Best known as the site of the Bridge on the River Kwai, there’s a whole load of history here. There are also caves filled with crystals and bats, forests and cascades of waterfalls making this a pretty great place to visit. Especially when you stumble across a random festival!
Day 97 – Bats!
We had our final breakfast and last swim at the lovely resort. Its job was done and we were feeling healthy and recharged again – ready to immerse ourselves into Thailand.
We had a three hour drive North, following the main roads back up. These roads are pretty dull and unchanging. The whole way up the highway there were shops and warehouses along the side of the road. We probably passed some towns but it’s nearly impossible to tell! I suspect there’s some countryside and farmland behind all this, but you can’t see as the land is so flat.
We stopped in one of the Outlet Malls looking for replacement Salomon trainers for Chris as his have holes. A huge centre with many of the main labels we know (Adidas, Nike, Lacoste etc in the sports area). Unfortunately we had no luck finding Salomon’s but did pick up a couple of super lightweight T-shirts for Chris and Evie. Not much cheaper than UK prices though. It was interesting to see all the fashion conscious young Thai’s walking around though.
We arrived at the Khao Ngu Stone Park, which is very much for the locals and not a tourist destination – we were the only white people there! It’s essentially a small lake, surrounded by some rocky hills, along which they’ve built a boardwalk. There are street stalls selling snacks, massive fish and paddle boats for hire.
As we were hungry on arrival we tried our first street food and had some steamed corn.
Then we wandered along the boardwalk, had some ice creams, watched a monkey raid the bit for our discarded cob (!), checked out the viewpoint and the fish feeding frenzy and returned to the start.
We sent the kids out in a paddle boat together. They were very excited to get the one with the St Georges Cross on it (and to be allowed out on their own).
We’d only come here as we were passing it on route to Wat Chong Phran. We weren’t very interested in the Wat. There’s a bat cave in the hill behind it from which around 2 million wrinkle lipped bats pour out every evening around 5.30pm. You used to be able to get up into the cave to experience the smell and the cockroaches living on all that guano, but it seemed to be locked tight when we were there ☹.
There’s an area here where they’ve set up a few snack stalls, put some chairs and some gaudy bats. It gives the kids something to do whilst they’re waiting.
The bats were slightly tardy but a small flock emerged at around 5.40pm, followed by a long line which erupted and flew around the hill. We wandered a bit further around to be able to see them in the sky above us – the sound was like a distant waterfall! Amazing. We stood and watched for 30 minutes as they continued to pour out and head off in a twisting line. Soon the sky was full of them and the line emerging started to lose some of its flow and integrity.
We wandered across the street to a small area of street food stalls where we looked for something to eat whilst the bats continued their flight and the sky darkened. We ended up with some tofu, sausage and some sort of other seasoned meat on sticks, fried quail eggs, sweetcorn fritters and some battered squid. All for less than 100 bhat (£2.70).
We headed the 20 minutes to our stop for the night. Which turned out to be a garage with an attached windowless room, equipped with a rock hard bed and some pillows which could break toes. Good job it’s just one night ☹.
Day 98 – Kanchanaburi
Not the best sleep with our choice of a rock pillow or no pillow. As there is no breakfast here we were up and out straight away. We stopped in the first 7-11 we came across to see what we could come up with for breakfast on the road. Yoghurts, bread, jam, a pork steamed bun and some green coloured custard buns. Not the most substantial but it was pretty yummy.
We continued on to Kanchanaburi, stopping at the Wat Chai Chumphon Chana Songkhram, which has the usual wat and also this rather different horse, boat thing!
As we crossed the road a procession of people dressed in lavender monk style robes, men and women, came past accompanied by music and a police escort. Although I tried to look this up, I couldn’t see what significance this had ☹.
The JEATH (stands for Japan, England, Australia, Thailand and Holland) museum opposite the Wat is pretty simple, a mock up of the huts that the POW’s lived in with a collection of photos and artworks, many drawn by people who were there at the time, along with a short film and some memorabilia from the war. Whilst small and pretty scruffy I do think we learnt quite a bit.
