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Mathos

Nice thread pal, photographs are good as well.

It's a nice place to visit.

Trust your mum and her hubby enjoyed it too.

The River Kwai Bridge Resort is a nice place, I haven't stayed there myself, but I know a couple who have and they were quite pleased with the same.

Did you climb all the way to the top of The Erawan Falls.


(Well done Sabang,,Green)

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sabang

Thanks again all, & back to the thread- my Monitor went on the blink, so have been computerless for a couple of days.

We didn't make it there Mathos, but they are the best falls around here- maybe the best in Thailand. Next time, I'll do Erawan and then head up towards Burma and the Three Pagodas Pass. Definitely nice country.

River Kwai Bridge Road is a strip of bars and restaurants, mostly catering for the backpacker market. You can find somewhere that suits you, whether it's one of those Timewarp to the 60's and 70's places where you can pretend you're a pseudo Hippy, something more conventional, somewhere more Thai oriented (and upmarket) or just somewhere quiet.

We followed a recommendation from a Thai girl at a pseudo hippy bar (haven't seen those oil lamp projector things for years ) and had a meal at Schluck restaurant- excellent, highly recommended. The place prolly intimidates the backpacker brigade because it has an upmarket look and ambience- well over 50% of the clientele that night were Thai. It is cheap- not many places you can get a 500gm T Bone for around 200 bht, and precious few where you can both do that and pronounce the steak excellent. They also do pizzas and other stuff- quite an eclectic menu. Predictably, it does good trade too. The Jolly Frog (off the road) seems to be a perennial favourite of the Lonely Planet types.

A boat trip along the Kwai, with various stops, costs a very reasonable 800 bht to hire the boat, and we set off at 8am the next morning from our resort. I reckon this is a must do, unlike the Train scam.

the Bamboo resort floating bungalows from the river-



A bridge over the Kwai-



A Nother bridge over the Kwai-



The Crew-



Dear Mum sat this one out- she has a phobia of water, and these fishtail boats can sure move.

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good2bhappy

Great pics
Kanchanaburi is a nice province
I stayed at a resort on the menam Kwai Noi, nice and quiet
Had a great river trip as well

sabang

Quite a few of these maritime vendors about near the Town-







With all of these tourists, someone must be making serious money in Kanchanaburi. Now money may not buy you good Taste, but it does buy you a Good architect -



We're proceeding along the Little Kwai river-



Our first scheduled stop was evocatively described as "Nun floating in a Pool". With a short mini bus ride to get there, and no mention of whole or partial nudity, we kiboshed this one and kept going.

Who knows- maybe it was worth it.

sabang

Now get those tired legs moving- theres a fair few steps to do here, but the view from the top is well worth it -



Another chancer in the TD photo competition.
A Ho Hum fat Buddha-



An easy half kilometer walk to the Cave entrance, school assembly on the way-



They sting you for 40 bht 'donation' to get in. OK. Speleologists we are Not-



Plenty of Buddha stuff in the Labyrinth-



A very noisy cat indeed. Maybe it welcomed the company-



Ganesh has a cave too-



Claustrophobics need not apply-





You just keep following the arrows, and ultimately come out at a seperate entrance. On the walk back-

sabang

Now this was exceedingly Corny, maybe thats why I quite enjoyed it -



Still sweating from the Cave-



Now for the only mildly extortionate price of 150 bht pp, you can sit down and enjoy your own private monkey show. After earnestly explaining that Mrs sabang was in fact our tour guide, we agreed on 150 bht per farang only. Let the show begin.

The monkeys are actually being trained as indentured labourers in the coconut harvesting trade. According to our hosts, they can pick three times as many coconuts per day as the human ape.



This guy seemed to be the head Honcho monkey-



This monkey left no doubt as to how utterly boring I am as a human -



Michael Jordan missed this Hoop-



His slam dunks were a Slam Dunk though.



All good corny fun.

Nawty

I like 'Poon' cave...not sure why though

sabang

It is not the biggest war cemetery, but it was on the itinerary so we did briefly visit a Commonwealth war cemetery. There are a few in Kanchan and up the railway.



Buried here are British, Dutch and Aussie POW's that lost their lives on the Death Railroad. Most in their twenties . I'll let the pictures do the talking.














It was neatly kept, understated and Dignified.
I could have asked for no better. RIP.

sabang

Also on the itinerary was a War museum, but we were not in a museum mood.

