on to our TukTuk and first thing first, LUNCH!. We didn't eat anything yet, just some biscuits. I asked Nam to bring us to a halal restaurant. TIPS: From what i read before, there is one muslim restaurant here called Dawudcha in Sangchuto Rd. For halal foodie I mean. If not, lotsss of options available here!

Dawudcha restaurant written 100% in Thai, the signboard

The generations of Dawudcha family portraits, i guess their great grandpa came from mideast or India

The restaurant was just around 10 minutes drive away from our hotel. It was written in Thai, all of the sign and names. I asked em the name of the restaurant and the chef said 'Dawudcha'. Correct! :D. They serve Thai food mostly, from Tomyam, Green Curry to Somtam and it was affordable. Sherry said the tomyam is so-so, the fried rice is delicious though.

into the TukTuk - Next stop: River Kwai Bridge

After the lunch, i felt more energetic! katanyaaa, hiks. Our first destination is The River Kwae Bridge. The drive to the River Kwae was around 10minutes. The drive is not the issue here, the heat is. As TukTuk is open air, the heat is stronger. Even the wind is hot, darnn. TIPS: For smoother and more comfortable journey, you may book the air conditioned van from tour agencies. But it will cost more than TukTuk. For example per TukTuk for 1 day tour is 1500THB/TukTuk while for tour van is 1500/person. So you can do the math. One of the tour agency that you can be prebook based on your itinerary is Good Time Travel.

Bridge on the River Kwai

We reached the bridge around 2PM. So why do we visit a train station? hahaha. It is one of the famous landmark in Kanchanaburi, especially since it appear in the movie Bridge On The River Kwai. Its not made for the movie yaaa, it was built during the Japanese occupancy of Thai region.

whole lotta people this day!

The movie was released on 1957. It was based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai (1952) by Pierre Boulle. The movie mainly about the prisoners of war (POW) who are forced to work on the construction of a railway bridge at Japanese prison camp in Burma . The incidents portrayed in the film are mostly fictional, and though it depicts bad conditions and suffering caused by the building of the Burma Railway and its bridges, historically the conditions were much worse than depicted. Some of the famous script involving Colonel Saito is:

Colonel Saito: Do you know what will happen to me if the bridge is not built on time?
Colonel Nicholson: I haven't the foggiest.
Colonel Saito: I'll have to kill myself. What would you do if you were me?
Colonel Nicholson: I suppose if I were you... I'd have to kill myself.
Colonel Nicholson: [raising the glass of scotch he previously declined] Cheers!
-The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

River Kwai Yai - bridge: completed 1943

A lil history on it, During World war 2, The Japanese army invaded several South East Asian countries, Thailand and Malaysia included. They constructed the meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma, now known as Myanmar. The rail line runs for 250 miles and is now known as the Death Railway. The river Kwai bridge is part of it. The railway line was build not just to commute but also to transport cargo daily to India, because the Japanese were planning to attack India as well, shame on you greedy nippon! (they did apologise to all south east asian nation though). The construction was done using POWs and Asian slave laborers in unfavorable conditions.

The train station, halt!

The bridge, well used to be bridges, construction begun in October 1942 which spanned the Mae Klong river (renamed Kwai Yai river in 1960) using prisoner of war (POW) labour. The 1st bridge was a wooden one, and the 2nd steel as what u can see now. The wooden trestle bridge was completed in February 1943, and the steel bridge in April 1943. Both bridges were subjected to numerous attacks by Allied aircraft (British, Australia etc) during the period December 1944 to June 1945. The present bridge has two of its central spans rebuilt. The original parts of the bridge are now displayed in the War Museum which i will talk in my upcoming entries, so gotta keep reading yall.

buskers, taken Bella at mamamuezza.blogspot

There were lots of people that day here, maybe cos its Sunday. People were walking along that bridge, some even crossed it to go to the next station. There is a floating restaurant beside the steel bridge and a temple with huge Buddha covered in gold on the other side of the bridge. Near the entrance to the bridge, some buskers were performing for tips. They were quite talented, maybe u can request some thai song if u tip em well. hihi. TIPS: If you are interested to take a good photography of this historic bridge, do come early morning and weekdays if possible. Less heat and less people.

