Life in Kingdom of Thailand: Exploring the sleepy town of Kanchanaburi and crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai

[Top] [Giant Raintree] [Wat Tham Suea] [JEATH War Museum] [Bridge over the River Kwai]

Passenger train crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai

Kanchanaburi is the shared name for both a province and the largest town in that province. Kanchanaburi town is situated around 150km northwest of Bangkok, which typically translates to a leisurely three hour drive along local roads. Along this drive, the province first appears to be largely flat with some low-lying hills before giving way to large mountains and thick jungle in the north and west. But don’t let this description fool you! Kanchanaburi’s climate is still very much the tropics, with beautiful Instagram posts often belying the intense heat and humidity in the summer months, which often exceed levels found in Bangkok.

Kanchanaburi tourism highlights include the Bridge over the River Kwai, part of the WWII-era Burmese railroad that was made famous by the movie of the same name, and Erawan National Park, which is home to the otherworldly seven-tiered Erawan Falls– a series of waterfalls that convey cold, mineral-infused mountain waters through cloudy jungle pools down into the Khwai Yai river far below. There is no need to fear crocodiles around the falls- there has never been one sighted in the area; but, well, the jungle is still home to snakes, water monitors, and other creatures. But we diverge! Let's get back on topic.

Tiger and Bird love Kanchanaburi and have experienced a bit of a renaissance this past year in terms of visiting this area. Our most recent itinerary included stopping by a giant raintree, taking a small tram up the steep hill to Wat Tham Suea, visiting the incredibly detailed WWII exhibit at JEATH War Museum, and finally crossing the still-active Bridge over the River Kwai. This photojourney details our trip!

Farmer watering his crops in the shadow of the not-so-distant hills

The drive to Kanchanaburi town is mostly unremarkable and requires taking local roads – there are no highways in this direction after leaving Thailand’s capitol – for the entirety of the three-hour trip*. Skyscrapers and concrete overpasses soon give way to smaller rows of houses and shops. This is followed by farmland and green space interspersed with villages and clusters of buildings around major intersections. Finally, hills start rising on the horizon, shrouded in dense jungle vegetation.

*Note that for long weekends, we leave early to beat traffic jams that will develop later in the day. Hey, it can make a difference of up to an hour for the drive!

Small house surrounded by fields of young corn with the jungle behind!

Our first stop soon approaches, the giant raintree of Kanchanaburi!

The Giant Raintree
[Top] [Giant Raintree] [Wat Tham Suea] [JEATH War Museum] [Bridge over the River Kwai]

A giant chamchuri in the middle of nowhere has become a popular spot to visit for locals and tourists alike!

Kanchanaburi has only one giant chamchuri (the Thai word for raintree). In person, the tree is a majestic colossus that towers above the surrounding trees and spreads its mighty boughs over the earth. For a long time, this raintree was left in obscurity near the top of a hilly area near the town. However, in recent years – seemingly after the rise of social media – locals and tourists alike have made the trip out to the tree. In late 2018, local authorities installed a walkway and other upgrades to the area to better accommodate visitors and nearby shops while also protecting the roots of the tree.

There is a parking lot and small local market selling Thai-style snacks and drinks to visitors. We picked up some purple yams to munch on while touring the area and washed that down with a coconut smoothie. The area is landscaped with concrete walkways and some benches in a mostly sunny area. In the nearby field vendors offer horseback rides to youngsters.

Visitors relaxing in the cool shade of the giant raintree. The platform was erected late last year to protect the tree's extensive root system

The air is hot and humid, but as we approach the tree a coolness seems to fall around us. The boughs are huge and appear to span at least 10m (about 33ft). The fiery rays of the sun are blotted out in the thicket of leaves above and we relax, taking a short break to marvel at the size of this ancient tree. Documentation indicates this tree has been here for well over 100 years.

The location of other raintrees throughout Thailand have become more of an open secret among conservationists in recent years. They exist, but you will be hard pressed to find them on the map (let alone on a map in the English language)! The giant chamchuri of Kanchanaburi used to sit undisturbed in the middle of a field and now the immediate area is much more developed. That’s not to say this is a bad thing; the infrastructure around the tree is necessary to protect its massive root system and the tree is now policed to ensure visitors don’t try to climb its branches.

Photo 1. The giant raintree lives up to its name- it's massive. The huge branches seen here appear to be longer than 10m (33ft) in length. Photo 2. The twisting boughs of the chamchuri. This was meant to be more of an artistic shot than anything else. Photo 3. Long branches extending out from the trunk of the tree

If you haven’t seen a giant raintree before, or if you enjoy nature photography, a quick stop at the Kanchanaburi Chamchuri is highly recommended! We spent about half an hour at the place before the fifteen-minute drive to our next location, Wat Tham Suea.

