River Kwai Bridge Week: 7-16 December 2012

[Neal]

Each year in late November to early December, the world famous River Kwae Bridge built by Allied prisoners-of-war during World War II , becomes the focal point of celebrations.

[Liamog]

I spent five days in Kanchanaburi last year during the festival. Nice place to visit. Had a few trips along the river taking in the mountain scenery. The town is mostly Thai orientated with one long strip of bars and restaurants, along the river, aimed at tourists. Nice atmosphere to the place. Plenty of resorts, hotels, guest houses.

The show is worth a visit. Lots of lighting and sound effects simulating the war period. There are seating areas, rows of temporary stadium type seats but they look a bit cramped for even the average farang. You can, as we did, book a table in one of the restaurants overlooking the bridge and get a great view of the show in comfort while you eat and drink.

There's a fairly large market which the Thai guy I was with seemed thrilled about.

Bring your own boy(s). From what I could see there were no gay bars. I asked about gay bars and was directed to a bar full of ladyboys as being the nearest thing - not for me! I was told on my last evening there that there was indeed 'one' gay bar in the 'Thai part of town' but it is off the tourist track, hard to find, and mainly Thai for Thai. I was told farang would be welcome ok it's just that there wasn't normally many gay farang there. If I go again I will try to find it. I was there with a British friend and his Thai wife who is from Kanchanaburi so I reckon the local information was accurate enough.

[Dboy]

Hello! I'm staying in Kanchanaburi right now for the festival. No gay scene that I can find, but that's no big deal. This is my first time here and I really like it. Staying in one of the floating houses on the water, very inexpensive. I'm paying 350b a night, but that's an "expensive" room due to having aircon (lol). Fan rooms are 200-250b/night. Tons of people flocking to the bridge area for the festival and fireworks. This is a really nice area to visit. Mountains, treking, mountain biking, water falls.

How I got here: It looked to me to be a hassle to get to the Thonburi train station, so instead of dealing with that I just took a mini-bus from Victory Monument (120b or so). I think trip took about 3 hours. Debating whether or not to continue on to Nam Tok by train, or just stay here in Kanchanaburi a bit longer and then train back to Bangkok. I see mini-bus advertised here that go straight from here to Pattaya for 350b, so that's another option for getting back.

Where to stay: the guesthouses are mostly on the river, easy walk from train or bus station. There are also baht busses running the main roads here (10b). The place I wanted to stay didn't have an email address or a website, so I just showed up without a reservation...it worked out fine. BTW if you want a free map of the area, stop in at the Thailand Tourist Authority office right next to the bus station. Lot of free info in there about the area including a detailed map.

Dboy

[TravellerDave]

I travelled from Pattaya to Kanchanaburi by bus to Bangkok Morchit and then bus again, which was rather boring due to nothing to see on the road. I believe the rail journey Bkk to Kan is far more enjoyable. I took a boy with me as I anticipated that there would be no gay bars.
On arrival at the Kan bus station I was approached by several rickshaw drivers showing me pictures of potential accomodation. Not having made a reservation I selected one which seemed to be a reasonable price and off we went with a lady pedaller. Since I used to be a good cyclist I took over for the last mile or so to general amusement.
I found the railway museum to be rather interesting but the bridge itself is nothing special - hundreds like it all over the world. You can walk across it.
Later my boyfriend surprised me by saying that he had been there before for a couple of months a year before working painting river boats. These are very popular with Thais with large parties coming for eating and drinking.
I only stayed a couple of nights as the atmosphere in the guest house was not good towards me and the boy. Older Western couples and young back packers.