we're in Kanchanaburi a province situated three hours west of Bangkok
it is an area full of rich culture and a fascinating yet tragic history
so we came to Kanchanaburi looking for the Bridge on the River Kwai
which is a famous structure that was built here in World War II however we made a shocking discovery
we'll tell you more about what we learned but first come enjoy Kanchanaburi with us
good morning from beautiful Kanchanaburi we are at Meena Cafe which is a very popular spot here
in the city it is packed with people and we think it's because they're here
for the same reason that we're here we're having coffee first and then we're heading to the Tiger
Cave Temple which you can see it from here probably like five minutes drive yeah it's uh also
probably really busy today because it's around the new year and Thai's like to go to the temple
to ask for blessings and to they play overnight to the new year so bringing good luck from this
year to next year as well when we walked in we saw a huge lineup of people ordering coffee and
snacks and food and we thought that maybe it would take forever but we actually got our drinks really
quickly i got a americano yuzu soda and then Note got his normal americano what's the what's yuzu
which is Japanese plum no yuzu is like an orange like between like an orange and a lemon but yeah
Japanese delicious there's also pizzas and some Thai snacks and tons of really nice
seating in this area so you can probably come here for lunch and not just coffee like us
that's the Tiger Temple we were talking about what does it call in Thai Wat Tham Suea very good
feel like you're easily in the way of other people's uh photos i gotta walk slowly
there are a lot of spots here for you to take photos they have like uh old
looking tractor rice tractor i was gonna say too they even have like a bathtub
over there i don't know why you'd want to take a bath in the middle of the dry rice field
and tent they have some seatings in the tent and look at those girls on top of the tree like a dead
branch over there there's also a staircase to nowhere right over there
we're saying this but we're probably gonna go and take photos there too
are you supposed to move the props around
hey hold on let me let me take you around i don't know it's okay
i'm good here he can't stay still for more than five minutes i swear
you take a photo of me in the bathtub in the middle of the rice field yeah
you have too much clothes on in a bathtub
i think this is my favorite seat in the house this is pretty awesome it's like we're going camping
we should throw out our youtube channel on the screen so we can watch it
and you know get these people to enjoy it too instead of the view
we are here at Wat Tham Suea as you can see it over here right there but there are actually two
temples here one is and one is what comes to it Wat Tham Noi is a Chinese temple is it where the
big pagoda is yes there are two separate entries so if you want to go to the Chinese one you
have to go in here but we want to check out the Thai one first so we have to go around i'm very
surprised with all the big tour buses here like i thought there would be a lot of people but those
big tour buses i don't know 50 people in them they look like uh transformer buses yeah there's a lot
there are so many vendors in front of the temple
which is perfect because we'll be hungry by the time we're done
the steps are actually not too busy so i think it might be a good choice for us
right here
this buddha statue is actually the largest buddha statue in Kanchanaburi province and
it's 18 meters high and 10 meters wide it is so beautiful and it's overlooking a huge area
of rice fields there's like not really anything around here it's just the temple when you look up
see the long lineup here it is there's just lining up to offer flowers and ask for good
blessing for the new year they also have this little gold sticker that they put on top of the
buddha statue gold represent well so they're asking for good fortune
so it's really interesting to see that these temples have different styles like there's
Chinese looking temples there's Thai looking temples some are even in the Hindu style but
they all seem to blend quite nicely over here and it's a really beautiful spot to walk around here's
a fun fact that i found the reason they call it Wat Tham Suea which translates to tiger cave
because it was once a home to a tiger family oh that's really cool there's also one other
temple a famous temple in Thailand called Wat Tham Suea too but it's in Krabi province the tiger
cave temple so it's the same name but different maybe there's another tiger
family that used to live there probably that's probably how they named it named that one too
you see this gong over here if you rub it with your two hands
you will be rich okay i saw someone doing right down there actually
lots of money lots of gold
so we decided to take the cable car down because it looks fun
10 baht each so it's a pretty cheap for a short little ride
