A Day in Kanchanaburi

Went to Kanchanaburi today. We decided to go with a tour because traveling by bus from bangkok was complicated and we wanted more time for sight seeing (which after all is what were here for).  We booked our tour through Good Times traveling company (based in Kanchanaburi) and it was the best decision of my life! The company was great our tour guide was great and it was a private tour so that was important to me. 

If your headed in this direction anytime soon here are some of the places I loved!


If you like history I definitely recommend the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre museum. The museum focuses on the the Japanese labor camps that were set-up in the are during World War II. It's a solemn subject but I learned a lot.  

Of course if your interested in this place you should follow it with a trip to the Bridge over River Kwaii.  The bridge is standing as a memorial to those killed while building it. I believe their is a move about it but I haven't seen it. The tourist market nearby is really cheap though somethings needed to be haggled over. There is a restaurant near the bridge with more westernized thai food. I believe it called the floating restaurant but i'm not sure. the view is beautiful as your practically eating on the river but I would have preferred more authentic food.

We also went to Tiger Temple. I loved this place but there is plenty to be cautioned about. Our tour guide booked us to feed and play with adorable baby tigers this was the highlight of the excursion and why I loved it. It costs extra and they only except 20 people a day but the temple isn't really exciting without it.  When you get there to take pictures with the adult tigers all of them are sleeping and are barely moving the temple volunteer drags you around while snapping shots and then your done. They go through fast and usually don't give you time to pose or adjust so be speedy. some of the photos were cool but all in all not solely worth a trip out there.

The last thing we did was ride Elephants! Lets be real thats why most people choose to go to Thailand. We had an amazing experience and the riding camp we went to was run by a couple families from Myanmar/Burma.  They'd walked 3 days to cross the border into Thailand for jobs because the economic situation in Myanmar isn't good.  The elephant we rode on was beautiful and by the end we were rather attached.   The elephant handler didn't speak Thai or English so we never learned the elephants real name but we ended up calling him Tantor :)

The Family from Myanmar

 After riding around on Tantor for a while we went into the river.   They guide called in Bathing with the elephants but it wasn't until we were soaked that we understood what she was trying to tell us :)
It was so much fun getting soaked... yes soaked! After a while Tantor dropped us in the river and Katie my roommate began drifting in the current I easily helped her back to shore but tips for being in a giant river: just get up and walk don't try to swim  ... or in my roommate's case doggy paddle :) The families kids were laughing at our foreigner struggles and beginners nervousness about elephant mounting. They were so cute and made the experience less touristy.

Kanchanaburi was a fun little day trip from Bangkok. It was nice to get out of the city and see more of the countryside.