Has anyone had experience visiting River Kwai, cemetary, etc. by private driver (day trip from BKK)? I've checked into some tour packages but thought I'd see how much a private driver would be. Thanks for any all information.

Boy the board's quiet tonight - by now a bunch of people would have piled on recommending Tong - as I am about to do.

She's a wonderful guide out of BKK - we did a bit of the River Kwai tour with her but others have done the whole trip.

Her email is

[email protected]

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing.....you'll want to bring her home...........isn't that a typical Tong experience?

Do a search - you'll find reviews of many trips to the River Kwai area via private driver, Tong and many others.

we did it with ratt....we had a very long day starting at 6:30AM and finishing about 7PM....we did the floating market, royal craft shop, a fantastic pottery kiln shop, river kwai (lunch on floating restaurant), visit up river to see rail line cut into rock, khemer park visit, pre-historic museum visit, wild monkeys along road, cemetary drive-by (no interest for us), kwai museum and very long drive back to bkk....

that was about 3-4 years ago and we paid about $100 for the day...now it would be slightly more but not much....

i should think 3000 B plus fuel charge, maybe 4000 B....

ratt does it, cherry does it, tong does it....they all do it...

i can't imagine doing it on a tour....the car is so nice and the trip is 100% personalized, plus these women are fantastic....

I would also urge you to do it with a private driver -- I can highly recommend Ratt. Others have used Tong and loved her as well.

We arranged a driver through Ratt. It was a wonderful day capped off with a visit to the Tiger Temple--not to be missed in my opinion.

If I remember correctly I paid 4000 baht (with tip).

That was in December 2005.

If you can spare a day or 2 in your schedule, take a bus, spend the night (or 2)and you can book everything you could want with local tour guides in what is really a fairly small town. An extra night in this town beats an extra night in Bkk by far!!