When planning our trip, Hillary and I had heard some good things about floating hotels that have been built on the Kwai River in the jungles outside of Bangkok, so we decided to book a tour of the region and a night at one of the hotels. At the time, we did not know much about the area or the hotel itself, but after more than a month bouncing around between various types villages and cities via trains, planes and buses, we were both excited to escape the hectecness of Bangkok for laid back time on the river.
The trip out there turned out to be anything but relaxing – it was actually an eye opening experience on a part of history that Hillary and I never really knew about. I won’t get too much into it, but check out the film ‘Bridge Over The River Kwai’, or read about it if you’re interested. A quick summary: during WWII, the Japanese decided to build a railway from Bangkok to Burma for materials transportation, and used POWs and local inhabitants as a building crew. The conditions and treatment of the workers were brutal and thousands died as a result. It was a powerful experience to actually walk the bridge and walk along the deadliest parts of the track where many captured allied soldiers died.
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Hellfire Pass- the deadliest section of the railroad
After that sobering history lesson, however, absolute peace came upon us. We were taken by longboat up the river to our ‘hotel’. I put that in quotes because this was not what would ever come to my mind if I heard the word hotel. We were taken to a line of large huts strung together, lit by kerosene lamps, floating out in the middle of the river – it was a dream come true.
We were thrilled to be able to spend the afternoon lying on the porch of the hut reading in the sun, jumping into the river (you’d float downstream when you jumped in and have to swim over and grab a ladder at the end of the line of huts to avoid getting swept away), and enjoying a few cocktails before dinner. With no electricity we were forced to completely disconnect ourselves from the world- a welcome experience after a little over a month of none stop crazy traveling. That night we had dinner under the light of hundreds of kerosene lamps and spent hours talking about our travels. It was the perfect.
The next day, we had a little more time to relax and then head out to a memorial and museum at the Hellfire Pass – a particularly difficult section of the railroad track construction where many died- and rode on the Death Rail (they call it this because you ride over the only original part of the track left) before finally heading back to Bangkok.
In our eyes, this was an almost perfect 2 days. We appreciated learning more about what happened on the river Kwai, and had relished the chance to completely remove ourselves from the world and relax for a bit in the middle of our crazy travel schedule.
