Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [162]
Trains heading north from Lopburi stop at Phitsanulok (ordinary/rapid/express 49/99/393B). Departures are regular, although there are none between 3pm and 8pm. If you’re not stopping long, you can store luggage at the station for 10B per bag.
Getting Around
Sŏrng·ta·ou and city buses run along Th Wichayen and Th Phra Narai Maharat between the old and new towns for 10B per passenger; shm·lór will go anywhere in the old town for 30B.
KANCHANABURI PROVINCE
Kanchanaburi may be one of Thailand’s largest provinces, but it is also one of the least developed. This is largely thanks to the vast mountain ranges that separate the kingdom from Myanmar, and the fertile fields that produce rice, sugar cane and tapioca.
Most visitors head to the provincial capital for a few days, visiting the WWII memorials and going on trekking tours. Outside of the main town there are cascading waterfalls, caves and forests within easy reach. To the north of the province several national parks are home to reclusive tigers, elephants and gibbons, attracting increasing numbers of visitors who are keen to get closer to nature.
The town of Kanchanaburi is the best place to book tours and has the greatest choice of accommodation and activities. Head out to the northwest and you’ll discover rarely visited towns and ethnic groups which have escaped the harsh regime in neighbouring Burma. It’s easy to spend longer than planned in these frontier towns, where the pace of life is as slow as the fishing boats that drift across the rivers. Areas such as this help dispel the myth that there is nowhere left in Thailand untainted by tourism and development.
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KANCHANABURI
pop 63,112
The natural beauty of Kanchanaburi attracts tourists looking for an alternative to the bustle of Bangkok, 130km away. Many city dwellers head here for the weekend, often boarding flashy karaoke boats and belting out songs that momentarily shatter the serenity.
Sitting in the slightly elevated valley of Mae Nam Mae Klong, the town is surrounded by fields filled with tapioca, sugar cane and corn. Waterfalls, rivers and jungle to the north and northwest provide some of the finest scenery the kingdom can offer. Limestone hills contain caves packed with stalactites, stalagmites and glittering crystal formations. The caves are also the spiritual home for animist worship and contain many Buddhist images.
During WWII the town experienced darker times. Japanese forces used Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Southeast Asian labourers to build a rail route to Myanmar. The harrowing story was told in Pierre Boulle’s book The Bridge Over the River Kwai and in the 1957 movie that was based on it. The bridge in question is in Kanchanaburi and several cemeteries and museums around the town pay tribute to the fallen. Roads in the guesthouse area are named after countries that were involved in the conflict.
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History
Rama I established Kanchanaburi as a first line of defence against the Burmese along an old invasion route through the Three Pagodas Pass on the Thailand-Myanmar border.
During WWII the Japanese used Allied POWs to build the infamous ‘Death Railway’ along this same route, from Mae Nam Khwae Noi to the pass. Thousands of prisoners died as a result of brutal treatment by their captors. During the construction of the Death Railway, a Dutch prisoner of war, HR van Heekeren, uncovered Neolithic remains. After the war was over, a Thai-Danish team retraced Van Heekeren’s discovery and concluded that the area is a major Neolithic burial site. Archaeological evidence suggests it may have been inhabited 10,000 years ago.
Orientation
Kanchanaburi has a mini version of