3 Best Sights in Kanchanaburi, Around Bangkok

Kanchanaburi is most famous as the location of this bridge, a section of the Thailand-Burma Railway immortalized in director David Lean's epic 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai. During World War II, the Japanese, with whom Thailand sided, forced about 16,000 prisoners of war and from 50,000 to 100,000 civilian slave laborers from neighboring countries to construct the railway, a supply route through the jungles of Thailand and Burma. Sure-footed visitors can walk across the bridge, whose arched portions are original. In December a big fair takes place with a sound-and-light show depicting the Allied bombing of the structure late in the war. Next to the bridge is a plaza with restaurants and souvenir shops.

The serene and simple resting place of many of the soldiers forced to work on the Thailand-Burma Railway has neatly organized rows of grave markers. On the grounds of a former hospital for prisoners of war, the cemetery is a little out of the way and therefore rarely visited. To get here, hire a tuk-tuk or moto-taxi for about B60, or use Grab ride-sharing service.

Next to noisy Saengchuto Road, this cemetery has row upon row of neatly laid-out graves: 6,982 Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners of war are laid to rest here. The remains of the American POWs were returned to the United States during the Eisenhower administration. A remembrance ceremony is held every April 25th, Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Day.