Getting out and about of Bangkok is always a good treat. Don’t get me wrong; nothing bad about Bangkok; you either love or hate the city and I do love Bangkok. Living and working in a hotel has its privileges and also some negative side effects. Positive perks are you are taken care of your entire needs like food, laundry, housekeeping, maintenance and more. At the same time I don’t leave the hotel for a week until I have the time or I have to. Having a few days of free time is a perfect opportunity to spend time with mates on a lake, ice boxes full of food and more importantly; slaps of beers cooled to perfection! Driving to Kanchanaburi, more precisely to the famous Bridge over the River Kwai was easy and this was also the first stop for a well deserved lunch on the river, overlooking the famous bridge. In 1943 thousands of Allied Prisoners of War (PoW) and Asian laborers worked on the Death Railway under the imperial Japanese army in order to construct part of the 415 km long Burma-Thailand railway. Most of these men were Australians, Dutch and British and they had been working steadily southwards from Thanbyuzayat (Burma) to link with other PoW on the Thai side of the railway. This railway was intended to move men and supplies to the Burmese front where the Japanese were fighting the British. Japanese army engineers selected the route which traversed deep valleys and hills. All the heavy work was done manually either by hand or by elephant as earth moving equipment was not available. The railway line originally ran within 50 meters of the Three Pagodas Pass which marks nowadays the border to Burma. However after the war the entire railway was removed and sold as it was deemed unsafe and politically undesirable. The prisoners lived in squalor with a near starvation diet. They were subjected to captor brutality and thus thousands perished. The men worked from dawn until after dark and often had to trudge many kilometers through the jungle to return to base camp where Allied doctors tended the injured and diseased by many died. After the war the dead were collectively reburied in the War Cemeteries and will remain forever witness to a brutal and tragic ordeal.

Sunset at the boathouse

The houseboat for the next two nights was located on the shore of a lake called Mae Klong, part of a huge dam covering a large valley. Altogether there where about twelve houseboats build into the lake, each with several bedrooms and large verandas, bathroom was the lake. Diner and breakfast was provided from the barbeque, steaks, seafood, pork and lamb was all taken along from Bangkok.

Barbequed sirloin steaks

VIP Boathouses

Scenery onshore

The breakfast table is ready; barbequed seafood and pork sausage!

View of the Vajiralongkorn Dam (Formerly Khao Laem Dam) This is a key project of Mae Klong River Basin Development Scheme. The construction started in 1979 and finished in 1984. Saphan Mon – The 400m wooden bridge itself is well worth a visit and is the longest handmade wooden bridge in Thailand. There is a small cafe on one end which is a great spot for a drink and a view. Be careful when crossing the bridge though, it is made and repaired in a chaotic manner and you need to be careful of your footing. There are donation boxes at either end which pay for the bridges constant upkeep. So consider donating, as you will receive an amazing photo in return! Local kids like to jump off bridge into lake. Wat Saam Prasob (The Sunken Temple) – When the water level of the lake is low (usually after winter) you can hire a boat to take you (or hire a canoe from P Guesthouse to paddle yourself out) to see the Sunken temple. The sunken wat is the last remaining vestige of the old town flooded for the creation of Khao Laem Reservoir. (Top 1-2 metres of temple is in view in September.) The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mile) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to support its forces in the Burma campaign. Forced labour was used in its construction. About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. The dead POWs included 6,318 British personnel, 2,815 Australians, 2,490 Dutch, about 356 Americans and a smaller number of Canadians and New Zealanders. Kanchanaburi features several elephant camps but one of the largest is Taweechai Elephant Camp: Home to nearly 30 elephants including one born in late 2010, Taweechai offers elephant rides, bathing with elephants (suitable for children), bamboo rafting (swimming optional) and special elephant training mahout courses. You can also buy photo frames made from real elephant dung. The camp itself is well maintained and nicely decorated, for example featuring the mounted skeleton of a 100 year old elephant. The elephants are well-treated and fed almost constantly. The camp owns large areas of nearby forest and at 16:00 the elephants leave the camp to spend the night wandering and grazing. They are given a very long chain so not confined and in the mornings they are usually very dirty. Taweechai is conveniently located halfway along the route from Kanchanaburi to the Erawan Falls and so can be included in a day trip to the falls. The majority of Western tourists have not yet discovered the camp as it seems to be visited almost exclusively by Thai and Russian tour groups. It is very busy so calling ahead to book is a good idea for groups. For couples or small groups it may be possible to turn up and ride, particularly in the low season.

On the Boathouse