Thailand: Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi - two cities of historical significance

To learn a little more about Thailand's history, we went on two 1-day trips to the cities of Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi.

Both cities can be accessed by train (from Bang Sue station) or by bus/minivan.

1 - Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya was the former capital of the Kingdom of Siam, before it was completely destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th century. The capital was then moved to Thonburi and later to Bangkok.

Fun fact: The Kingdom of Siam was one of the most powerful kingdoms in southeast Asia between the 13th and 18th century, and it changed its name to Thailand ("land of the free people") after it converted from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

But you may also know Siam for another reason. Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twins from Siam that moved to the US in 1829. They were studied and toured as "the Siamese brothers", introducing to the world the expression Siamese Twins.

In Ayutthaya, ruins and prangs (tower like spire with a lot of carvings) are the remainders of the city's ancient past. It was a formidable trading city at its peak thanks to its location on an island where three different rivers merge.

The first site we visited was the Wat Mahathat, the ruins of an ancient temple built in the 14th century. These ruins are the most famous in Ayutthaya because of the face of a Buddha entrapped in the roots of a tree. Apart from that, most of the temple was in ruins, especially the main prang in the center. Though it still showed how wide the prang must have been.

We did see a standing prang in the Wat Ratchaburana which was also a temple used in kingdom ceremonies during those times. The grandiose prang of this wat is still impressive and is adorned with Garuda statues. The cloisters around were decorated with statues that have been decapitated like most of the statues in the city

There are many other temples on the island of Ayutthaya, such as, Wat Phra Si Sanphet with its 3 aligned stupas, and Wat Phra Ram with another major prang.

We went outside of the island to visit the Wat Chaiwatthanaram. This religious complex was as big as a town from those ancient times, located next to the river, and its imposing stupas and prangs are still standing. An impressive place!

All those temples I mentioned above are 50 THB each but you can get a ticket for 220 THB and see all of those and more.

Finally, we went to see Wat Phu Khao Tong, a white temple 15 min away from the city. It was not at all touristic (but it was free) so there were not a lot of people around. But the temple is beautiful, more modern yet less impressive than the others, even if we could go up a long flight of stairs to see the surroundings.

That's it for the charming little town of Ayutthaya. We went back to Bangkok by train, which of course had a 2h delay 😩

2 - Kanchanaburi

We went to Kanchanaburi to see the bridge over the river Kwai, which was part of the Death Railway. This railway earned its name due to the tens of thousands of people who died to build the train tracks to Myanmar during WWII.

This railway was used to supply the Japanese forces during their campaign in Myanmar against the British forces in India.

What we see in the film "Bridge over river Kwai" is part of the building process of the bridge, near the town of Kanchanaburi where the existing Thai railway needed to be extended over the river Kwai before continuing into the mountains.

We wanted to see the reconstructed bridge and know a little bit more about this dark moment in the history of the country.

First, we visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where 6982 Allied prisoners of war who died during the construction of the Death Railway are buried.

Next to the cemetery, there is the Death Railway Museum that you can visit for 160 THB/ pax.

It tells in detail the horrifying story of the Death Railway, showing where war, cruelty and human genius created a passage through the huge mountains between Thailand (or Siam at the time) and Myanmar (Burma at the time) over more than 400km, in one year.

Because of all the challenges of the terrain and the weather, Japanese forces could not use their technology and had to rely only on human strength. More than 200,000 people were forced to work there, mainly from Burma and Malaysia, but also more than 70,000 Allied prisoners of war. For the ones who were transported from Singapore to Kanchanaburi, they had to suffer a long 4-days train ride in a metal container of 7x4m with 27 other people, no space, no way to lie down, practically no food or water, enduring extreme heat during the day and extreme cold during the night.

More than 90,000 people died - including more than 10,000 prisoners of war, from extreme work, extreme conditions and the cruelty of the guards, Japanese and Koreans, that were forced themselves to work there as guards and forced to deal with impossible deadlines.

It was mind blowing to read about this. We always valued the genius and grandiose of human achievements in all the places we have been to, from the greatest towers and temples to the longest bridges. But we never thought about the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into building them, especially considering the brutality and stupidity of some humans.

Part of the Death Railway in Burma was dismantled by the British after the war to avoid having a railway directly to India but the rest was sold to Thailand. The Minister of Communications at the time wanted to inspect the railway himself with a small group, in January 1947. Against the Railway Authorities advice, they went too close to the dismantled portion of the railway and crashed into a ravine. It was the last use of the Death Railway until its reopening in 1956. It is still used as of today.

After the museum, we took a Grab to go see the River Kwai bridge itself. It is not the bridge that was used during WWII as it was bombed multiple times by the Allied forces between November 1944 and June 1945. But it's a charming walk over this black steel bridge that became a representation of the Death Railway, one of the darkest moments in Thailand's history.