Kanchanaburi city and the River Kwai a beautiful city with a lot of history a place that I had on my bucket-list to visit and the last weekend I was excited to be making this journey by train from Thonburi Railway Station, Bangkok, the train ride was going to be just under 3 hours departing at 8am from Thonburi Railway Station a 135km journey passing mountains and rice paddy fields and the cost of the train ticket from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi city was costing me a mere $3 US (100 Baht) could not complain about that.
There are a number of other ways getting to Kanchanaburi city by taxi, mini van, bus, I chose the train because of the lovely landscapes you get to see along the way and when you are arriving into Kanchanaburi city you will cross over the iconic Death Railway Bridge on the River Kwai, and this I wanted to experience and you can see of of the city and the River Kwai from above the railway line.
The Death Bridge and Death Railway was built during the WW2 between 1942 and 1943 mainly by prisoners of war also know as the Burma-Thailand Railway Line, the reason this bridge and railway line were built was to transport Japanese forces, ammunition and war tanks into Burma because there sea routes had become compromised in the battles of the Coral Sea. The building of this Death Railway during the WW2 took tens of thousands of lives which all perished during the construction of this railway line, thus today been know as the Death Railway.
Reaching Kanchanaburi city after a interesting train ride I decided to stay at one of the smaller cabins on the River Kwai, I wanted to feel what it was like to be right on this River Kwai where so much destruction happened in this area during the WW2, plus been on the river around all this beautiful nature I felt more at ease away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The cabins were simply and cheap only $25 US (800 Baht) per/night but the surrounding views of the mountains and the river made up for the difference.
The city looked very quiet when I got into town, it was cloudy and slow drizzly rain most people were probably staying indoors I had a little walk around town I needed to eat before heading to my little cabin on the River Kwai, I looked around there were a few food shops never any shortage of food shops in Thailand, so I duct into one of the shops and got myself a nice Pad Thai chicken after that nice meal, I got my bearing and took a Tuk-Tuk down to the River Kwai, which cost me $2 US (60 Baht).
After booking into the Cabin Resort on the River Kwai, I took a walk across the Death Bridge over to the other of the River Kwai where another train station is and just up from the train station there was a cave and inside this cave is the Wat Tham Khao Pun Temple that was built into this cave in honor of all those who perished during the construction of the Death Railway and Bridge.
After a walk around the Death Bridge, Railway Line and seeing the temple in the cave I made my way back to the Cabin Resort and settled in for the night, it had been a long day of traveling and exploring. The next morning I had plan to visit the Vietnam War Veterans Museum there I would learn what Thailand's involvement in the Vietnam War was.
The Vietnam War which started in the year of 1967 and ended in the year of 1972 by the year of 1969 Thailand was already involved in this unnecessary war and already had over 15,000 combat ground troops over in the southern part of Vietnam by the height of this foolish war there were over 40,000 combat ground troops in South Vietnam with several been killed or wounded before Thailand withdrew there troops out of Vietnam in February 1972.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see the inside of Vietnam War Veterans Museum as it was still closed due to covid-19 but the outside grounds were exciting and interesting there were many old school war planes, tanks, jeeps and trucks and they were still in pretty reasonable order.
I hired a motorbike from the city center to get myself around costing me $6 US (200 Baht) for the day I figured it would be cheaper and faster to get around and see what I wanted without costing me ridiculous prices from Tuk-Tuk drivers. When I had finished looking around at the Vietnam War Veterans Museum I headed back towards the city center I had spotted a temple mid-way towards the museum and it looked like a worthwhile look the day was bit cloudy the rain had stopped which made riding the motorbike around more comfortable.
This temple here was called the Wat Tham Sua and is one of the most popular and famous temples in Kanchanaburi city, it's about 15km out from the city surrounded by rice fields and mountains this temple sits on a small hill and what attracts a lot of visitors to this temple is this huge 18m high and 10m wide seated Buddha covered with golden mosaics gleaming across the rice fields and if your feeling fit there is a 7 story Chedi, you need to climb 157 steps or you can take the small cable car up to the top but once your up there you have 360 degrees of breathtaking views looking down at at the temple and Buddha below and all the green rice fields.
This was another of the many beautiful temple I have seen in Thailand, on my way home riding back to Kanchanaburi city, I spotted this massive giant Rain-Tree know as the Giant Monkey Pod Tree by the Thai's, this tree in just majestic to put it bluntly, it has a unbelievable the trunk diameter is 15m, it stands at a height of 20m and it's wingspan is just over 25m the tree is over 100 years old and still looks as healthy as it's birth date. Another great weekend of exploring Thailand and now it was time to pack and head back to Bangkok, and this time I took the late bus back to Bangkok city because no trains were running it was late afternoon.
