Everyone who
comes to Bangkok should go to
Wat Prakhaw. A "wat" is a Buddist temple. Wat
Prakhaw is a very special Buddist temple. It is the
central Buddhist temple for all of Thailand because
it is the home of the Emerald Buddha. It is also the
place where the king, on special occasions, comes
to worship. When you go to Wat Prakhaw, go early,
so it will be cool and so you will have time to visit
the palace grounds as well. When you buy your ticket,
you will also find you have a ticket to go to Vinanmek
which is the largest teak house in the world. There at
the Vinanmek house, besides looking at all the exhibits
and everything which are tours given in English,
Japanese, German, and some in Italian you and also
be there by 2:00 pm and you can see a traditional
Thai dancing exhibition. It is a delightful place, the
souvenirs are reasonable there too, and the food
is very reasonable.
You can catch the bus there from the Southern bus
terminal. It takes about 2 hours to get there. There
are several good guest houses to stay at. I would
recommend the Apple guest house and they have
excellent food there. Another good guest house would
be the Sugar Cane guest house. I like it because it
has floating cabins on the river Kwai. While you're at
Kanchanaburi, you definitely want to go see the bridge
over the river Kwai and have an evening meal at the
floating restaurant. It is a beautiful restaurant. They
have a violinist there and the waitresses are all in
traditional Thai dress. The food is good and it's very
inexpensive. And from Kanchanaburi you can take tours,
ride the elephants, go rafting down the river Kwai in
a bamboo raft, you can take a train ride, or you can
go out to Erawan falls and see the seven different
levels of the waterfalls and swim.
