You can read a previous review: A Three-Day Journey to Phuket for Three Nights in Three Hotels at Three Beaches: Yanui Beach, NaiHarn Beach, and Kata Beach

https://th.readme.me/p/3307

What happens when a person who can't swim has to take a train for the first time to stay in the float house at Kwai Noi River?

Trains may become a right choice of many people who take a trip to the world class attraction as Kanchanaburi. On this trip we start from Thonburi station by Thonburi – Namtok line for free. We use our identification card to get free tickets. According to the schedule, the train leaves at 7.50 am. but actually it is delayed. Our trains leaves the station at 8.00 am. It moves slowly to the destination.

Although the train is slow but it's really enjoyable for us. We definitely have a great time looking at the fields on both sides along the way.

We arrive at the Bridge Over the River Kwai around 11.00 am. There are some tourists getting on the train to go to Sai Yok Noi Waterfall at this station. This train passes the Death Railway (The Burma-Siam Railway).

The train passes the bridge of the River Kwai shortly. Then we feel a little hungry but don't worry because there are people selling some refreshments on the train. If you feel hungry, you can buy food. It is so fresh to drink some soda while enjoying the incredible views.

After we have been sitting for a long time, we arrive at the Death Railway built during the World War 2. If you'd like to know more about its background, you can surf in the internet. The train route lie along the cliff on the Kwai Noi River. There are many float houses on the bank of the river.

Our train arrives at Nam Tok Station about 2.00 pm. In the station, there will be a shuttle service, you can negotiate the price. The cars are quite similar to ones in Chiangmai.

If you look at the map from the web site of the resort, you will see that the resort is approximately 10 kilometers away from Nam Tok station. The resort's entrance is located at km. 128. You need to notice the wooden sign written in the white letter. When we go to resort, the driver drives astray to the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum.

The Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum is maintained by the Australian government, Why? It's because during the World War II Japanese army captures prisoners and force to work real hard all day and night. There are 12,000 people of Australians and New Zealanders and more than 60,000 people are Asians.

In the museum, there are collected photos, information and all of the various appliances during the construction of the Death Railway. We will see the living condition, faraway and cruelty of the prisoners of war.

From the information given from the museum, we know the Hellfire Pass Railway was constructed in April 1976. The prisoners who were forced to be laborer had to work more than 18 hours. So that time is the hottest time of Thailand in severe water and food shortages. (The prisoners could only eat two meals per day.)

From the picture, it makes us feel sympathy of them and don't want to have such a war in the world because it benefits to no man. Too many deaths and the alive live with the torturing memories for the rest of their lives.

The picture above shows why this place is called "Hellfire". The laborer are forced to drill the huge rock without any high-tech machines we have nowadays. They worked all day all night with day shift and night shift. If you want to see the simulated atmosphere you can watch the movie called "The Railway man" in 2013. Most of the scenes were filmed in Thailand. It's made from a true story in that time. You will see how the war looked like and why all of us don't want to be part of it.

When we walk through the Hellfire, we can feel the cruelty of war and the violence of man that can hurt to his world mate fiercely. The Rocks were cut by the forced laborer. There were thousands of people who sacrificed their lives here at the "Hellfire"

Turn our back from the past and take those mistakes with us to warn us not to allow it to happen again. This place is one of the tourist spots you shouldn't miss because it gives you part-of-the- war experience. Thank the driver who drives us here and we absolutely like this place. Now, It's time to go back to the resort. We need to go to Resotel pier.

The resort has the free long-tailed boat service for guests who stay here. We arrive at the pier around 4.00 pm. The boats leave every hour. If you come after 6.00 pm, you have to pay for it. When we arrive at the pier, the staff will ask you about the name of your resort because many float house resort use this pier together. Each resort has its own boat service.

At first time I see the resort, I wish I could jump into the river and swim to get there, but I can't swim. The resort is picturesque.

I can say this is one of the best luxurious and romantic floating resorts. The villa rooms are totally exclusive. All rooms are connected by wooden walkway. The rooms are sited on the Kwai Noi River with mountains and woods at the back of it.

River views can be seen right at your bed.

The rooms are designed delightfully impressive with exotic decorations including natural materials and tailored- made teak wood furniture with thatched roofing. After we unpack our luggage, we walk around the resort. The resort has many activities such as elephant riding into the woods, visiting fruit gardens in village, trekking through the tropical jungle and Lawa cape, or bamboo rafting. For us, we prefer sitting at the riverfront enjoying the natural environment.

The river is very clear with plenty of fish.

While we are feeding the fish, we start to be hungry. So we order fried pork spare ribs with garlic and peppers. It is so delicious that we almost lick the plate.

We plan to sit down at the balcony of our room and soak our legs in the river after the meal.

I have the best night sleeping ever in this comfortable bed. Anyway, we wake up early because of the wave from boats passing the resort. The floating houses move like ones from an earthquake.

It's worth getting up early to start the day with this atmosphere.

After we are totally satisfied with the fresh surroundings in the morning, we get back to our room and continually enjoy lying in bed and the atmosphere is gorgeous.

We wake up again at breakfast time. Breakfast is prepared in buffet style. There are both Thai food and Western food for you to choose. We don't take photos of the breakfast because we've forgot our camera at the room. After we are full, we keep enjoying the river views and stay there until the check-out time.

We check out and leave by boat service at 11.00 and tell a resort staff that we will definitely come back here again.

We Travel

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You can read our previous review: A Three-Day Journey to Phuket for Three Nights in Three Hotels at Three Beaches: Yanui Beach, NaiHarn Beach, and Kata Beach https://th.readme.me/p/3307