Roadtrip Kanchanaburi to Sangklaburi
Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 2012-08-03 12:00 by Laerke


We left Bangkok in the late afternoon – our noses pointing west, we were going to experience the very western part of Thailand. After being stuck in the traffic on our way out of Bangkok for the better part of two hours eventually the city thinned out and the skyscrapers became few and far in between, we finally felt like we were on our way!


We drove into Kanchanburi at around 9 o’clock in the evening and headed straight for our booked accommodation – a raft house at Bamboo House. The raft house was super basic, but still managed to be absolutely lovely! The whole house is floating on what looks like some big oil drums out on the water, and is connected to the mainland with a rickety walkway. We sat at the little terrace on the water and looked at the jungle on the other bank, a few bats were around and now and then we could hear the “flop” of a fish splashing around, it was a world away from Bangkok.

If I hadn’t been super jetlagged I’m sure I would have slept like a baby (I know Martin did) but I can tell you that it was still nice to sit out on the terrace at 4.30 in the morning… Jetlag really truly sucks! Still when a ray of sunshine woke me up at 7 in the morning I couldn’t get myself to stay in bed – I had to get out and see it all in daylight :) I was rewarded with a beautiful view, the river floating ever so gently, the trees on the opposite side were a radiant green and a train slowly tugged over the bridge over river Kwai (the bridge was clearly visible from our raft house) while a longtail boat whizzed by, then a few clouds rolled in a silent drizzle started and with it came a gorgeous rainbow right over the bridge over river Kwai – just perfect :)


After breakfast we set off to explore “the Heritage Street”, it is a street in the center of the old town filled with a variety of buildings which includes Sino-Portuguese, Thai and Chinese styles. Many of the shops date from the turn of the 20th century and are still owned by the same families. We enjoyed a cold drink and cakes at a cute little café right opposite what used to be the Kanchanaburi Hotel, back in the good old days they charged 1baht per night! Now that is cheap :) We had a look at many of the little shops and ended up buying a beautiful carved wooden birdcage, I plan to have a potted plant in it and lights on a string to decorate it with, and have in hanging on our balcony in Bangkok.

Afterwards we began our drive towards Sangklaburi, and what a beautiful ride it was! Tall, jagged limestone cliffs juts out of the jungle-like greenery on both sides of the road, as we climbed higher into the mountains the road became windier and here the mountain tops were often shrouded in mist. The temperature was really pleasant as we checked into the very cute guesthouse “Coffee Berry”, our room was pretty basic but had cute little details here and there.


We spent our time in Sangklaburi driving around in the area admiring all the beautiful green views everywhere, and of course we had to check out the bridge to the Mon village. It is the largest wooden bridge in Thailand, and it really is very pretty as well, and all the gorgeous wood adds so much more soul to the scene than metal would have.


After two days in Sangklaburi we drove south again, our destination was Sai Yok National Park where we had booked into a nice looking raft resort. Upon arriving in Sai Yok we were met by a man from the resort that escorted us down to the Kwai Noi River where we hopped aboard a longtail boat and where whizzed away down the river. The beautiful scenery with the tall limestone walls and jungle on each side of the river was as breathtaking as the speed we were traveling by! Before we knew it we had arrived at the Sai Yok View Raft Resort. Our room was again on the river, it gently rocks when a boat passes by, and you can hear the water running by under the floorboards. The entire resort is made up by rafts linked together, they can take any one raft and sail it away if they want to. We enjoyed a few hours in the sun by the pool – yes also on a raft floating on the water! In the afternoon we were told that a raft would go to the nearby waterfall, we bought a few sundowner drinks and hopped on one of the outer rafts that was then unhooked from the others and a longtail boat then dragged it down the river! It was a most unusual experience – and a bit bizzare. The raft we were on would later be re-attached to the rest of the resort and was then a part of the dining area. It was also incredible that the small longtail boat was able to pull this huge raft complete with roof and table and chairs and a bar up the river – against the current! We reached the waterfall and proceeded to sail into it, two other rafts had the same idea. And the waterfall was no longer visible from the outside – only from within the rafts, we could now however stand in the waterfall. Again pretty strange… It only proceeded to get even stranger as a raft full of Russians came – let’s face it Russians just look strange and act strange. We were actually happy when our raft broke out of the waterfall and returned to the resort. The sail back was beautiful!


After a great night’s sleep in Sai Yok (yes, my jet-lag is finally lifting!!) we headed further south towards Erawan National Park. First however we stopped at Hellfire Pass, a part of the Burma-Thailand railway built by prisoners of war during World War 2. The pass passes through solid rock and it was really moving standing there thinking about how the prisoners had worked 16-18 hours a day hacking their way through this rock face in only 3 months! Poor hygiene, a lack of medical equipment and the brutal treatment of the prisoners claimed the lives of around 15.000 Allied prisoners of war and tens of thousands of civilians from neighboring Southeast Asian countries.


Erawan National Park is centered around an absolutely beautiful waterfall, and this is also what we came for. We located the campground and set up our tent, before heading over to the waterfall. The majestic waterfall has seven tiers and is named after the three headed elephant of Hindu mythology. As we only got there in the afternoon we decided to just swim and laze around at the second tier. As it was a Sunday quite a few Thais were out enjoying the last bit of weekend, everybody was having a great time splashing around and picnicking. We swam and sunbathed while monkeys were swinging overhead.

After a night’s sleep in our little tent we headed back to the waterfall at around 10 in the morning, there was no one swimming in either level 1 or 2, at level 3 two western girls were enjoying the solitude. Before being allowed to climb all the way up you have to surrender any food and snacks, and your water bottle will be numbered and you pay a deposit of 20 baht that you get back when you show your water bottle again when leaving. We reckon this is done to minimize garbage left along the trail as well as to prevent monkeys from attacking to steal edibles.


Later on lots more tourist started swarming in – engulfed in a haze of citronella they stomped up and down, the Russians were hardly wearing anything, and a bunch of Israelis were screaming to each other while playing in the water.
We managed to find a secluded waterhole where we enjoyed a bit of fish spa and just took in the beautiful surroundings.
In the afternoon we packed up and drove back to Bangkok. The western part of Thailand truly is a beautiful place and we thoroughly enjoyed our road trip through this region, from its green mountains to its majestic waterfalls and the at all times present River Kwai– this is definitely a place we would like to go back to.