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Kanchanaburi Travel Information
Kanchanaburi City lies 150 km west of Bangkok and is itself a
popular resort town. Situtated on the banks of the Mae Klong
River where its two tributaries - Kwai Noi and Kwai Yai rivers
meet the city serves as an overnight base for tourists visiting
the province's many attractions. There are spectacular
waterfalls, river cruises, fishing trips and jungle tours for
the nature lovers or one can visit ethnic Mon and Karen
settlements.
Kanchanaburi borders with Myanmar (Burma) and a rugged mountain
range and almost impregnable jungle separate the two countries.
British engineers surveying the terrain in 1905 for a projected
rail route, declared it impossible to build only to have the
Japanese army do it 17 months later, in wartime conditions.
The 1950's world box-office hit movie "The Bridge on the River
Kwai" put Kanchanaburi, on the world map. The bridge, part of
the infamous 'Death Railway' joining Thailand with Burma, was
where thousands of soldiers lost their lives due to brutal
treatment by their captors in the area during its construction
and subsequent completion and the film depicts this time of
horror and sorrow in graphic detail.
After the film hit the screens around the world, tourists
flocked to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge. Now, Kanchanaburi is
a prosperous province, sugar cane plantations cover her plains
and mines, her hills. As for tourism, the province's spectacular
scenery and rugged mountainous terrain give rise to a growing
number of jungle resorts for nature-lovers and trekking trails
for the more adventurous.
Thungyai National Park, within Kanchanaburi province remains the
most pristine jungle area in the whole country and is listed as
one of the world's natural heritages by the United Nations. Here
one can stay in floating bungalows on the River Kwai in remote
jungle areas, an experience not to be missed or wander along
jungle tracks where time seems to have stood still. |
