Kanchanaburi & The Bridge On The River Kwai

The first official Nagas Motorcycle Club tour took place with 14 members, affiliate members and guests leaving Pattaya and Sri Racha one Friday morning, heading for Kanchanaburi on an assortment of large touring bikes and support vehicle.

The route, which this writer/rider had not taken before was certainly quick and painless (taking Bangkok traffic into consideration), and is one I would certainly recommend. Travel to the eastern outskirts of the metropolis on highway 34 (Bang Na-Trat road) to the junction with highway 3 (Sukhumvit) and turn south toward Samut Prakarn. Keep your eyes peeled for the  3113 road and take this westward towards Phra Pra Daeng, where you can cross the Chao Phraya on the car ferry (7 baht!) Tell the missus to keep a lookout for the “tha lua” signs.

On ‘tother side take the 303 Suk Sawat road till you come to Rama 2. Travel south on Rama 2 for about 6kms till you see the huge Tesco Lotus supermarket on your left hand side at Bang Khun Thian. Keep left here and exit Rama 2 onto the overpass, which is the start of the western ring road, highway 9. Keep heading north till you come to the intersection with highway 4. Turn west here, go through Nakhon Pathom and when the highway turns south for Ratchaburi (Chumpon, Phuket & Malaysia!) you take the 323 to Kanchanaburi. There, easy! (Yeah, right! Just remember, TIT, so expect cock-ups and wrong turns!)

When we got to Kanchanaburi we decided to stop for a few cold wet ones just to wipe the grime out, (or the witching hour was past the yardarm, or whatever the expression those who need an excuse to drink for is!) and as luck would have it pulled up just outside the Red Kangaroo bar, run by Aussie ex-pat Al Zeltins, who introduced us to Tasmanian Peter of the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club and others from the Old Farts Drinking Club! What a place, what a bunch of pranksters! Go visit!

We were booked in at the Botanic Garden Resort at Ban Kao on the River Kwae about 30 kms west of town, where although the rooms are grossly overpriced the food was superb. Saturday morning found us nursing hangovers, downing gallons of coffee and orange juice and planning a day taking in the famous River Kwai bridge, the JEATH museum, the War Cemetery and, if time allowed, a trip out to Sai Yok waterfall. Well, time did allow, and we all had a great day out doing whatever we wanted: some taking it easy by the river, some visiting the POW museum and some taking a trip out to the falls.

Saturday night was a case of back to the resort restaurant where we managed to decimate their stock of Heineken, Singha, 100 Pipers and Spey Royal…. Come on you hoteliers, when a bunch of Scandi, Brit and Kiwi hairy arsed bikers check in with their womenfolk, priority must be given to making sure there’s enough of the wet stuff in stock! We might not drink (too much!) on the road but we’ll sure as hell get through some  when the bikes have been put to bed!

Sunday morning a couple of us decided we couldn’t ride all the way to Kanchanaburi and not visit Hellfire Pass, 80 kms north west of town  and a significant stretch of the infamous Thailand Burma railway. Without going into detail, purely because I don’t have enough space to give it justice, if you are out in that part of the country do not miss this memorial. You get an incredibly ironic feeling of appreciation for the people who have resurrected this area, wonder at the beauty of the place, awe at the task demanded all those years ago (and you can still see drill bits embedded in the rock face, pick and hammer strike marks on the walls) and sadness that to those thousands who died the whole country must have represented a bloody and painful living hell, certainly not the Thailand we all know and love today.

The road out to Hellfire Pass is great for big bikes being ridden hard but unfortunately due to time constraints we could not continue on to Sangklaburi. I am told that this also is great riding country, so maybe something to keep in mind for further tours… follow the River Kwai to it’s source at the huge Khao Laem reservoir and then on to Three Pagodas Pass. Incidentally, if anyone out there knows if there is a route suitable for road bikes going north from Sangklaburi to Umphang I’d really like to hear of it, ‘coz from there you can get to Mea Sot and Mae Hong Son etc… what a potential tour!

We returned to Chonburi that Sunday, arriving before dusk, having done 570 miles in total and the only mechanical mishap between 5 Harleys and a Honda was with the… yep, you’ve guessed, the Honda!

So, if you have a large touring bike and want to see more of this beautiful country with a crew of hard riding but fun loving folk, contact myself for details of our next meeting, come along and join in… we’re user friendly!
Martin Smith
Nagas MC