Your Floating Market, River Kwai Bridge and Tiger Temple Tour departs at 0700h (7.00am). Hotel pick-up is available from most central Bangkok hotels.
On the day of your tour, plan to meet your guide in the lobby of your hotel at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled pick-up time. Please present your confirmation voucher to the guide before starting the tour.
You will be driven in an air-conditioned mini-van through the lush Thai countryside to Ratchaburi Province, outside Bangkok. You’ll then board a long tail speed-boat to travel along a waterway to the Floating Market. Enjoy views of village people going about their daily lives as you glide along the canal. The Floating Market starts early in the morning and continues all day. You will see wooden canoes laden with multi-coloured fruits and vegetables, paddled by Thai women wearing indigo-hued shirts and conical straw hats – the quintessential picture of Thailand.
You will also visit a Royal Thai Handicraft Village, before enjoying a Thai set-menu lunch in a local restaurant in Kanchanaburi.
After lunch, you will see the famous Bridge on the River Kwai, immortalized in a novel and film in the 1950s. This bridge was part of the ‘Death Railway’ (Thailand-Burma railway) constructed by the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II to supply their troops in Burma. Using forced labour, including about 60,000 Allied Prisoners of War (POWs) and a much greater number of Malays and other Asians, the 415-km railway was completed in 1943. The POWs and other laborers endured appalling conditions and many thousands perished.
Still in use today, the Kwai Bridge was the target of frequent Allied bombing raids during World War II and was rebuilt after war ended. The curved spans of the bridge are the original sections.
You will visit the JEATH War Museum near the Bridge, where you'll learn more about the grim story of the Death Railway. The Museum building is a reconstruction of a thatched POW hut, with bamboo bunks. On the wall are photographs of POW living conditions and memorabilia such as uniforms.
On the return journey, you will make a stop at the Tiger Temple, a Buddhist monastery dedicated to providing sanctuary for all wildlife and committed to preserving the endangered tiger. Man and beast live here harmoniously, and the monks invite you to appreciate the majesty of the tiger up close. You will have the chance to greet, sit with and even pet the majestic cats.
You will also meet a variety of other rescued animals at the sanctuary including peacock, deer, boar, buffalo and horses.
At the end of the 10 hour tour, you will be dropped back at your hotel in Bangkok.