Kanchanaburi tours: River Kwai. Things to do & travel guide
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River Kwai,The bridge on the River Kwai is located in Kanchanaburi province. It is very important about history of Thailand. River Kwai built 1942. Very difficult for built it and it made many people dead. Now a day the symbol of bridge is friendship. The bridge forms the dramatic centrepiece of the annual River Kwai Bridge Festival, held over ten nights from rhe end of November to commemorate the first Allied bombing of the Bridge on November 28, 1944, Kanchanaburi gets packed out during this time.
River Kwai There is a small technical problem with the Bridge over the River Kwai. It doesn't actually cross the River Kwai. Pierre Boulle, who wrote the original book, had never been there. He knew that the 'death railway' ran parallel to the River Kwae for many miles, and assumed that it was the Kwae which it crossed just North of Kanchanaburi. He was wrong - It actually crosses the Mae Khlung. When David Lean's blockbuster came out, the Thais faced something of a problem. Thousands of tourists came flocking to see the bridge over the River Kwae, and they hadn't actually got one. All they had was a bridge over the Mae Khlung. So, with admirable lateral thinking, they renamed the river. The Mae Khlung is now the Kwae Yai ('Big Kwae') for several miles north of the confluence with the Kwae Noi ('Little Kwae'), including the bit under the bridge.
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River Kwai: In 1943 thousands of Allied Prisoners of War (PoW) and Asian labourers 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 kilometres 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.
What to see:
Don-Rak War Cemetery
This War Cemetery is also known as the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. It is located opposite Kanchanaburi's Railway Station on Saengchootoe Road. It contains the remains of 6,982 Australian, Dutch and British war prisoners who lost their lives during the construction of the Death Railway.
Chonk-Kai War Cemetery
The second War Cemetery is about 2 km south of town on the bank of the Kwai Noi River and occupies the former Conk-Kai Prisoner of War Camp. This cemetery is more peaceful, attractively landscaped and contains 1,740 remains (by countries: 1,379 British, 313 Netherlands, 42 Malayan and 6 Indian). It was the site of a base camp, a hospital and a church built by the prisoners themselves. The great majority of 1,740 casualties buried in this war cemetery, which is the original burial ground started by the prisoners, are men who died in the hospital nearby.
JEATH War Museum
JEATH is an acronym for the primary nations which participated in local action. These nations are: Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland. The museum inside Wat Chai Chumphon has been constructed largely in the form of an Allied Prisoner of War camp which is managed by a Thai monk. The thatched detention hut with cramped, elevated bamboo bunks contains photographic, pictorial and physical memorabilia dating from the Second World War.
War Museum at the Bridge
The private sector Museum that collects lots of World War II Stories, such as war instruments, photographs, uniforms, etc. It is located on the bank of Kwai River nearby the Bridge on the River Kwai. Inside the building is also an Art Gallery on 2nd and 3rd floor. The paintings on the second floor relate ancient battles between the Thais and Burmese, while third-floor murals tell Thai history and provide portraits of prime ministers and other important political figures. This private museum also features Khmer-style woodcarvings, a pair of elaborate Burmese Buddhas, and excellent paintings of Chinese deities.
When to go:
Every day 8.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.
How to get there:
By bus
Kanchanaburi is connected by daily road and rail services with Bangkok and other neighbouring provinces.
Air-conditioned and non-air conditioned coaches frequently leave Bangkok's Southern Bus Terminal throughout the day, departing every 15 minutes from about 5:00 AM until 10:00 PM for the 2 to 3-hour journey. Or take a mini bus from Bangkok's Khaosan Road to go there within 2 hours..
By train
Trains leave the Bangkok Noi Railway Station (Thonburi Train Station) two times a day for Kanchanaburi.
