Thailand

mars · #1 03-04-2006, 23:45

On my next trip im visiting Kanchanaburi.

Ive booked into the Felix Kwai resort which is just over the river from the bridge. Does anyone know how far this is from Kanchanburi railway station, Is it in walking disance or a taxi ride.

I understand there is another station closer to the bridge maybe it would be worth getting off there. anyone know that one?

Also any info on bars nightlife etc would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

Talbotman · #2 05-05-2006, 18:26

THE town of kanchanaburi is quite a distance form the kwai bridge maybe 5-10 kilometres at least but you can catch a train on the river kwai bridge 2 times a day going south to hua hin and hat yai or north to bangkok huamphong staion i am going to London tomorow saturday 6th may and while there i will ask my friends wife (she comes from kanchanaburi) about some of your questions but i know for a fact there is no nighlife around the area of the bridge just tourist restaurants .

steve@thaib · #3 05-05-2006, 19:06

Don't forget your camera, would love some pictures from there.

zxcmnbau · #4 05-05-2006, 19:26

I was there in February and really liked the place. Laid back with not a hell of a lot of nightlife, but still some great little bars around to drink at. There are a lot of bars here for the amount of tourists that come here, and so the bars tend to be pretty empty.

Just grab a taxi from the train station. The area isn't that big, and a taxi trip is cheap and close enough to most accomodations.

I took the local train there from bangkok and took the bus back. The bus was more comfortable and faster, but the train there was great for the atmosphere.

There are some pretty good local tours in the area taking in such sites as Erawan falls, and hellfire pass which are both worth a look.

Have a good time.

Tyfon · #5 06-05-2006, 19:59

I took a day-trip from BKK, booked through the hotel (Majestic Suites) reception to Kanchanaburi,JEATH MUseaum and The Death Railway. Minivan to Kancahnaburi Cemetery, about an hour to wander around the graves and for some people to look up their relatives. Then on to the JEATH Museum for another hour. This is a hut built in the style of the prisoner's hut in the labour camps, filled with rather dusty artifacts and original paintings and sketches by prisoners and collections of photographs and articles on the Death Railway. Then long-tail boat up the Kwai to the bridge.

Kancahnaburi War Cemetery and JEATH Museum
22) Entrance
18) The cemetery
16) Individual plaque - one of the 12,000 memorialized here along with some 80,000 Asians who have no marked graves.
24) JEATH (Japanese, English, Australian/American, Thailand, Holland) Museum - not the best maintained museum.
26) Floating discos on the River Kwai - dozens near the fork in the river between Kanachanburi and the bridge. Apparently popular with Thais, not sure if tourists use them.

Gson · #6 06-05-2006, 20:22

Here is a good link

http://www.kanchanaburi-info.com/en/index.html

Tyfon · #7 06-05-2006, 20:23

35) Bridge on the River Kwai - Unlike the structure depicted in the film, the bridge (and this is the original, repaired after it was bombed by the allies) is steel and concrete. The wood and bamboo structure that inspired the film was actually a temporary bridge built by the Japanese army while the steel bridge was under construction. It was eventually dismantled to ease river traffic.
42) You can walk across the bridge - bearing in mind the dire warnings and occasional rail traffic.
43) Bit of a precarious walk, with drops between the rail sleepers straight into the river on either side. No safety railings or netting :I asked a couple of times how many people they lost each year, never got a reply...
48) Bridge from the far bank, not much to do but walk back, a few elephants to feed/ride.
49) Theme-park style watchtowers mark the railway stop and tourist souvenir market.

Tyfon · #8 06-05-2006, 20:32

Rather than wait for the twice daily train, we took the minivan to Thakilen to catch the regular service over an existing length of wooden viaduct built by prisoners.

55) Farangist pricing in action - 150THB for foreign tourists, can't remeber what they said the locals' price was but I think it was about 1/10th Farang price.
56) Thakilen Station ticket office.
65) It's a good idea to secure a set, if you can, on the left-hand (port) side of the train. You sort of get a brief view of the viaduct as you approach on the left-hand bend. Everyone rushes over to the left to see and take pictures. I suspect there's healthy trade in the area of second hand cameras dropped over the side in the scrum...
76) There are carefully preserved bomb craters along the route, though one has to wonder if they were made by bombs or enterprising locals.

Maverick351 · #9 07-05-2006, 05:15

Good report, and better pictures than mine. Did the trip about two years ago, but was raining the whole time.

steve@thaib · #10 07-05-2006, 05:23

Just brilliant pictures, thanks for them.

pablo · #11 07-05-2006, 08:25

Tyfon,

Good post, and great pictures.

Thanks for sharing.

Pablo

fotonut · #12 07-05-2006, 13:43

I've been to Kanchanaburi a few times but had a blast in '99 at a place called "Apache" or something like that. Anyone know if it is still there? As I recall they served food and had a show later, the place was packed, mostly locals but about 25% tourists I'd say.

mars · #13 22-06-2006, 06:37

Made it to Kanchanburi and back now i'll try and post some pics i took.

Ive had pc problems for the past few weeks, when i finally bought a new pocket camera a nikon S2 the software corrupted my IE and I wasnt able to get online properly and it wouldnt have this site at all.

Anyway now Im on a new laptop and new photo software so if the post F**ks up I'll have to try again.

No good I just remembered all the pics are too large I'll have to shrink them to post

mars · #14 22-06-2006, 07:13

sI'll have a quick go at posting this one then Im off to bed

I think I'll have to have a get used to the software to cut down the sizes easier and maybe try to crop some pics.

Tyfon · #15 22-06-2006, 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by mars

I think I'll have to have a get used to the software to cut down the sizes easier and maybe try to crop some pics.

Microsoft have a power toy for Win XP that you can download:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...schelman2.mspx

This allows you to right click an image, or select and right-click several images, and perform basic image processing like resize and rotate (in thumbnail view) in explorer - no need to launch another app. just to shrink and post something to a forum.

Cheers,

K.