We drove about a bit looking for somewhere to eat. I wanted to eat on the river, but it was hot so we needed shade (and a fan), and I didn’t want to pay too much (not that I’m picky or anything!). It took a little bit of searching, but we found just the place, Eed’s raft restaurant. This is literally a roofed raft floating on the river, which bobs up and down whenever boats pass – not good for anyone who suffers from sea-sickness! Fish were kept in cages in the water around – this was as close as I’ve come to picking my dinner victim – we had catfish at Evie’s request – seeing as we were on the river! We could even see the famous ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ from our table. Not that much of the original is left anymore.
Traffic on the way back was a nightmare as we approached our place, seemingly a fair thing was on, with people pouring into an area with a Ferris Wheel etc, stalls and music.
We checked into our place and headed straight for the pool, which was a gorgeous temperature in the hot sun.
I headed out to do a spot of birdwatching as the sun lowered as we’re set amongst fields. I didn’t get very far before a gentleman at the reception hailed me and asked for a conversation. It was rather one way though! He was clearly a smart man, a doctor who has travelled himself. He was very keen to introduce me to the ways of SadahGuru, including showing me a video on Youtube of his teachings about the mind. Some of it was very interesting, and I’m always keen to listen to these things to try to make some sense of everything. He rather lost me towards the end though! Still, we talked about Buddhism a little, living a simple life and reducing consumerism so not a boring conversation! I had to break it off in the end as we needed to go out and get some dinner for the kids.
We tried a pizza place in the main town area, which was ok, but not cheap. We need to find where these cheap places in Thailand are to eat!
Unfortunately we didn’t look up to see what the fair was until after the music started. there seems to be a 10 day festival dedicated to the bridge, or the war, with themed light shows. We’d missed tonight’s, so had to put up with sitting here in our nice cabin, set amongst fields listening to super loud techno music pulsing. It’s like being at Glastonbury trying to sleep in a tent next to the giant spider nightclub thing!
The internet is a little sketchy, or not much is in English, but there’s a possibility that there’s another one tomorrow night which we can catch. Fingers crossed!
Day 99 – Huay Mae Kharmin Waterfalls and the River Kwai festival
Breakfast this morning was the usual eggs on white bread, watermelon and orange juice. With a couple of chicken sausages thrown in. Pretty standard but certainly edible.
We set off on the two hour drive to the Huay Mae Kharmin Waterfalls which are towards the Myanmar border in the jungle covered hills. The drive was pleasant, with nice green scenery and glimpses of the massive lake to the side; a welcome break from the urban roads we’d been on so far.
We passed Erawan falls, which are the ones much closer to Kanchanaburi, which are therefore meant to be quite busy. As the Huay Mae Kharmin reviews seem to generally put them on a level pegging, just without the crowds, we were making use of our own transport to go a little further off the main tourist track.
After getting nobbled for some even more extortionate park fees (£30 for the four of us just to enter the park), we parked up and headed down the trails. Not many cars there which is always a good sign 😊
The path down to tiers 1-4 of these 7 tiered falls are mainly boardwalk, and follow the river tightly. Whilst they have tiers, there are so many mini falls that I’m not sure how they differentiate between when the tiers start and end! Whilst none of the individual falls are spectacular, they combine to make very interesting cascades.
The signs seem to have used a very poor translation program as the information presented about the caddis flies almost makes no sense, but possibly they have led to the odd formation of these falls with their many terraces. Caddis fly larvae use web to make a protective tunnel out of sand, stone and other materials. Once they hatch this remains behind. I think they were saying that this build up causes the shapes of the falls. Because of this we have to be careful not to pollute the water as caddis fly like really pure clean water. There are signs everywhere not to use soap or shampoo in the water (!). There are also some other odd translations – we went around trying to find the best ones…
You can swim in the pools, but it wasn’t actually that hot whilst we were there, with plenty of shade. Oh, and the water was freezing!
Back up the top we were hungry so had some food in the basic restaurant by the car park. Cheap and pretty good.
We were a little hesitant about doing the other tiers (5-7) as it’s a much longer walk and I had read that they are no where near as good as tiers 1-4. The kids wanted to go back and get in the pool.
After paying lots to be here though we decided to continue and complete it. We were so glad we did. The upper section is more like a nature trail than a series of waterfalls, although the falls at the end are nice too (tiers 6 and 7).
The best part was that the trail took us through jungle, and there were huge bamboo’s in places. As we walked through they creaked in the wind like old doors slowly opening. Not somewhere you’d want to be alone in the dark!!
