Onwards to Kanchanaburi

Waking at 5am I am off the Noi station to catch the early train to Kanchanaburi, site of the ‘Bridge over the river Quai’ and a must see attraction. The journey is 3hrs along, but is worth the 100b (£2) fare ;)
On arrival in Kanchanaburi I soon find my hotel “Sams House” and am shown a room over the river with AC and a bath!! It is a beautiful location and has wonderful views of the river accompanied to the sound of endless buzzing insects.
Day one sees me walk the through the town to find the Bridge - It is a fantastic sight and with its iconic arched spans crosses the river carrying a single rail line traversed by a tourist train every few minutes. You can also walk across - which I just had to do - but many other tourists had the same idea and there is only one metal walkway along the centre of the track - in order to allow people past you step to one side onto wooden planks set parallel, these I found were often loose and occasionally broken leading me to almost fall through a slat into the river below!! 0_0
The whole town is geared up for visitors, whether they are tourists or military veterans wanting to come to pay their respects - there is a wonderful museum giving a clear insight into the war in Asia and the building of the ‘death railway’ including the Bridge over the river Quai. Well worth a visit for the views of the bridge from the 4th floor.
Also within the town you can see the cemeteries for the allies and the Japanese - both moving places to visit and very well maintained.
Day two saw me book a tour to Hellfire pass via the 7 tier waterfall with a wonderful guide from ‘Good Time tours’ called ‘Mooo’ (like a cow for pronunciation she explanied). The trip took us by AC mini van to the waterfalls first. These were stunning places with azure blue pools and hypnotic waterfalls - water cascades quietly over limestone ridges forming natural pools below them which are home to many fish - it is ok to swim in the pools but be aware that the fish swim towards you and the smaller ones nibble at your skin (just like in the foot spars with fish!!). To get to the top of the waterfall series is 2.2km along some moderately challenging pathways strewn with boulders and loose vines/roots. This would normally be ok - but when wearing swimming trunks it is a more challenging affair - I did see one man climbing it in Speedo’s and flip flops - best to be avoided I feel…
On reaching the 7th tier you will be rewarded with a lovely waterfall overlooked by a fallen tree of epic size which you can sit/stand on to have a photo taken ;) Then it is back to the bottom to have lunch and move to stop 2 the Hellfire pass…
Hellfire Pass (named due to the fires burning at night casting shadows of the malnourished workers across the area) is where thousands of POW’s worked and died to create a cutting 450m long and 8m deep using basic tools and some explosives - the museum on site has some very interesting material on the site with a sombre memorial to the fallen outside and there is a hiking trail which takes about 3 hours to complete. We did the shorter version which is a mere 40 mins but does include views of the pass itself, the memorial to the fallen and a number of sleepers still in place. The rail line does still exist where the Thai government bought it after the war…
The third stop is a train ride along the death railway, this is along the very scenic river pass and has some truly stunning wooden structures supporting the rail lines - However the narrow gauge is no longer used but is left for visitors to see - the wider gauge line is used to run the modern diesel train for visitors journeys. The clatter of the train travelling this stretch of line is unique J
Finally it is time to return to the Bridge over the river Quai for one last look to the tune of “it’s a long way to Tipperary”…
Overall, this is a memorable place for many reasons but if you are in Thailand it is a location not to be missed.