Kanchanaburi
A river town in western Thailand, known for the Bridge over the River Kwai, Second World War memorials and the seven-tier Erawan falls.
A river town where two histories meet
Kanchanaburi sits where the Khwae Noi and the Khwae Yai join to form the Mae Klong, on the edge of the hills that run along Thailand's western border. The town was founded in the late 18th century under Rama I as a defensive outpost against Burmese attacks, and moved to its present site by Rama III in the 1830s. That is the older story, but it is not the one most visitors come for. The second story is the Burma-Thailand Railway. In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army forced Allied prisoners of war and Asian labourers, known as romusha, to build a line linking Thailand and Burma. The Australian Government's Hellfire Pass site says that tens of thousands of them died. The Bridge over the River Kwai, the war cemetery, a railway museum and the rock cutting at Hellfire Pass are all part of that history, and they are the reason a town of modest size has a place in so many itineraries. The third thing is landscape. The province reaches into the Tenasserim Hills, where Erawan National Park has a seven-tier waterfall and Sai Yok National Park follows the Khwae Noi river through limestone country. Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) puts Kanchanaburi about two hours from Bangkok by road or rail,. The material below is organised so you can judge whether the war-history sites alone justify an overnight stay, and how the nature sites fit around them.
Explore Kanchanaburi on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
The unmissable Kanchanaburi
What Kanchanaburi is for
Four kinds of place: the river and the bridge, the institutions that interpret the railway, the memorials, and the national parks.
The river and the bridge
- The Bridge over the River Kwai on Maenam Khwae Road is a steel railway bridge and a symbol of the province. TAT says the damaged bridge was renovated by the Thai government in 1946.
- TAT lists an annual Bridge over the River Kwai Memorial Week in late November and early December, with exhibitions.
- The bridge is not the bridge from the film: Pierre Boulle's novel and the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai are fiction, and the novel's bridge is invented.
War history institutions
- Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, known locally as Don Rak, is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Saeng Chuto Road. It is mainly the resting place of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war who died building the railway, and it was laid out to a design by Colin St Clair Oakes.
- The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre is a privately run museum and research centre west of the cemetery, housed in the former Japanese army headquarters building, which prisoners and Asian forced labourers built. Its displays cover the invasion of Southeast Asia, railway planning and construction, living conditions, deaths and the end of the line.
- Chungkai War Cemetery lies about 5 km from the town.
Hellfire Pass
- Hellfire Pass is one of several rock cuttings on the railway and is the one the Australian Government's Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) interprets at an Interpretive Centre in Sai Yok district. DVA describes audio-guided walking trails along original sections of the railway.
- The name, DVA says, comes from the sight of exhausted men working at night by the light of flaming torches, which one prisoner compared to Dante's Inferno.
- The cutting is about 75 m long and 25 m deep, the largest rock cutting on the line. It is also known as the Konyu Cutting.
Nature
- Erawan National Park, in Si Sawat district, is known for the seven-tier Erawan Waterfall, about 1,500 m long and fed by the Huai Mong Lai river, according to TAT. It has its own page on this site.
- Sai Yok National Park follows the Khwae Noi river in the Tenasserim Range. The park includes the Sai Yok Noi and Sai Yok Yai waterfalls, the long cave Tham Lawa, and the remains of a Burma Railway bridge and a Japanese camp.
- Wat Tham Phu Wa, about 5 km from the town, is a temple with shrines in a limestone cave system.
Three days that follow the railway, then the hills
The town and the bridge
Start at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery and then the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre, which explains the line before you see any of it. Move on to the Bridge over the River Kwai on Maenam Khwae Road and walk out onto the steel structure. If you have time left, Wat Tham Phu Wa and Chungkai War Cemetery are each about 5 km from the town.
Sai Yok district and Hellfire Pass
Spend the day in Sai Yok district. The Hellfire Pass Interpretive Centre, run by the Australian Government, and the cutting beyond it give the most detailed account of how the railway was built. Sai Yok National Park, with its waterfalls, caves and the railway remains inside the park, belongs to the same side of the province.
Erawan National Park
Give a day to Erawan National Park in Si Sawat district. TAT describes the seven-tier Erawan Waterfall, a 30-minute nature trail, a golf-cart service for elderly and disabled visitors, and homestays and tents. The first six tiers are reached by trail from the visitor centre.
Arriving & getting around
Where things are matters more than how you travel, because the sights are spread across three separate areas.
From Bangkok
- TAT puts Kanchanaburi about two hours from Bangkok by road or rail.
- CWGC puts the town about 129 km north-west of Bangkok.
Where to base yourself
- The town itself holds the war cemetery, the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre and a stretch of river. The Bridge over the River Kwai is on Maenam Khwae Road in Mueang Kanchanaburi district, about 5 km from the town.
- Hellfire Pass is in Sai Yok district and Erawan National Park is in Si Sawat district, so each is a separate outing from the town rather than a walk.
- Erawan is 65 km from the town along Route 3199, according to TAT.
Rain, heat and timing
Weather figures are from the Thai Meteorological Department station at Kanchanaburi, 1991 to 2020 averages.
The wettest months are September (219.0 mm over 17.8 rainy days) and October (206.3 mm), followed by May (139.4 mm). December and January are the driest, with about 7 mm each and about one rainy day a month. Mean maximum temperature peaks in April at 38.0 C and is lowest in December at 31.7 C. March and May are 37.0 C and 36.3 C.
Insider tips
A few things that change how the town reads.
Good to know
- Two different Erawans: the national park here is named after the three-headed elephant of Hindu myth, and its falls are said to resemble that image; the Erawan Shrine is a separate shrine in central Bangkok.
- The film bridge and the real one are different. The real bridge was one of the Burma Railway's bridges at Tha Makham, and the novel and film are fiction built around that story.
- The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre's building was built by prisoners and forced labourers, so the museum sits inside the history it describes.
- The Hellfire Pass centre is a memorial first. DVA describes it as a place of remembrance, which sets the tone for visiting it.
Easy day trips
Places in the same province that this page links to or that sit just outside the town.
Frequently asked
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