AnneMarie and Andrew

Annemarie and Andrew – Trekking Asia

Kanchanaburi to Nong Khai


Posted on Feb 5, 2014

Four days in Kanchanaburi had given us enough time to see everything we thought was worth bothering with, it was time to leave. We had decided that it was time to leave Thailand and move on. When we had roughly planned the route this trip would take we had planned on visiting Laos after Thailand. Then after a few weeks in Laos we would travel back into Thailand to Bangkok in order to fly to Nepal. So off to Laos we went. The easiest route for us to take would be to take the train to Bangkok then catch the overnight train to Nong Khai which is on the Thai side of the Thai-Laos border. There is a large border crossing in Nong Khai where we can then get a bus or taxi into Vientiane. The train was due to leave Kanchanaburi at 7:15am, so we were up and out of the hotel just after sunrise. Unfortunately, the train was 30 minutes late (almost all trains in Thailand run late) which was annoying as I could have had a little more sleep. But we were able to eat our breakfast on the platform whilst we waited. A few days earlier we had discovered the 7/11 stores (small convenience stores) which are everywhere, sold the small UK breakfast cereal boxes. I had the Frosties and Annemarie had some chocolate cereal by Nestlé. (This became our budget breakfast in Thailand at 20p per box it was a bargain). The carriage was very dusty because we had picked third class, which has no air con, so the windows were wide open. The air is thick with dust from the soil been turned and also lots of ash from the constant burning of trees. We wiped the seats with wet wipes and the bright white cloth went black. We arrived in Bangkok around 11am and the temperature had already reached 35 degrees. The train from Kanchanaburi uses the Thon Buri station on the west of Bangkok. The main train station is Hua Lamphong which is on the east side of the river and closer to the centre of the city. Our chosen route was a 15 minute walk from Thon Buri to the ferry pier on the Chao Phraya river, go to pier number 3 by the Sheraton hotel and walk about another 15-20 minutes to Hua Lamphong. This could be avoided by simply jumping in a taxi, but we had vowed to not give Bangkok taxi drivers any more money unless we really had to because we had had so much trouble finding an honest driver in the past (they either took...

Read More

Kanchanaburi: Erawan Waterfall


Posted on Feb 3, 2014

In our current hotel the internet is too slow for me to add pictures to this post. I’ll do that at the next hotel which has a decent internet connection. Our last day in Kanchanaburi and we have planned to go to Erawan Waterfall. It is actually a series of waterfalls made up of 7 major falls and many smaller falls. Many guides describe the falls as ‘the most beautiful waterfall in Thailand’. The falls are 60km from Kanchanaburi so we had the moped again. The ride was incredibly windy, although there wasn’t the slightest breeze when we were stopped, by the time we were moving at about 60-70kph the wind was pushing back so hard my back ached from having to resist it. I don’t know why it got so windy, we’ve rode many miles at these speeds many times before and not experienced that strength of wind resistance. Anyway, it meant the journey was a bit less comfortable and took a bit longer than expected. But eventually we arrived. The trail starts by following a slow wide stream which looks pretty nice: And has monkeys swinging around in the trees lining the stream: But when we reached the first waterfall we were shocked by the sight. The water was filled with Russians and they were climbing all over the waterfall. One crazy guy was slowly walking along the rocky ledge towards the middle of the waterfall. How he didn’t slip and fall over the edge of the waterfall must be more luck than skill, but he reached the center and it was then that the Thai security decided to intervene. Lots of whistle blowing and hand gestures to make the guy turn around. This proved a tricky feat and rather than make the risky journey back to the banks the guy took a leap straight off the waterfall. He got a stern warning from the guard for that. This pretty much sums up the whole of the waterfalls. Every pool under the falls was filled with Russians and many more were climbing up, sliding down and jumping on every section of almost every waterfall. Kanchanaburi isn’t a large place plus it’s quite easy to spot the different nationalities, but we hadn’t seen any Russians in Kanchanaburi. So where they all came from is a mystery (our guess is bus tours from Bangkok but that’s a 3-4 hour bus journey). The Russians had no consideration for anyone else or the rules, they just wanted to get in the water and slide over some waterfalls. The path from the first cascade to the seventh is about a mile long....

Read More

Kanchanaburi: Hellfire Pass


Posted on Jan 31, 2014

Hellfire Pass is a section of the Death Railway in which a cutting was made through solid rock. It was cut by hand with a 10 pound hammer and a drill to make a 1m hole, which was then filled with dynamite. The debris was then cleared by hand and the process was repeated. At its deepest it’s 25m deep and is about 300m in length. It is probably the most difficult section of the line to be built and saw a huge number of POW deaths. It is named Hellfire Pass because the men had to work day and night and by night it resembled a scene from hell due to the emaciated men and the torch light. It’s 80km away from Kanchanaburi so we hired a moped and headed north. As we descended down the hillside from the museum into the narrow ledge which the train line followed around the edge of the hill we listened to the audio guide. The commentary is from the survivers and is a story of malnourishment, disease, Japanese cruelty and death. How anyone could survive the conditions is incredible. We followed the trail for about another 20 minutes after the cutting, seeing where bridges had been built and more cuttings had been dug. Although it’s mostly shaded it was hot and we drank a whole 1.5L bottle of water on the trail. We had also had a meal just before the museum and had another 1.5L bottle of water waiting for us in the bike. The men who had dug the cutting had done it with far less food or water, in hotter conditions and with no shoes. The next cutting was Hammer and Tap. Men had to pound a hammer and another man twised the drill part before explosives were used to clear the area. At the time of this cutting the Japanese had embarked on ‘Speedo’. The line was behind schedule and the railway layers had caught up with the diggers. Men now worked in shifts on a rotation basis. It is at this point in the railway’s history that the death toll increased dramatically. One of the audio clips told of how the Japanese did a stool test. If you had less than 80% blood in your stools you were fit enough to work! We took the path back to the museum at the top via the same route used by the POWs. It was a lot of steps uphill and wound around the hillside and up and down over the slopes. By the time we reached the museum we were tired and very thirsty. We learnt a...

Read More

Kanchanaburi: The Death Railway


Posted on Jan 31, 2014

The Death Railway was built by POWs and Asian labourers during the Second World War for the Japanese, so they could get supplies into Burma. It was 400km long and was in use until the end of the war. After the war it was disconnected near the border by the British who were paranoid about some separatists using it to force the British out. The Thai government then decided in 1947 to close the uppermost section of the line near the Burmese border. The rest of the line, from Bangkok to Nam Tok was left in service and is still in use today. There is a short extension to a waterfall which is now the end of the line, but only one train goes there and only on a Saturday and Sunday. As luck would have it we were in Kanchanaburi over the weekend so we got tickets onto the 909 special train to the waterfall at the end of the line. The purpose of the journey was simply to ride over the bridge and ride the death railway. The waterfall at the end was little more than a bonus for the trip. The train journey was very slow moving at about 20 mph most of the time and much less when we went over wooden sections. When we reached the waterfalls it’s lucky they weren’t the main reason for the journey. They were small and picturesque, but they were full of Russian tourists who seemingly came out of nowhere and were now climbing on every available inch of stone. There was one reasonably large waterfall which Annemarie went to a paddle under but mainly we rested and ate ice cream. All the photos from our trip on the train and the waterfall can be seen here. Posted from Tha Sao, Kanchanaburi,...

Read More