Wat Tham Suea
[Top] [Giant Raintree] [Wat Tham Suea] [JEATH War Museum] [Bridge over the River Kwai]

Wat Tham Suea rising from the valley floor makes for a striking scene in the late morning hours!

Wat Tham Suea is striking, situated on a low-lying rocky outcrop from the valley floor, half ringed in by distant hills of dark green and bluish hues on the one side, and the flatlands beyond the Mae Klong river on the other (note that this temple should not be confused with Krabi’s Wat Tham Sua). Initially, Tiger and Bird merely admire the place from a distance – after all, we planned on driving on to town after visiting the raintree – but then chose to drive through the narrow sois in the small village at the back of the hill to find the entrance. We arrived shortly before noon on a sweltering hot day, but thankfully found parking in the small main parking lot at the base of the temple. Incidentally, it appeared to be the last available spot, with many locals and busloads of tourists visiting the temple.

Photo 1. Tourists descending the 157 step staircase from the top of the temple. Photo 2. Another visitor descending the steps. Photo 3. The rudimentary tram (cable car) that takes visitors up a steep incline (probably close to 50 or 60 degrees) to the top for a nominal fee

For a small fee, we took the tram up to the top rather than climb the stairs during the heat of the day. Despite the crowds, the top of the temple wasn’t too busy and offered spectacular views of the surrounding area with a relatively strong breeze making the hot tropical sun more bearable.

View of the Mae Klong River from the top of Wat Tham Suea

The top of Wat Tham Suea in Kanchanaburi

Numerous rice paddies of yellow, green, and brownish hues dotted the surrounding valley floor. Flocks of birds could be seen flying in small dark clouds against the horizon. Soon the temperature dropped dramatically as light clouds that had been gathering throughout the day began to block the sun.

Kanchanaburi rice paddies as seen from Wat Tham Suea

After spending about an hour taking in the view and then shopping at the many food stalls near the parking lot, we drove off in the direction of Kanchanaburi town. Oh, did I mention the coconut smoothies? Yes, we got two more of those for the road! The scenery was stunning and the drive relatively easy, with little traffic outside of the immediate area of Wat Tham Suea.

Thai-Chinese graves are situated beside the road. The topography here is ideal for those who follow the Feng Shui philosophy

As we drove north with the river to our right and the hills to our left, dozens of Chinese grave sites suddenly came into view, all ornately designed and decorated and immaculately maintained. Then these few dozen gave way to hundreds of graves across what appeared to be several major sites. For some background, many Thai people can trace their lineage in some way back to China, and these Thai Chinese – as they are called and call themselves – hold fast to many of the traditions, and sometimes superstitions, passed on to them by the previous generations.

In Thailand, most bodies are cremated upon death (the logic follows that in the next life the person has no need of their former body), but Thai Chinese often strictly follow the ancient philosophy of Feng Shui- in essence, harmony with nature. Here, these graves are well-situated for very good Feng Shui. There is a large mountain (hill) covered in forests behind the grave, and the grave happens to face East towards a river, receiving plenty of sunlight throughout the day.

Road leading to the building that houses the provincial governmenet for Kanchanaburi. For Tiger and Bird, we're simply passing through!

Once reaching Kanchanaburi town, we lunched at a local riverside Thai restaurant. Our favorite dishes vary, but usually along the river we’ll order whatever the restaurant offers from that river! Our lineup for the day consisted of 1) deep fried freshwater fish with a sweet fish sauce, accompanied with a spicy mango dip 2) stir-fried morning glory 3) tom yum soup 4) white rice, among other smaller dishes. Yes, there is a reason we expats struggle keeping our weight down after spending a few years in Thailand! Our table, placed on the corner of a moored barge, provided a wonderful vantage point of the Kwai. Here we watched a local ferry transporting some tourists and motorcycles from one side of the river to the other.

Bicycling tourists taking the ferry back to Kanchanaburi town

This particular ferry is very local and appears designed specifically to transport motorcycles from one shore to the other.

Photo 1. Motorcycles on the flat-decked ferry prepare to embark. Photo 2. Motorcycle ferry pulling away from the dock and heading out to open water. Photo 3. Motorcycle ferry crossing the River Kwai further downstream from the famous bridge

Following our delicious repast, we felt invigorated and ready to tackle the local museum. After leisurely finishing up our dessert, our trip resumed.

JEATH War Museum
[Top] [Giant Raintree] [Wat Tham Suea] [JEATH War Museum] [Bridge over the River Kwai]

Entrance to the JEATH War Museum. The area is constantly busy during the day, so I took this photo just before closing time.

