Kanchanaburi: The Bridge over the River Kwai

Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a big fan of Thailand and, although we've been there three times already, including six months living in Chiang Mai in 2011, we keep coming back because it's such an interesting country with diverse and varied landscapes, warm people and incredibly tasty food.

Kanchanaburi is only 2.5 hours from Bangkok but it's like being in another world. Gone are the congested streets, tall buildings and back-to-back food stalls, shops and bars. Instead there are lush green paddy fields, wide roads with the odd moped whizzing by and a much slower pace of life. 

Of course it's also where thousands of prisoners of war (POWs) and Asian civilian labourers who were forced to work, spent harrowing years of the Second World War building the 415 kilometre Burma Railway between Bangkok and Rangoon, now commonly known at the Death Railway.

In anticipation of our trip, I read Pierre Boule's 1952 novel The Bridge over the River Kwai which is also a 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai, actually filmed in Sri Lanka where we'd just come from. The book paints quite a rosy picture of the men all banding together to humiliate the Japanese guards and being, well, jolly British and stoic about the whole thing. In reality I don't think the men had the opportunity to pull rank in such way and were so ill treated that their main aim was to just survive.

Our first port of call in Kanchanaburi was the Death Railway Museum (120 baht, £2.40) which is located next to the War Cemetery and tells the true story of what happened while the railway was constructed and 90,000 Asian labourers and 12,399 prisoners of war, 6,318 of whom were British, lost their lives.

We spent a whole morning there and it's potentially one of the most well put together museums I've been to in Asia. Quite often museums in this part of the world can be ill thought out and neglected (who can forget that museum in Pondicherry?) but this set absolutely the right tone - as well as being informative it's also a good tribute to the men who died building the Death Railway.

They also had some photos up from Colin Firth's recent visit as part of his research into the film The Railway Man (2013) in which he plays Eric Lomax. I was very sad to see that I'd missed the lovely Colin Firth by just a few months!

The Death Railway Museum, Kanchanaburi.

The War Cemetery opposite the museum. 

We then went to see the bridge over the River Kwai itself, which was one of the most gruelling tasks the POWs and Asian labourers were made to do complete. It didn't really look how I expected - in Pierre Boule's novel he talks a lot about a wooden construction but the bridge itself is made of concrete and steel. In fact it turns out that Boule's novel is inaccurate in many ways - the bridge wasn't actually built over the River Kwai but in fact the Mae Klong River but when the film came out the accommodating Thais changed the name of the river to Kwai in order to take advantage on the bridge's new-found notoriety.

Me on the bridge over the River Kwai.

It's not a particularly special or unusual bridge by today's standards but when you consider the men were working in the glaring sun (it was up to 40c while we were there and that's in winter) with sub-standard tools and limited rations, then it's a wonder it ever got completed and it's testament to their hard work (even if it was done under duress) that it's still standing today.

The bridge over the River Kwai is steel and concrete and not wooden.

After seeing the bridge, normal service resumed when we visited the adjacent museum which was to the usual incredibly bad standard. It was called the World War and Jeath Museum and was possibly the worst museum I've ever visited. The artifacts were randomly ordered and there was a picture gallery that managed to make the jump from the Second World War to Hannibal in one step, then jumped back to World War II and then off to Napoleon. A lot of things were unlabelled or the labels were pealing off and parts of it just looked abandoned. It was so bad it actually made me quite angry. To add to the strangeness there was a massive lizard thing hanging about the entrance which looked overfed and a bit unwell. Entry was only cost 40 baht (80p) but even that is a complete rip-off in my opinion.

The strange, sick-looking lizard thing outside the World War Museum.

I thought Kanchanaburi town itself was going to be uninspiring place with just the bridge as an attraction but it turned out to be a charming little town. There was quite a cool little night market to wander around in the evenings and we found two great places to eat - Nut's Restaurant and a small cafe named On's Thai-Isaan. Lovely On's was purely vegetarian and run by two of Thailand's most hard-working ladies who churned out amazing curries and papaya salads (not to mention one of them managing to fit in the odd breast-feed for her one-month old baby) from dawn until well past dusk every day. They were quite remarkable to watch.

We stayed on a floating river raft on the River Kwai (or should I call it the Mae Klong?) which was more stable than it sounds and provided beautiful sunrise and sunset views across the vast water.

The view from our river raft guest house in Kanchanaburi.

I was hoping to take in the swim in the river but then I saw a couple of these chappies hanging about in the water and was put off!

Huge lizard chilling out next to the river.

Overall I would definitely recommend a visit to Kanchanaburi - it's thought-provoking, beautiful and the people are lovely. Just don't go to that crappy museum!

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT KANCHANABURI:
Accommodation: We stayed at Sam's Riverside Raftouse which was in a lovely location and good value for money. They have cheaper rooms at 300 baht (£6) a night and much nicer rooms which are newer and have tiled bathrooms for 500 baht (£10) a night.
Eating: It's got to be Nut's Restaurant which has a very friendly and helpful owner or On's Thai-Isaan which does great food. Both are on the main road through Kanchanaburi.
Getting there and away: Surely there's only one way to travel to Kanchanaburi and that's by train on the original Death Railway route? It's really quick, easy and cheap (120 baht, £2.40) from Bangkok and there are two trains there and back each day. Everything you need to know can be found here.