Kanchanaburi

I've spent the last 2 days in Kanchanburi. Like tourist destination spots anywhere I suppose, it has some elements that draw people here in the first place that are beautiful, but alot of the stuff that grows up around it to support the tourism is not so appealing. I took the train here, which was a fun but dusty experience. When I first settled into my seat I was taken with how quaint the wooden seat and floors in the train were. But those wooden seats quickly become a bum-numbing experience ! Vendors get on and off at various stops and so you can have your fill of drinks and snacks along the way.



There are a couple main attractions in Kanchanaburi. First, this is the location of the 'death railway', where the Japanese forced allied POWs (and Asian labourers) to build a railroad across Thailand to supply troops in Burma (WWII). You can see the infamous 'bridge on the river Kwai' here among other things. There is a great little museum near 'Hellfire Pass' that gives you alot of detail on the railway building effort. The views from the museum are spectacular, and belie the fact that 10 of thousands died building this section of the railway under hellish conditions.

One of the other attractions is just the natural beauty. There are great parks with waterfalls, caves, etc. One of the "things to do" here is to take one of the very cheap day tours. I chose to do this on my first day here. These tours are sort of a mix & match habitrail for tourists. There are 10 or so main things you might want to see or do here, and a day's tour will take you to your choice of 4-5 of them. A mini-bus picks you up at your hotel and you and the 9 others signed up for the same tour get put through the sight-seeing paces for the day.
- Cave. Check.
- Waterfall. Check
- Elephant Riding. Check

Along the way you cross paths with other tour groups doing variations on the same tour. All tours seem to include catching the train at 4:00 across a very scenic portion of the railway. There were probably 100 or so tourists dropped off at one of the stations just before a bridge. We then all piled on, rode for 2 or 3 stops, and then piled off and into our respective tour vans to the next stop on the itinerary.

This is sounding like a very negative summary of the tour now :) Indeed it was spectacularly touristy .. but I did get to see more sights than I would have on my own, and I got to ride an elephant which was pretty darn cool. The photo is of my view from the top of my elephant

Today I took the public bus to Erawan park - which is where the absolutely stunning Erawan waterfall is. This is a 7 tier waterfall. You can explore the park a bit and take your time climbing up to each tier. You can also take a dip in the falls in many places along the way (Which I did - and it was great, but lots of fish are in the water and they nibble your toes a bit while you are in there ) I spent the whole day there, got back and had a little cat nap for an hour and now I'm heading out to the night market for a bite to eat.

The town of Kanchanburi itself has a kind of kitchy appeal I guess. If you stand out on the main road and throw a rock, I guarantee you will hit either 1) A restaurant or food stall, 2) a 7-11 or 3) a shop selling or renting scooters. (They love love love their scooters here and whole families will pile on.) To be fair, I've been quite sick with a cold while here, so I think that has put me off enjoying my evenings in the town. Thailand is not the place to be if are having any trouble breathing. Walking down the streets you are constantly bombarded with the smells of food stalls, incense, garbage, exhaust fumes and fires (for some reason there seem to be alot of brush fires burning around here)

Well that's about it for now - I'm off to Ayuthaya tomorrow.

Other random thoughts

• there are alot of dogs roaming the streets in Thailand
• it is possible to have to much Thai food
• there are alot of men on vacation with their Thai wives/girlfriends (I know I know, I'm not that naive - but they really seem to be on vacation - sightseeing and stuff)
• it's a good idea to pack your own toilet paper with you wherever you go

I only uploaded a couple new pics as this computer is painfully slow !