The JEATH War Museum, known in Thailand as Wat Tai War Museum, is consists of several buildings separated into two distinct sections. One section of the museum is dedicated to documenting Thailand’s military history and military struggles (the country’s bitter historic rival was Burma, now Myanmar). The other section of the museum is dedicated to WWII, specifically the construction of the Thai-Burma railway (“Death Railway”) by Japan using Allied prisoner of war labor. JEATH obtains its name from the WWII-conflict, with the acronym standing for Japan, England, Australia, America, Thailand, and Holland.

JEATH War Museum
Hours: 9am – 4pm, daily
Admission: 30 baht per person

We arrived at the JEATH War Museum in the early afternoon hours and parked in the lot right across the street from the museum. The entire area is heavily commercialized - note that the Bridge over the River Kwai is located a few minutes walk from here - with locals setting up a small market that caters directly to visitors. Crowds of tourists frequently disembark from large buses and move towards the bridge. The entrance to the museum, seen above, is quite large and houses one of the actual WWII-era locomotives used by the Japanese. Paying the nominal fee, we entered the museum.

Thai musem with statues of kings in front and generals on the outside walls of the first. Within are examples of weaponry and large wall murals depicting life in general and Thai conflicts

On the right side, we passed by a large building with ornate statues of former kings positioned outside. The statues in the wall are famous military figures, depicted with weaponry commonly used in the bearer’s time.

A statue outside the Thai portion of the war museum

Entering the museum, we found numerous examples of historic weaponry in display cases, with extensive depictions of daily life and various conflicts detailed in huge wall murals.

Photo 1. Daily life around the Grand Palace. Photo 2. Conflict as invaders attack a Thai city's walls. Elephants were widely utilized during both times of peace and times of war. Photo 3. Men - and women - joining the conflict outside a small Thai town. Just a guess on Tiger's part, but the invaders are likely Burmese soldiers

After walking around the Thai museum, we moved across the small courtyard to the JEATH museum.

Interesting statue holding a fish in the courtyard of the museum

Entrance to the JEATH War Museum

The JEATH War Museum is dedicated to the WWII-era Allied prisoners of war who provided the labor to construct the Thai-Burma Railway for the Japanese. Due to brutal conditions, disease, and mistreatment, many Allied POWs and local conscripted labor died during construction of the railway, earning it the nickname “Death Railway.”

To be honest, Tiger approached the musem with simply a passing interest, but the history displayed here proved intriguing and engaging. For those looking for a detailed look at what was happening in the world at the time of the Burma Railroad, this is a great place to find information.

Artist's illustration of a locamotive on the Burma Railway

The JEATH War Museum is also separated into several sections. One section shows the life of soldiers in WWII-era Southeast Asia, including equipment generally used by all warring parties in the region. This ranged from weaponry and replications of army quarters (see below) to the types of food and alcohol soldiers typically enjoyed.

Display of equipment used by Allied soldiers in WWII-era Southeast Asia

Photo 1. A WWII-era lunchbox used by a Japanese soldier. Photo 2. Lunchbox and other effects used by Allied soldiers during the war. Photo 3. A typewriter with some form of encryption used by US soldiers during WWII in Kanchanaburi province.

The second section of the JEATH museum starts with the broader conflict before focusing in on Japan's construction of the Thai-Burma Railway. Hundreds of photographs with extensive captions detail the public posturing and responses of various WWII-era leaders - and other important people - around world stage incidents. This creates a very detailed timeline around WWII and provides background to the more local events. This eventually leads to hundreds of photographs detailing the Thai-Burma Railway and numerous photographs of the prisoners of war working on that railway. Japanese guards apparently took many photographs to document the construction progress for their superiors back home.

Sadly, many photos on display are beginning to fade. The photographs still serve their purpose, however- a vivid and candid reminder of what happened during the Burma Railroad's construction process. In nearby display cases are also weaponry and tools that were used during that time.

Photo 1. A series of photographs detailing the Burma-Thailand railway; some are archived Japanese photographs of prisoners of war laboring on the railroad; others depict the aftermath of Allied bombing runs over various railroad bridges along the Burmese railway. The detail and descriptions are well assembled and very thorough. Photo 2. Chong Kai War Cemetery in Thailand, and other regional cemeteries that contain the bodies of Allied prisoners of war who died in captivity. Photo 3. A very early photograph of the Bridge over the River Kwae in Kanchanaburi. Note the surroundings at the time were covered in untamed jungle vegetation.