A Chinese thingy on the way back-



On the other side of THE Bridge over the River Kwai is where the Upmarket resorts are to be found. This one is the biggest, and it's 5 star-



This one looked pretty cool though [edit- stolen from Mathos thread, this ones the Duenshine resort] -



The River is quieter here, and our high speed burn up there was quite exhilarating. We were dropped back at the resort around 11.15 am. A good mornings touristing.

So ends the Trip Report. It was a comfortable 3.5 hour drive back Home from Kanchanaburi to the hinterlands of Pattaya, and crossing Bangkok was not as bad as I feared- we only hit ground level for about 2km anyway, after crossing the Rama 6 bridge.

Nice part of the world, well worth a visit. I'm surprised Kanchanaburi does not have a larger expat community actually- 2 hours from Bangkok, plenty of bars & restaurants, and I could sure think of worse places to end up than by the Kwai.

Nawty

[quote=sabang;692033]This one looked pretty cool though-



quote]

We stayed in this one a couple of times, the pool is great.

I have a coupla pics from staying here I will dig out and post in this thread if you don't mind.

This boathouse was around 2,500 per night from memory.

Nawty

This long tail woke me very early one morning...floating down the river driverless. Twas a cold morning.

sabang

Sure, piccies & reviews welcome.

DARCYF

Sabang, on your way to the Allied war cemetery, did you get a chance to look at the Asian cemetery for war dead? Very small, overgrown and unlooked after. Our guide drove us past it on the way to the Allied cemetry in order to show comparison.

sabang

^ I did not darcy, my theme was not war stuff- I was there for the rivers & mountain really.

But it saddens me- around 5 times as many Asian labourers died making that railroad as allied POW's. Maybe our well funded Commonwealth War graves people should shell out some money, and give this place the respect it deserves too?

DARCYF

Sabang - agree totally. There is always a lot made about the amount of British and American that died putting up the railway but very little about the much heavier losses for Thai nationals and Indian people that were transported in by the Japanese.

The rivers and mountains were incredible. We stayed overnight but chose not to stay on the raft night accommodation on the river as had a concern about the lack of lights at night and river traffic. We stayed in a small guest room and the trip was definitely a highlight, especially eating breakfast in the morning on the river before the raft sailed down the river and back for a while.

On our last visit we went from Chaing Mai to the Golden Triangle and the scenery was spectacular - particularly when you were travelling in the hills.

gjbkk

Here is a little more on Kanjanaburi

Kanjanaburi - a weekend from Bangkok

At just over two hours drive from Bangkok, Kanjanaburi offers a good weekend break or even a day trip for the family with pleasant views, clean air and more importantly cheap beer.


We were invited to the province by friends that live there; they had recently moved from Bangkok after they had built a bungalow on 6 rai of land for just over 1.7M baht. Their location was a bit remote with a 12km drive to town but the air was clean and the twisting country roads offered a more interesting drive than the usual straight roads I had got used to in the LOS.

On arrival in Town Friday evening we met up by the famous bridge over the river Kwai, the restaurant offered a verity of fresh fish from the river served in local style from about 70baht to 300baht a dish. A large bottle of chang was fairly priced at just 65baht considering this place is such a tourist attraction.



Saturday we were invited to go to the beach for lunch. The beach is in fact a stretch of a sandy river bank on the east side of town.
Surprisingly it was just like any typical Thai beach with deck chairs, parasols dogs, sales and massage. The food menu was all in Thai and there were no photos to help those of us who can’t read Thai. Rather than sea fish, local river fish was offered at a pleasantly local rate and a big bottle of chang was just 40Baht.

The Beach also offered Jet Ski, boating and swimming. The Jet Ski 600cc Yamaha was reasonably priced at just 500baht for 20min, (1500baht in Hua Hin).

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sabang

Well nice- I never got to see this, or any river beach. Seems a decent price for your friends bungalow- again, I'm kinda surprised Kanchan does not have a bigger expat community.

gjbkk

Sabang,

Directions – as you approach the town from Bangkok there is a large Wat on your left just prior to big T- junction and traffic lights. There is a large Thai restaurant with a big car park on the opposite side of the road (right side)

Between the Wat and at about 50m from the junction on the left there is a police station and traffic control with a tiny soi immediately after that leads to the beach

nedwalk

something about that part of the world touched me, i asked me missus[ozzie girl], what part did you enjoy the most? [her first trip to los, 06/08], 'ploy' kanchanburri, and i gotta say, that whole 3days were so restful, i,ll be back

Smeg