Kanchanaburi, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand

10th July – 11th July 2018

Once we had boarded the train in Hua Hin, we had to sit on the tracks for a while, waiting for one coming towards us, to arrive. This put our time back a little more and although we originally had an hour between the first train arriving and the one that the man told us about, leaving, we were starting to cut it fine, already. There wasn’t anything that we could do at this point though, so we just had to wait it out and see what happened.

The train wasn’t air conditioned and it was hot when it was stood still. Luckily a breeze came through when we were moving, so that helped a lot. There were lots of people walking up and down the train, selling all sorts of things, from drinks to meals, to snacks – we didn’t need to go to the shop after all! The scenery along the way was beautiful, so much nicer than the scenery we’ve seen on the buses, so it was already worth it.

Although it was a three-hour journey, time soon passed and we arrived at Ban Pong just after 3pm. We got off the train and asked in the office about getting to Kanchanaburi, and unsurprisingly, we couldn’t get a train – we’re used to things not to going to plan now. The man was helpful though and told us that we could get a bus from the bus station about 600m away; he pointed us in the right direction and off we went.

After about five minutes, we came to a junction and weren’t sure where to go. A man in a shop saw us and asked what we were looking for. He then pointed about 50m down the road and told us the bus comes there, and to look for bus number 81. We thanked him and carried on, noticing that a number 81 bus was coming towards us! We sped up a little, bought our tickets from the woman at the desk next to the bus stop and hopped on board. The bus tickets were a little more expensive than the train tickets, at 50 baht each (£1.13), but the whole journey for both of us only came to 160 baht, which was 60 baht cheaper than one minivan ticket from Hua Hin to Kanchanaburi, so we had made the best decision for once!

The bus journey was about an hour, and we arrived in Kanchanaburi just before 4.30. As we had arrived at the bus station, instead of the train station, like we thought, we had quite a walk to our hostel. While we were in the bus station, we enquired about tickets to Chiang Mai, as we wanted to leave the next evening.

After our thirty minute walk, we finally made it to the hostel! It was a long and difficult walk with our bags, but it was a good workout. When we got there, we checked in and got our bearings of the area. Joe showered, before we went back out again.

To make the most of our time in Kanchanaburi, we decided to do some of the sights before dinner, to give us a full day to visit the national park nearby. From the hostel, we made our way to Death Railway viaduct, which is a main tourist attraction in the town. It took us about forty minutes to get there, but when we arrived, it was so beautiful. We timed it quite well too, as we saw it in day light and then as the sun went down, it lit up (although only at one end, strangely).

Joe had read that during one of the World Wars, the prisoners of war were forced to build this bridge. Apparently lots of people died during their time building it, from injuries, sun stroke or starvation, hence the name. We both agreed that they had down a pretty good job of it though, as it was very pretty. We took some photos and walked along it, before heading to a restaurant for dinner.

For dinner, Joe had researched a few places online. One of the places that he had found was back in the direction of the hostel, so we decided to try there. On the way, there was a light rain shower, but nothing too bad, so that was okay. We bought some more bargain bananas from a lady on a street stall and got some money out, before finding the restaurant.

When we arrived, we checked the menu, before sitting down and ordering. It was a vegetarian and vegan restaurant, so something a little different but it was all very tasty, especially the banana milkshake!

Once we had finished, we paid up and made our way back to the hostel, via 7-eleven for some water and via the night market. The night market wasn’t anything special and only had clothes and household items for sale – it was more of a local’s market than a tourist market.

Just before 9, we got back to the hostel, where we checked a few things with the owner, for the morning, before we went upstairs. We sat in the communal area for a while, planning and organised some bits, before tiredness overtook and we went up to bed at about 10.30.

We were in a dorm for the first time in a while which makes it difficult to get ready, especially when people are already in bed, but we managed. We got ready and went off to bed, falling asleep quite quickly.

During the night, Joe woke up to watch the second half of the football semi-final, before falling back to sleep.