A story of a fearful and untrusting world gradually descending into madness and enveloped in chaos and flames. This and thoughtful perusal of the thorough and detailed material documenting the conditions endured by Allied POWs during the construction of the Burmese Railway set a solemn note to the otherwise fun day. And the Bridge over the River Kwai lost, if ever so slightly, the cheerful background whistle of “Colonel Bogey” to instead become a poignant connection to and reminder of a scary and unsettling time from days now long past

Bridge over the River Kwai
[Top] [Giant Raintree] [Wat Tham Suea] [JEATH War Museum] [Bridge over the River Kwai]

Tourists traversing the actual Bridge over the River Kwai

The famous (infamous?) Bridge over the river Kwai can be seen from the riverfront of the JEATH War Museum. The entire area is quite touristy with a motel and many small shops located nearby. The bridge has been modified with a steel deck and railing to make it very safe for tourists to explore. Keep in mind that this line is still active and passenger trains frequently cross here, if at a very slow pace, waiting for visitors to move out of the way.

Tiger and Bird strongly recommend visiting this bridge either early or late in the day, outside of the regular visiting hours frequented by crowds. Weekends and weekday afternoons seem to be peak hours. There is no cost for visiting the bridge and snacks and street vendors line the town-side of the bridge- if you’re looking for an affordable shirt for Kanchanaburi, this is the place to get them for 100 baht ($3 USD)! The complimentary parking lot opposite the JEATH War Museum is also an easy place to park to access the area.

Visitors crossing the Bridge on the River Kwai (to borrow the name of the original novel!). Dodging selfies is hard here!

The Bridge over the River Kwai is a basic riveted steel truss bridge placed on concrete columns crossing a relatively generic low-lying river (there are no steep riverbanks, unlike the movie!). The bridge was constructed during WWII by Allied prisoners of war under the supervision of the Japanese. This route was part of the Burmese Railway, nicknamed the “death railway” due to a high number of prisoner and laborer deaths during its construction. Besides surviving an attempted Allied bombing run during the waning years of WWII, this particular bridge wasn’t all that noteworthy. Why do these details matter? Well, let’s take a quick walk through history (continued below)!

Photo 1. View of the river Kwai flowing away to the southeast of the bridge. Photo 2. Rivited steel truss structure with the Kwai River in the background. Photo 3. View of the Kwai River as it flows towards the bridge from the Northwest.

Starting in the early 1960s, Western tourists started showing up in sleepy Kanchanaburi town, asking bewildered locals for directions to some specific WII-era bridge over the river named Kwai. Locals were confused. First, these foreigners were asking about buffalo ("kuh-why" means buffalo in Thai; the actual pronunciatio should be "kuh-wah"). Second, the The river Kwai was little more than a large stream, and there were certainly no famous railroad bridges there! Soon the connection was made that these tourists had seen the 1957 blockbuster movie Bridge over the River Kwai and were searching for the eponymous bridge (see the original trailer here). There was just one problem: the author of the book on which the movie was based had mistakenly assumed the bridge passed over the small river Kwai, when in reality the railroad crossed the nearby (much larger) Mae Klong River on the outskirts of Kanchanaburi town.

At the time, there wasn’t much reason for tourists to show up in distant Kanchanaburi, and local authorities decided to capitalize on the fame of the bridge. The Mae Klong River was soon renamed “Kwai Yai” River (which translates to “Large Kwai”) from the river’s source until shortly after the bridge, and the original Kwai River was renamed “Kwai Noi” (which translates to “Small Kwai”). And the rest is history! Note that the Mae Klong River keeps its name further downstream, incidentally passing by the largest floating market in Thailand, Amphawa, as it continues to the sea.

The railroad bridge has been heavily modified to safely accommodate the crowds of tourists visiting the structure

In the very late afternoon hours, the crowds begin to disperse and better photo opportunities present themselves. Tiger and Bird struggled to avoid the innumerable selfies and other photographs taken by a myriad of photographers earlier in the day, but now was a great opportunity to truly admire the setting without the jostling crowds. We took a quick break, relaxing on one of the platforms lining the active track, and watched several trains pass by while simply enjoying the evening breeze.

A passenger train sounds its horn and slowly makes its way across the Bridge as dusk approaches

As the intense heat of the day began to retreat before oncoming darkness, we slowly crossed the bridge back to the town, pausing to watch one last passenger train slowly move across the track.

We wave and shout greetings in English, Chinese, and Thai back to the friendly passengers peering at those of us crowded onto small platforms beside the rails. As the train rumbles off into the distance, we buy deliciously sweet and refreshingly cold mango smoothies before making our way to the car and off to our hotel. Hot and weary, yes, but also fulfilled. The night is relatively young, but Kanchanaburi sleeps early and we need the rest- for tomorrow we visit the otherworldly Erawan waterfalls!

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