Khanchanaburi is most famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai and also for Karaoke boats along it's river. Two so utterly contrasting sights it's difficult to comprehend they're both part of the same town. Khanchanaburi also has a good national park, Erawan Park, to visit.
We could have lived without the Karaoke boats. They played musak at ballistic noise levels, roamed up and down the river all night, pulling into shore about 7:00am in the morning to disgorge the pathetic tourist cargo who spent the night on board.
From BKK our train to Khanchanaburi was a local and only had 3rd class seating which meant it had wooden benches, wide open windows and great views of the countryside. Neither Evelyn nor Julie can stomach sitting backwards, so I ended up watching the countryside receding behind us. A unique perspective. I love the clickety clack sounds a train makes as it travels along the tracks. The train stopped at some very small stations along the way. Some wern't even an official platform, people simply hopped off the train down onto the tracks when it stopped.
Arriving in Khanchanaburi we found our Guest House, Apple Guest House, after a little searching. At 200 ($5) baht a night it was extremely inexpensive, but clean, dry and had hot showers - bonus! Apple Guest House also has a really good restaurant where we tended to eat most of the time. The curries were truly hot, not just Westerner hot. Yum.
We took a day trip to the Erawan National Park. All three of us were a bit apprehensive doing the 'tour group' thing as it's not usually our cup of tea. Erawan National Park is located is known for it's waterfalls and especially the Erawan Waterall, which is well-known in Thailand because of it's height and size. The mountains, caves, cliffs and smaller waterfalls contributet to a beautiful and scenic backdrop. Because of the atmosphere surrounding us it felt like we were in a primeval forest.
As we walked through the forest we fell well behind the tour group of people so we pretty much did it at our own pace and that made all the difference to the enjoyment of the Park. The trees are covered with large climbing plants and wild orchds. We could hear the songs of birds way up high. Along some of the lower, smaller waterfalls, enigmatic stalactities and stalagmites sweep the ground.
The climb itself is not exactly steep or extremely difficult, but it is testing and can be tiring in places and it does take about 2 hours to get to the top. We rested up when needed and simply sat and enjoyed the wonderful scenery displayed in front of us.
In the middle of the forest we came across a huge tree wrapped with layer after layer of colorful ribbons around the base of the trunk. Thais believe that trees have spirits and pay respect and pray to gain merit to the trees. This particular tree must have been very powerful or loved.
Butterflies in the forest are large, colorful and playful. They land on rocks in sunny spots in the river and lap the water from the rock's surface. They are constantly moving, consequently it's difficult to get a good photo of them. But it's sure fun trying.
Among the tree tops are troups of monekys. They behave like any normal family, all busy doing something. The children playing, the adults getting food. Like all families there were funny moments watching them swing through the trees. And moments of discord where youngsters fought with each other, yet the a few moments later they were playing again. One of the littlest babies hung onto this tree vine very nonchalently.
The next day we took off for a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai. I'd been reading quite a bit around the history of how the railway line was built by Prisoners of War and local Chinese and other laborers, under horrific conditions. The Japanese force-built the railway line to supply their troops during an attempt to invade Burma. During it's construction it's been estimated 16,000 prisoners of war and 49,000 laboroers perished.
The bridge itself is not the original. Remember, it was bombed out of existence several times during the War. The currrent bridge was built after the war. None the less, as we passed over the railway tracks heading for the famous bridge I couldn't help but think about the people who lost their lives in such terrible circumstances. The train stops just past the bridge and lets us out to walk back onto Bridge span. I couldn't believe I was standing on it. Again my mind kept wandering back to the scenes and stories I'd read about it's construction and it was humbling.
Back in Khanchanaburi itself we went to visit the Jeath War Museum. It's an exact duplicate of the huts POWs and laborers were housed in during the Bridge building process. It's open air bamboo huts and houses pictures and descriptions of the life of the people in the camp. It paints a horific picture. Long benches line the walls, stretching out into the center of the room about 6' - the height of a man. Men slept side by side there. Each man getting about 18" of space to himself.
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