Kanchanaburi

This past Friday was a Buddhist holiday and thus a Thai holiday, so Robin and I headed to Kanchanaburi for the long weekend. Kanchanaburi is in the West, not far from the Burmese border. It's a beautiful province known for it's mountains, waterfalls, jungles, and WWII history. We took the bus there on Friday and had a relaxing time at the pool in the afternoon to recover from the ride. Then we walked to the War Cememtery and the night market before dinner. We rose early on Saturday for a day tour that included a trip to the seven steps of there famous Erawan Waterfalls, a ride on the Death Railway (the Japanese used POW's to construct at rail link from Thailand to Burma during the war- hard labor, malnutrition, and disease lead to the deaths of thousands of Allied POW's and tens of thousands of SE Asian forced laborers, a total of over 100,000 casualties), and ended at the Bridge over the River Kwai.  On Sunday we had a leisurely morning and went to the Thai-Burmese Death Railway Museum before taking the bus back to Bangkok. It was a trip I'd been wanting to make since I moved here, and it did not disappoint. 

Photos from the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

While the hike at Erawan was beautiful,  stopping on the way down to swim was definitely the highlight. Not many pictures since we were in the falls, but Robin did get this one of me. Such a cool feeling under different types of falls. 

Death Railway pictures 

Bridge over the River Kwai- I love history, especially US history, especially 19th century history and World War history, so this was a huge highlight for me. 

Great weekend after what is every year,mthe most stressful week of work.