Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi occupies a unique and emotionally charged position in Thai tourism — it is simultaneously one of the country's most historically significant sites, one of its most beautiful natural areas, and one of its most accessible weekend escapes from Bangkok. The province's name is inextricable from the Second World War: between 1942 and 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army used Allied POWs and Asian forced labourers to build the Burma-Thailand Railway through the jungle, a project so brutal that it killed an estimated 16,000 Allied prisoners and 90,000 Asian workers. The iron bridge over the Kwai Yai River — repaired after Allied bombing and still standing — and the 6,982 graves in the immaculate Commonwealth War Cemetery are sites of extraordinary solemnity and importance.

Yet the Kanchanaburi that visitors experience is also one of the most beautiful provincial towns in Thailand. The Kwai Noi and Kwai Yai rivers converge here in a landscape of forested hills and limestone cliffs, and the provincial character — raft houses moored on the river, traditional wooden shophouses, monks walking the dawn alms route along the riverbank — has a genuine and unhurried charm. The town's tourist infrastructure exists almost entirely to serve the historical and natural attractions, and the river road lined with guesthouses, budget restaurants, and longtail boat operations has the atmospheric quality of a proper traveller town rather than a manufactured resort.

Sixty-five kilometres north of town, Erawan National Park contains what is arguably Thailand's most beautiful waterfall system — seven tiered pools of vivid turquoise-green water fed by mineral-rich springs. The colours, the swimming, and the small fish that nibble your feet in the upper pools combine into an experience that regularly appears on Thailand's best-of lists. The park limits daily visitors and should be visited on weekday mornings in high season to avoid crowds.