There were signs along the way informing us about different tree species, like the Banyan Tree which is a keystone species which provides fruit to birds and animals all year long. There were more birds in this section of trail than anywhere else I’ve been in Thailand 😊
Whilst the signs advised an hour up and an hour back for this this part, we were back in just over an hour, despite multiple bird spotting stops. It’s only a couple of km.
On the way back home I took us off on a detour to see the dam that’s near the Erawan falls. It’s a little odd to get to as you have to drive through various checkpoints, where it looks like the road is closed, but you get waved through. Then there’s a viewpoint area which has managed gardens, a car park, cafes and an ATM. All seemingly within the land of the hydroelectric dam company.
We had fun walking around here as the sprinklers were on so we had to do some dodging (or running through if you were male). Good views out across the massive lake formed by the dam.
We walked out onto the dam for some extra views before driving back home.
On the way there we’d passed a strawberry farm and decided to stop on the way back. We didn’t really have time to pick our own, but the punnets were 250bhat!! (nearly $6). Evie gave me puppy eyes so I relented. We haven’t had strawberries in ages! Luckily they were delicious.
Time for another dip in the pool when we got back, before heading out to check out the festival and see whether we could see the lights show. We parked and made it in in time for 7pm, but the place is massive, bright and loud!
The first street we walked down was lined with so many food stalls – too many options for dinner, although the bugs got a straight no from me. Many meats on sticks, whole quail and chickens and the occasional fried chicken and chips.
We ignored the food initially as we tried to find the lights show, but when we could see nothing after 7pm and because we had no idea where the show should be, we gave up and looked for dinner instead. With so many options it was hard to choose. We started with sweetcorn in a cup, and then passed a series of pop up restaurants, with tables on the floors which had burners in the middle and people cooking their food. Lots of locals were doing this so we decided to join in. Some people took off their shoes, walked in and sat cross legged at an empty table, so we did the same. There seemed to be four levels of food, so we went for option 2. This got us a plate of raw meats (chicken, liver, sausage and pork??), a bowl of glass noodles, vegetables and an egg, and a kettle of broth. Someone lit our stove and we were off.
We had to be helped out a bit as we didn’t realise that they use the lump of fat as oil to grease up the pan thing first. Then they poor the broth out into the bowl area at the edge of the domed cooking pan. So the meat cooks on the dome, and the noodles and veg cook in some broth around the edge.
We probably looked like right amateurs, and were definitely the only non locals here, but we had fun cooking our dinner, and it was pretty ok.
We topped up with some hard boiled eggs further on as our egg hadn’t cooked through by the time we turned off the stove and headed for the fairground where Evie was desperate to ride the one that takes you up and drops you, repeatedly. Nutter! Aiden chose the bouncy castle slide whilst we people watched and then we called it a night.
Time to manoeuvre back through the crowds, cross the road and queue back through the traffic (or hit the back alleys like we did!). What a night!
Day 100 – The Crystal Caves
We headed south a little today towards the Crystal Caves which we’d seen the signs for on the way in a few days before. It’s not very frequented by tourists seemingly so there was not much information around. We drove up the hill to the temple, which is still under construction. Here there are some signs to the cave entrance, which we followed, but then the English signs end!
The initial concrete pathway took us up to a small temple area and a large flat piece of concrete. No signs of caves there, but we had passed one to the right so we backtracked and headed in there. This cave was easy, with steps down, a slightly narrow tunnel we had to crouch crawl through, and then a cave with crystals growing from most the walls and huge columns which have merged here. There’s also a buddha.
There are meant to be three caves here, and I knew that one involved going down a ladder, so we carried on looking following all the pathways we could find, some taking us to lovely views of the area.
The second cave had a small entrance and a ladder down through a smallish hole – Chris just about fit!
Two ladders take you down about 40m into a cavern with yet more crystals, some fairy large ones in here. There’s another hole heading down with a rope hanging down, but with only our phones, which could not show us the bottom, we decided that was not for us, which is a shame as I think there are a number of other caverns down there according to someone’s blog post ☹.
We carried on looking for the third cave with no luck, we stumbled across someone’s hut on the hillside (and vegetable garden) and found this large Buddha but returned to the car defeated.
