River Kwai River Raft Hotel – trip report

We booked one night 12/6/05 at the River Kwai Raft Hotel approximately $80 (two people) for one night hotel, 3 meals, Mon Dance show, including round trip boat transfer to the hotel.
The hotel has no electricity so lanterns are used at night.

We caught a taxi from our hotel in the Siam area to the BKK Southern Bus Station which is located across the River from the Khoa San Road area. I cannot remember what time we got there, maybe 9:00 a.m. but next time, I’ll go earlier. We took a bus from Southern Bus station to Kanchanburi for 80 baht per person. When you arrive at the River Kwai bus station, ask which bus goes to the River Kwai Rosetel pier. We wasted some time as we thought the Rosetel pier was located nearby in town. It’s not. You have catch another bus, kind of a slow, long bus ride to the road that leads down to the Rosetel boat pier. The boat transfer leaves the pier at 1:30 p.m. to go to the Jungle Raft Hotel. If you miss the boat, you have to pay extra for another boat ride.

The locals on the bus were so kind to us; a woman with a young child put her
child on her seat so I could sit down. When there was more room to sit, I started to scoot over next to a Monk of which the woman motioned me back to sit nearer to her (women should not touch Monks). At one stop, sellers came on the bus to sell freshly cooked food of which we should have purchased since we arrived after the lunch hour to get to River Raft Hotel. The bus dropped us off at the road to the Rosetel Pier. The road is level for a while then starts with a slight incline and then gets steeper. We were
only going to stay for one night so all we had for luggage was our backpacks.
We were hungry when got to the Raft Hotel and just a little too late for lunch but they made us Fried Rice which was great.

We had arrived in time to sign up for the afternoon tour to Hell’s Fire Canyon (the railway pass and memorial) and to pay our respects. They had an opening for two more people for this tour.

After we returned, we went to the Mon village, they have a few shops for souvenirs. They also have some scraggily, but friendly dogs on the premises. There is an elephant ride there too but it is open during only certain times.

We had dinner at the hotel and saw the enjoyable Mon Dance show with live music.

The next morning we saw some elephants bathe in the river near the hotel.

During this time there was a River Kwai festival but I did not realize that the River Raft Hotel was going to be so far away from town that we did not have time to see the fireworks in town that night.

The next morning, late morning, we took the boat transfer back to the Rosetel Pier, hired someone up drive us up the road to the bus stop, caught the bus to River Kwai bus station, then caught a bus back to the Southern bus station in BKK.

We were glad to be able to pay our respects, enjoyed River Kwai Jungleraft Hotel and riding the local bus, mingling with the locals even though we couldn’t speak the Thai language. It would have been so much easier to book a car to take us to the River Kwai area but taking the bus is such an adventure!

I just watched a program on Thailand on HD TV theater. There was a segment about the River Kwai. I've not been there, but maybe will get there sometime. You can also get to the River Kwai on the Eastern & Oriental Express train... but MUCH more that 80 baht for that trip!!

Thanks for your report on you trip to the Raft Hotel. No electricity... I'm not sure I could get along without that.
Carol

Interesting... thanks for your report, isis.

thanks for this report...very interesting...i will stick with a/c and electricity

Mahalo for the report isis....so you went the real local way.

Did you see any fireflies at night on the river? Ratt told us that they can be found in the kachananburi(sp) area and the river kwai area.

Aloha!

Well.... no a/c and electricity- I'd say thats a bridge too far!

Sounds like great fun! Happy Travels!

Hi Isis - glad you had a good time at the Junglerafts. We stayed there - again for 1 night - a few years ago and had a lovely time. For all those worrying about lack of air con & electricity, you should try it just for one night. The Junglerafts are so peaceful and atmospheric it is worth it. We did a trek whilst we were there and kayaying down the river (which was the absolute highlight of the trip). Love to go back sometime but our toddler who has no common sense whatsoever would probably throw herself in the river if we went this time . We did see the fireflies as well - lovely - had had a bit of a tipple and used up a whole film trying to take photos of them. Just had a load of photos of darkness, expert photographer that I am!

my room is peaceful with the a/c wispering away at nite...i stick with a/c....old foogie

NO a/c, fireflies, grounds for divorce!