Had 5 nights/6 days and planned to stay 2 nights at the Dheva Mantra hotel in Kanchanaburi and then go stay at a friend of a friend’s new place (The River Life Resort Lodge, Sai Yok) and go see Sangkhlaburi, but we got such a great deal (Baht 2000 per night) at the 5 star Dheva Mantra and it was so good that we stayed all 5 nights and used it as a base for day trips – A BLADDY GOOD DECISION!

Trip One - Around Kanchanaburi

 

Wat Khao Tham Pun - a very short drive from the hotel. Next to the railway and river. There’s an excellent cave here worth going through. Come out of the cave and follow the path away from the road through the wat to the river for good views and walk down to the railway.

 

 

Chong Kai Allied War Cemetery – Couple of minutes from the wat on the way towards town. I always prefer to go to this cemetery and rarely to the one in the town.

 

 

 

 

Thailand-Burma Railway Centre – Drive 5-10 minutes in to town and next to the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery and Kanchanaburi main railway station is this Centre (a museum). Hadn’t been on previous trips and well worth the effort. Shame they wont allow taking of photos.

 

 

 

 Bridge on the River Kwai – the famous bombed bridge is the main attraction. Parking is easy. Walk across the bridge. They have made it safer in recent years – used to have to step from sleeper to sleeper which was tricky. Used to be the Bridge on the River Klong until they renamed this stretch the Kwai Yai to tie in with the popularity of the book/movie in the '60s. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 20179 yr by Bredbury Blue

Trip Two – a couple of local famous Wats

 

Wat Ban Tham – Drive through Kanchanaburi and about 20 minutes later arrive at this wat next to the river. This is the Temple of the Golden Dragon Wat. Climb the steps. Walk up the steps inside the dragon (has Buddhist teachings on the walls). Climb more steps to the main cave and the big Buddha inside (do on the way down as its cool inside). More steps. The hermits cave is a bit trickier to climb down in to. Final climb to the top is rewarded with spectacular views down the river to kanchaburi to the left / west and bkk to the right / east. Not sure how many steps to the top – read various saying 500 or 800 steps. Not too difficult unless your not good on your feet.

 

 

The chedi you can see at the top of the picture below is where you head to.

 

 

 

Chedi at the top

 

 

Buddha cave 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wat Tham Khao Noi – 10 minutes drive away. A more popular wat. Busy when we visited and it was mid week. Seems to be on the thai coach tour itinerary. You can walk to the top…not so many steps or get the cable car. I didn’t particularly enjoy it here…too busy…too hot…but the wife enjoyed it.

 

 

 

The two wats make a good afternoon out.

 

Trip Three - Wampo viaduct, Hellfire pass & Muang Singh –

 

Wampo viaduct

 

“Here was situated the long trestle bridge commonly known as the Wampo viaduct (near Kra Sae station). The two main sections of the viaduct followed the bottom of the cliff for some distance. A ledge had to be carved out of the cliff face to form a base for the bridge and embankment construction. Wampo (Wang Po) viaduct was built in March-April 1943 and was completed in ‘speedo’ (non-stop work). Strengthened and rebuilt to the original design in the post-war years, the viaduct is still part of the used rail track and operational as far as Nam Tok (Tarsau)”
 

We drove out to the famous viaduct – never been before – it’s a beautiful setting. There’s a station at each end of the viaduct, and a famous Buddha cave next to the tracks, the train from Thonburi was arriving in 5 minutes so we got the train to the far station and walked back. It was hot!

 

 

 

 

 

Hellfire pass

 

Been to Hellfire Pass several times over the years and the tourist infrastructure gets better – hats off to the Aussies.

 

Easy walk down but the walk back up in the heat is always tougher.

 

 

It was so hot but luckily for us not busy so we had it to ourselves.

 

Big day there coming up on 25th April – ANZAC Day. They have permanent rock terrace seats on one side and temporary seating on the other side of the memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have cleaned a 4km trail along the track though only 2.5km is open currently, it’s tricky underfoot and way too hot for most people to do. By the time we got back up to the museum from the pass we were a sweaty mess.

 

 

Muang Singh

 

We always like to visit Muang Singh - been many times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t recommend eating in the hotel – food was fine, but small portions and expensive. We ate once on the river in their rice barge restaurant and once in the hotel main restaurant.

 

Decent restaurants near the hotel for lunch/dinner are Sudjai (right next to Sudjai bridge in to town), right next to Sudjai (and we are sure is part of Sudjai) is another restaurant we went to but I don’t remember its name, and almost next to that was Blue Rice (we thought this one catered for western tourists tastes so we thought it average, also didn’t like being charged decent money for what was clearly Nescafe!).

 

In the evening we went twice to Keereetara which is in the middle of town 2 minutes walk upsteam of the bridge right on the river; brilliant place, food excellent and quickly served.  

 

Brilliant family trip! Kanchanaburi province i understand is the 3rd biggest province, always seems hot, but it's such a nice place, not so many tourists, plenty to see and do, really good value place and its only 3 hours from Bangkok.