Only one more option – try to ask! I tried one of the builders who was talking to a monk, they didn’t speak English, but he did offer to show me the caves and took me back to the first one. I got Google Translate out to say that we’d done these two and ask where the third cave was. He gestured around or down the hill or something and driving. Then led us back to his car with his friend so we got in ours and followed them back down the hill.
With the hill disappearing behind us they got out and pointed us in the direction of the large Wat in the distance. I have no idea what he thought I asked in Google Translate but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t taking me to the third cave! We thanked them anyway and headed in the direction of the Wat, which did look very impressive. We realised that we were in unsuitable shorts though as skin is easier to wash dirt from than clothes so we had to can exploring that for another day.
On the way back we headed into a Tesco Lotus to see what Tesco’s holds over here. The answer is not much that resembles real food! Lots of fruit and veg, but the remaining shelves mainly held instant noodles, crisps and wafers/biscuits. There are very few canned goods here, a couple of boxes of cereals and no pastas or anything. We managed to get some brown bread, tuna and sweetcorn for sandwiches to make at home.
The kids spent the afternoon between the pool and the shady veranda playing at feeding some tiny ants various foods from lunch. Aiden did at one point comment that it was more fun than his kindle which is a pretty bold statement!
As today was day 100 of our travels we went back to the busy restaurant street and chose the number one rated restaurant on TripAdvisor for dinner. It’s veggie and healthy which are both big thumbs up in my book – brown rice!! The price was pretty good, but the food was not that amazing really – especially the jungle curry which was ridiculously ginger heavy. The pancakes with mango, banana and pineapple were delicious though 😊. The best mango I have ever had.
Day 101 – The Bridge over the River Kwai and Wat Tham Suea
After spending some time chilling out in a lazy departure this morning, we stopped by the infamous bridge that crosses the river here. This is supposedly the bridge that featured in ‘The Bridge over the River Kwai’ although that is not 100% historically accurate. The bridge was built originally by the POW’s building the railway line from Bangkok to Burma, but the bridge was bombed by Allied planes near the end of the war so very little of the original bridge remains. Today it’s a concrete and metal construction which still carries the railway line over.
We parked up next to the old stream trains, which you can climb up into. Aiden was impressed with their size and the wheel mechanics with the pistons. He’s right, you forget how big they are until you’re up close.
The bridge was 100m up the road. I’m not sure how often the trains go, but there was a tour group walking around on the bridge with many other tourists and no trains in sight, so we joined them.
We’d decided to return to the massive Wat on the way out so that was our next stop. We arrived to find the car park heaving with tour buses and cars. It was all but empty at this time yesterday!!??
There’s the choice of climbing the stairs up the hill, or taking a little cable car, which was really cute and colourful! The steps themselves were pretty good though, with two dragons as the bannisters.
Up top there are a number of buildings, the main ones being a tall construction and a massive seated buddha.
Despite the packed car park, there weren’t that many people up top. When we went into the tower and climbed the stairs there were hardly any people. Each level up had painted scenes around the ceiling, seemingly depicting a war, but then showing the faces of many men (old kings?). The views from the top level were pretty good.
We should thank that guy who sent us this way yesterday, if he hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t have come here 😊.
Time for a four hour drive across the country to another National Park. Whilst the first thirty minutes were across farmland, we soon hit the standard Thai roads, long and straight, with many lanes and lined with shops along pretty much the entire length. It’s impossible to work out where one town starts and another ends. Heading across the north of Bangkok the roads got busy and Chris had to concentrate as people don’t abide by the fast and slow lane theory, and indicating is not hugely popular. He did find it quite freeing though being able to overtake in whatever lane he fancied – no getting angry with middle lane hoggers in Thailand!
There were lots more lorries today, and many of the normal pickup trucks with their huge loads. We were impressed with this guy and his car’s ability to carry all these bags of compost (or something).
But then we saw this guy, who was a clear winner! Good job there are very few bends on these roads and no hills!
The rest of the drive was uneventful. Eventually the houses gave way increasingly to farmland and forest. We’d chosen some accommodation relatively near the South entrance of the Khao Yai National Park, a little place in the middle of nowhere. We arrived in the dark and had some rice cooked by the ‘resort’ for dinner. Not great, but dinner options here are rather limited…
Onwards to the wildlife rich Khao Yai National Park and the historical ruins of Ayutthaya or back to our early days in Thailand exploring Sam Roi Yot National Park – what will you read next?