Do note that this train station is still functioning and train does pass thru it daily. So, you can take a train from here to few other stations along the Death Railway which i will explain more later in this entry, thats right keep readin' :P . TIPS: Apart from that, for a more scenic adventure, you can also take a train from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi passing these stations. The passenger train is 3rd class only and only 3 trains a day, but its not like what u imagined, its well maintained and clean. If you have extra budget, there is a tourist train as well from Bangkok using the same railway. Info on the passenger train timetable can be found here.

Bangkok - Kanchanaburi - Nam Tok

3rd class trains only!	train # 485		train # 257		train # 259
	depart	arrive	depart	arrive	depart	arrive
Bangkok (Thonburi)			07:45		13:35
Nakhon Pathom			08:54		14:52
Kanchanaburi	05:57		10:45		16:19
River Kwai Bridge	06:05		10:55		16:26
Thakilen	07:19		11:37		17:33
Tham Krasae	07:38		11:41		17:51
Wang Pho	07:49		11:52		18:01
Nam Tok		08:20		12:20		18:3

We don't really have the luxury of time to wait and hop on to the train sadly, maybe in future i can come with Syl and truly explore more of Kanchanaburi, i guess, altho he is not a fan of Thailand, hiks. Back to my story, as the sun was burning my skin, i decided to go inside the market area.

markets right and left along the rail line

Yup. there is a market here selling souvenirs and bags if u wanna do some window shopping. I did bought an owl bag, bcosss 1- it is cute, 2- my grey bag decided to 'retired' hiks. Sha did bought the bag as well for her sister.

Soon after, we got back to the TukTuk in sweat, lol. Oh yes, there is fruits & finger food sold along the street as well. Nam speed up the TukTuk to our next stop, the other half of the The Death Railway, Tham Krasae.

Thamkrasae station

It is the 3rd last station before the train reach Nam Tok. It was about 15min drive from River Kwae station. The moment i step out of the TukTuk i felt like needles poking my skin continuously, my oh my the weather is 43'c!!! . Sherry and the rest cant no longer bear the heat the decided to just sit under a tree. The heat doesn't break me, hahahaha. I walked to the death bridge still and Sherry was like 'where did u got ur energy', hihihi.

Tham Krasae bridge , another half of the Death Railway. Pretty view isn't it?

Tham Krasae is the station for the wooden trestle bridges along River Kwai Noi. The train itself is said to look the same as it did since the decades ago when it first passed through these mountains along the cliff-hugging tracks. Many POW and Asian laborers (the most) died in building this terrifying bridge. Most of them died because of exhaustion, regular beatings, infection, and malnutrition. TIPS: As i said earlier, if you opted for the train ride from River Kwai bridge, you will pass by this wooden bridge. In addition, the scenic ride will let you experience the view of the paddy fields, river, forests and mountainside while passing through old POW camps.

Our time was purrrfect as 5 minutes later, the train passed the bridge! How lucky of us :D. Slowly it glide on the rail by the hillside. We captured this moment on video!

After the train made its way along the cliff, my next activiity was, picturesssss, hihi. Maybe next time i will got the chance to ride the train passing by River Kwae bridge and Tham Krasae. TIPS: Dont put urself in danger by walking too far on the bridge, and if the train suddenly passes its not easy for u to stand on the side because there is simply no space. Don't become a stupid 'tourist' be a wise 'traveler'.

searching for the meaning of life, githuu!

We had a drink at a small restaurant in this station, a cold drink cos the heat was almost unbearable. a cold 100plus, arghh such a release!. Even the restaurant put water sprinkler on top of the roof! imagine that... pssssst

Nam was patiently waiting for us. So we hop back into the tuktuk and that was the end of our "railway session'. But the day was not over yet. We continued our way to our last destination of the day, Prasat Muang Sing Historical Park.

See ya peeps in my next entry! next stop: Prasat Muang Sing!

This entry is already longer than the River Kwai bridge, so it will be continued in the next entry, coming soon in blogspot near you, hiks :). <Chapter 2>