We wanted to make the most of our full day (kind of) in Kanchanaburi, so we had set our alarms from 6.30am. We got up and ready, and packed our drybag for the day, and put everything else in our big bags. We checked out and left our bags in the reception area, before setting off on our day trip.

Erawan National Park is the national park near to Kanchanaburi which has a beautiful waterfall. I had read about it before we arrived in Kanchanaburi but I didn’t think it would be possible to go in such a short space of time. However, when we arrived at the hostel, there was guidance on how to get there, so we decided to try.

The bus, to the park, stopped outside 7-eleven across the road from the hostel. We had to be there for 8, so we went a little early so that we could buy lunch first. We waited until just after 8, when the bus arrived. We waved at it to stop, which it did, but it was already packed. We were allowed on, but had to stand the whole way, which was a long way!

Just after 9.30, we arrived at the national park. We paid our entry and were dropped off at the visitor’s centre. We picked up a map and set off on our way.

There are seven tiers to the waterfall and each one was so beautiful. The first two were a little more flat and easier to access and they got steeper from there. After the second level, we had to drop our food off at a desk, as we weren’t allowed it any higher. I guess the idea behind that is to reduce litter, but we were looking forward to a picnic up near the top.

The next few tiers were accessed by some steep steps, but it wasn’t anything too strenuous. Level four was a cool one, with a rock slide in it. Up until this point, we weren’t sure whether to go in the water or not, as we weren’t sure if we would have time to dry before going back to the hostel, and I had read that the fish nibble you and I didn’t fancy that. However, seeing the rock slide changed things for us, and we both decided to give it a go.

The next tier was my favourite as it was the most beautiful. The layered rocks and waterfalls were amazing, and the water was so clear and blue and there was a natural infinity pool, it was all just so pretty!

The final two tiers were up steep and slippery climbs. Tier six didn’t look as impressive as previous levels, but the seventh was beautiful. It was a difficult, muddy and wet climb up there, but we made it, eventually. We stopped and took some photos, before we decided to head back down, as we needed to catch the bus back soon and we were hungry.

We made our way down, collecting our food along the way, making our way straight to the bus stop, by the visitor’s centre. We were very early to the bus stop, but it meant that we could get a seat on the bus, instead of standing the whole way again.

Although our night bus to Chiang Mai, wasn’t until 6pm, we wanted to make sure we got back in time to get changed and get our things down to the bus station. We got the 2pm bus back from the falls, meaning that we were back in Kanchanaburi for 3.30. On the way home, Joe napped, while I hung my sarong out of the window, in sections, to try and dry it off.

When we got back to the hostel, we got changed and packed up, ready to leave. We were going to pop into the museum on the way down to the bus station, but we had to pay to get in and we didn’t have too much time to look around, so decided to give that a miss.

We sat in the hostel for a while, preparing ourselves for the walk down to the bus station. We left just after 4, popping into a souvenir shop along the way. Eventually, we reached the bus station just before 5 and we were a little hot and sweaty.

At the bus station, we bought the tickets and made our way to the bus stand. We were early, but we were told to get there at 5, and we didn’t want to miss it. While Joe sat with the bags, I made a trip to the shop to get us a toastie for tea. I then went back again to get us an ice lolly for dessert.

Surprisingly, the bus arrived at 5.40, as we were told it would do. We loaded our bags and were told that we could get on board. We had allocated seats, so we weren’t in a massive rush, as we had until 6, so we finished our ice lollies first. The bus set off one minute early (even more surprisingly), as we set off to Pai, via Chiang Mai.

Kanchanaburi is a cute little town in the middle of the country. I loved that it wasn’t too touristy, and I hope that it stays that way, even though there were a lot of tourists there. Our trip to Erawan National Park was a highlight for me, although I would have liked to have seen a little more of the town itself, if we’d have had time. It’s time to head up north now, with three more stops to go!

To travel is to live, Katie x