this is uh the railway at the Tham Krasae station this is where you can walk on the
actual railway that was built during World War II that is still in use now
wow incredible
i swear i heard the train i think we might be lucky but there's still tons of people on the
railway right now did it pass i don't think so i think we might be lucky let's go check it out
we could walk all the way there you want to do that
i wonder which way the train is coming i think it's coming down here
this is actually a little scary because that's it
if you come over here you can see the original structure still intact
see the wooden section yeah and also the original rails
wow be very careful when you're walking here because there's these bulbs
and you can easily trip oh sorry
it is quite scary yeah it is it is very scary i'm stuttering
i think this part of the railway might be more enjoyable to go across when you're on the train
this is this is this is a bit much so this part of the railway is actually at the stop called
Tham Krasae where there is a cave just on the side of it but the most common place for people
to stop at the railway to see the train pass by is actually right on the bridge over the River Kwai
in the center of Kanchanaburi and we did go there earlier and it was pretty cool to see
everyone standing on the bridge waiting for the train to pass by the train even stopped briefly
at the beginning of the bridge so everyone can take photos and then slowly very slowly move
across the bridge there are little platforms where you can stand too so you are not in danger let
me check if the train is coming how are you gonna check is that how you check yeah you gotta listen
to the to the train from the rail is it coming no i think we're good i think we're okay to vlog here
so we are at the Thailand Burma Railway also known as the Death Railway and there is a
very tragic past to why it is called the Death Railway so in World War II when the Japanese
Army took over parts of Thailand they wanted to build this railway to transport their goods
to through Burma to India to their troops there and they built this railway
using the labor from allied prisoners of war from countries such as Britain Netherlands Australia
New Zealand America and they also had local hired workers that are Thai Malaysian
Singaporean Burmese and a lot of people died building this railway from malnutrition from
being overworked from disease spreading in the camps there's a there's a lot more you can learn
about this in Kanchanaburi city though there is the Jeath Museum there is the Death Railway
Museum The War Cemetery basically this is a huge part of Kanchanaburi
they say that each sleeper that is laid here at the railway represent the number of lives taken
so this is a sleeper so you can imagine the number of people who lost their life before
coming here we didn't know much about the history of Kanchanaburi here or the railway so we actually
went to the War Cemetery yesterday walk the grounds and we'll show you what it's like there
so
he's only 24 a young private you died that we might live God bless you our son we shall love
you always so today we spent some time at the War Museum and at the War Cemetery here and it
is a little bit heavy to just experience a little bit of the past the history of Kanchanaburi and
at the same time i think we feel very lucky to have not grown up in a time of war even though
there are regional wars around the world that are happening and children still growing up in
war times but like ourselves have not experienced it growing up and we know that we are very lucky
to have had the childhood and the life that we have so if you wanted to learn more you can also
visit the Jeath Museum the Death Railway Museum or just come revisit the grounds come and check out
the railway but this part of the railway is actually not the typical part where people
go to see the train pass by the one that you're talking about is over
the river commonly known as River Kwai but here is the shocking truth about that there is no such
thing as River Kwai we went to the public we went to the local people in Kanchanaburi and
we asked them where is River Kwai and they're confused there is no River Kwai because it is
called River Khwae the only reason that people westerner called River Kwai because of Hollywood
so the fame of the movie and the subsequent rise in tourism in the Kanchanaburi area created a bit
of a problem for the Thai authorities because there was no River Kwai but i think eventually
they adapted some places to call you know River Kwai hotel and River Kwai restaurant
um because that's what Thailand does based on the movie they just go with the trend and Kwai
in Thai means buffalo so there is no River Kwai guys there are "kwais" in the river though yeah
the sun is setting and the mosquitoes are coming out
hope you enjoyed this little adventure in Kanchanaburi because we truly love
the city we learned so much here we hope you guys did as well as always thank you so much
for watching and have a wonderful day don't forget to subscribe see you in the next one