Bridge over the River Kwai

Take a saamlor, hire a bicycle, catch a songthaew or board the train, which travels from the town’s station to the bridge. Boats can be rented at the bridge.

Situated 3-4 km north of the town just off Saengchuto Road, the Bridge over the River Kwai (pronounced Kway in Thai, not Kwai) is architecturally unexciting and is of purely historical interest. The central span was destroyed by Allied bombing towards the end of the war, and has been rebuilt in a different style. Visitors can walk over the bridge, visit the Second World War Museum and Art Gallery (0900-1630, B30, or browse in the many souvenir stalls. The museum is an odd affair with some display relating to the bridge and the prisoners of war who worked and died here, along with a collection of Thai weaponry and amulets, and some astonishingly bad portraits of Thai kings.