Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi is a little-known world of fertile sugar-cane plantations, lush paddy fields, waterfalls, beautiful mountain passes and a part of Thailand to the north west of Bangkok that is very undeveloped and rarely travelled to as you head up towards the Burmese border.

• Pay tribute to the POW’s at the Thai-Burma Railway museum & War cemetery
• Ride on the ‘Death Railway’ across wooden viaducts and admire the views
• Hike along Hellfire pass, the notorious former railway line
• Spend a night relaxing at a floating lodge on the River Kwai

However the one area that is world-famous and its principal highlight is the Bridge over the River Kwai and Death Railway, which was designed by the occupying Japanese forces as a supply route to link Thailand and Burma and still to this day serves as a poignant reminder of the atrocities suffered here during World War II. There is a museum, which highlights the plight of the POW’s and there is a beautifully maintained and serene WWII cemetery. It is also possible to see the dramatic railway cutting known as Hell Fire Pass.

Not far from the provincial town of Kanchanaburi is Erawan National Park, which is renowned for not only its dramatic seven-tiered waterfall, but also its colourful birdlife, of which there are more than 300 resident species as well as elephants and numerous other wildlife species.