Journey to Kanchanaburi, West Thailand (former Prisoner of War Camp)

Kanchanaburi or 'Kan' as the locals call it is in the west of Thailand, not too far from the Burmese border..

Here's a link..

Map of west Thailand

When i was a child I watched the film 'A Bridge Over the River Kwai' with my father. My father always loved this film as it was actually shot in location in Sri Lanka (in fact i visited it in December). The actual bridge as i found out later was at this town in Thailand and being interested in the history around this bridge, it was one of the things i really wanted to do...(having not seen the Komodo dragons in Indonesia, i was determined to make it here).

The town is about 2 hours drive west from Bangkok and i booked a ticket in a AC shuttle van for £4.20 from So Cool travel.

I met a few people on the shuttle including a group of 3 really nice girls from the UK and a rather amusing Canadian hippy wearing a 'I'm a treehugger and Dirt Worshipper' t-shirt... unfortunately i couldn't take a photo of it - it was really amusing...

They really pack you into these shuttles, no seat is left free and your rucksacks are stacked in the aisle....i was squeezed in the back seat but comforted by the fact you couldn't go 3 miles for £4.20 on transport in the UK.

I fell asleep and i woke up in 'Kan', a hot dusty town and found a guest house called the 'Sugar Cane Guest House 1'. Here, bungalows actaully on the river Kwai were more expensive, weighing in at GBP 11.50 per night but they had hot water and AC (really important as it was hotter than Bangkok here) and were lovely. Here's the view from my balcony...



Here's my room and the view from the dining area...it was lovely and kind of reminded me of the bungalows in the national parks in Sri Lanka, full of bird life and fish everywhere...i even saw a water monitor lizard swimming by one evening. It was the perfect place for reading a book. The only thing i was left wandering about was when you flush the loo in the bungalows, where does the sewage go? ??....er, best not think about it...


I would say though that if you come here, stay one or 2 days just to stay on the river but then move to another guest house, as this is probably the best known guest house in the lonely planet and may have become a victim of its own success...it had the most apathetic staff i've ever come across in Thailand - no smiles whatsoever, more than one fellow guest told me the same....


There are quite a few Aussies who've moved here, probably after visiting the bridge and POW Museum and the best breakfast i had was in one of their bars...its got to be an aussie who named this one...