A River Kwai adventure

Some of you would remember the River Kwai from a very, very early war epic that starred David Niven and William Holden – The Bridge of the River Kwai. The bridge in the movie was actually built in Burma but it’s the same river that snakes all the way from Thailand. And in tourism, like in marketing, "name recall" is very important. And it works. At one time, when I was doing travel documentaries about Thailand to be shown on our TV show Business & Leisure, my hosts brought me to the James Bond Island, so named because one of the James Bond movies was shot in the small island. There were many tourists going to the place – "name recall" really works.

Anyway, DaimlerChrysler South East Asia had a novel driving adventure and, yes, they were going to hold it near the River Kwai. I was very pleased to be a part of this adventure dubbed the Jeep Adventure Thailand 2006 in Kanchanaburi, courtesy of my friends Felix Ang and Greg Yu, president and chairman respectively, of Cats Motors Inc., local exclusive distributor of the awesome Jeep.

But before anything else, worthy of note is the new international airport of what was known in the past as the country of Siam – the huge Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. A far cry from the Thai International Airport I first landed into during the early 90s and definitely a league of its own compared to our NAIA or even to the still to be opened new one.

Kanchanaburi, a good 190 kilometers from Bangkok, almost four hours drive on a good day of light traffic is home to the infamous Death Railway which was built by the Japanese POWS during World War II. This bit of history was shared to us by the DaimlerChrysler people. Our off-road adventure here would take us, selected members of media on board Grand Cherokee and Cherokee Sports Jeeps and a Wrangler on a very challenging off-road adventure to test the mettle of these rugged, masculine yet elegant SUVs. We traversed muddy roads (mud that reached halfway through the tires, enough to get us stuck in knee-deep mud), deep into the rain forests of Kanchanaburi), and it was an adventure that the weak of heart and knees may regard with much trepidation. Boy, am I glad I was religious about my gym regimen.

It was a rigorous drive designed to demonstrate what these Chrysler Jeeps was capable of, in smooth roads or impossible, seemingly impassable trails. Throughout it all, the Jeep pulled through impeccably. Really and truly, it was the toughest off road test drive that I have ever had in my 20 years of motoring journalism. (More on this in my other column Motoring Today, this coming Wednesday on The Star’s motoring section).

While there, we stayed at the River Kwai Village Hotel in Kanchanaburi. It is a sprawling hotel, very charming, situated in the jungle on the bank of Kwai Noi River and close to Thailand’s historical landmarks such as the Death Railway, Hellfire Pass Memorial, Prasat Muang Singh Historical Park, Lava Cave Sai Yok waterfall, etc.

A mere half an hour away is the only one Khmer ruins in the westernmost part of Thailand which dates back to the 16th to 18th century. Here, one can find the ruins of a castle surrounded by a moat and an earthen wall.

The Death Railway, on the other hand, was constructed by the Japanese Army during the last world war as a supply line from Thailand to Burma. It was dubbed as the Death Railway because construction was done under extreme conditions that caused the death of some 45,000 workers and prisoners of war.

Hellfire Pass Memorial, actually a part of Death Railway, was also constructed by prisoners of war, cutting through the mountains by hand. This Memorial commemorates all those who perished during World War II.

Apart from the historical tours that a stay at the River Kwai Village Hotel offered us, there was the other side of the grand tour that was equally interesting.

As anyone familiar with a Thailand holiday knows, elephants figure prominently in their tours. Around the hotel, one could have a 10-minute walk atop a friendly elephant for only 80 baht per person, or have a thrilling bath-an-elephant experience in the nearby river for Bt400/person. For a little more, at BT600 per person, one can have an exciting jungle experience. This jungle is lushly vegetated, mostly bamboo, and one can have a leisurely "walk" through this jungle riding on the back of an elephant. There, one can explore the River Kwai Valley walk the length of the Kwai Noi River for a full hour atop the elephant.

Of course, for those who can’t go on a trip without shopping, there is a bit of local color to be experienced when one visits the local market. There are local goodies and crafts at very reasonable prices.

For leisure destinations in this area, must-see visits they recommend that the River Kwai Village Hotel recommends are the Lava Cave and the Sai Yok Waterfall where one can go upstream by a long-tailed speedboat. This only takes a mere 20 minutes, but the ride is scenic. Up the mountain are caves which are worth visiting, and the Sai Yok Yai waterfall is a tourist attraction that foreigners enjoy.

Other waterfalls include the Erawan waterfalls, a seven-tiered waterfall which can be climbed and which is ideal for picnics, and the Phatad waterfall in the lake of Khao Laem Dam.

The 2006 Jeep Adventure we just completed was well worth the four days we spent in Thailand. We had rugged terrains to cover for the most part, but we also had remarkable sightseeing, enjoying nature at its rustic best. Most of my other Thailand sojourns were either at cosmopolitan Bangkok, the chic Pattaya, the exotic Puket or the interesting provinces when we did an extensive reportage on the cultural side of the country, through the courtesy of the Thai Embassy in Manila. That trip, we explored dozens of Buddhist temples, and all the different Buddas, from the Reclining Buddha, the smoking Budda to the laughing Buddha and visited out-of-town schools. Far removed from the shopping trips we enjoyed in Bangkok, and the holidays at the poolside or the beaches at Pattaya or Puket is this rugged off-road adventure where we went deep into the rain forests and rested our weary limbs in the comfortable rooms of a quaint hotel by the riverside at night, after enjoying a quiet dinner at the hotel.

Andros Villarasa, senior manager for Marketing Communications of Cats Motors Inc. made sure we had nothing to worry about for this trip. Our off-road consultant from the United States, Mr. Webb Arnold, guided us cautiously but professionally in this great driving experience – what better way than to have this highly experienced off-roader to give us the finer points of this motor sport˜from a participant of the infinitely tough "Camel Trophy Off-Road Adventure Competition" to a trainer of many of the US teams that later on competed in the same contest. As I have mentioned earlier, watch out for more scintillating details of this tough but exhilarating trip in my Motoring Today column next week.

Mabuhay! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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