Weekend in Kanchanaburi

My sister with one of the tigers
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My sister and I went on a weekend trip to Kanchanaburi.

During World War II the Japanese used Allied prisoners of war to build the infamous Death Railway. Thousands of prisoners died as a result of brutal treatment by their captors, their experiences chronicled by Pierre Boulle in his book The Bridge on the river Kwai and popularised by the movie of the same name.

Driving along the Death Railway and fondling tigers

We stayed there for three days and on the first day we went to a tiger farm, where you could take pictures with the tigers. It was pretty scary and impressind to sit next to a tiger, but we didn´t like the way the animals were treated. Their run was only about 5 squaremeters and looked like prisoncells. The seven tigers were kept busy by licking salt from the rocks while the tourists took their pictures.

Going swimming
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We were really disappointed about the facilitiers and the behaviour of the keepers.

Later that day we went for lunch at the "Sugarcane", a really nice restaurant and guesthouse directly at the river Kwai. The food was really good and very cheap. I love their blended strawberryjuice!!

For Sunday we had booked a tour and first we went to the Erawan waterfalls, which were amaying. We went for a swim in the top waterfall and that was the greatest and most refreshing thing on this day. After lunch we drove to a elephant farm and went elephant riding, which was very bumpy!

Elephant riding
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Next we drove by train along the Burma-Thailand Death Railway to the bridge over the river Kwai, but you had to search for the bridge, because there are so many tourists and souvenirstands, that it´s hard to see the bridge.

It was a really exhausting but amazing day and after a couple of cocktails, the best fish&chips an a pool game at the No Name bar we drifted in a really good sleep.

On Monday we visited the Allied War Cemetery in the city, where about 7.000 Allied  prisoners who died during building the railway, are buried.

Amazing landscape
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Then we took the taxi back to Bangkok. Kanchanaburi is a nice, little town surrounded by really beautiful landscape, great national parks and good guesthouses. Just the nightlife isn´t that amazing.