I hopped on the bike and headed in the direction of Thong Pha Phum (ท่าขนุน) where I planned to spend the night before visiting Pilok. On my way I first made a stop at Wat Phutakhian (วัดพุตะเคียน) and snapped a couple of pictures and then moved on up the road.
My next destination was the Thai-Burma Railway Memorial but I had a bit of a problem finding it. I followed google maps and found myself at a hotel or resort looking out over the River Khwae Noi. A really pretty setting and nice looking resort.
After wondering around the resort for awhile I decide I was not going to find the memorial so hopped on the bike and as I was riding out of the resort I saw a sign for the memorial. I think the memorial could use a lot of maintenance with a lot of the exhibits in very bad shape but I got a couple of pictures of the train that had grabbed my interest in visiting this site.
After leaving the memorial I rode past the entrance to Hellfire Pass. I am ashamed that after living in Kanchanaburi for over 2 years I have not visited this site but I was not ashamed enough to make me stop and visit it on this trip. I will visit it at some point but for now it will remain on my to do list of places to visit.
I continued on to Thong Pha Phum (ท่าขนุน) and found the hotel I planned to stay in for 2 nights. It being a Wednesday I didn't think there would be any problems getting a room for 2 nights and they did have a room for Wednesday but were fully booked for Thursday. This hotel was full of people on bicycles, there appeared to be about 2 bikes for every room in the hotel. I assumed I would be seeing a lot of riders the following day on the rode to Pilok but did not see a one.
Pilok (ปิล็อก) is a town in the mountains at the border of Myanmar and is surrounded by Thong Pha Phum National Park. I think of Pilok as a tourist town but think it is also one of those places that fits the saying "It is not the destination but the journey that matters". I think most people that visit Pilok do it more for the 67 kilometer drive from Thong Pha Phum with it's 399 curves than for the town of Pilok itself.
I have considered riding from home to Pilok in one day and staying there but decided not to do this. I have heard it can be hard to get a room in Pilok and the town does not have power all the time. I have also looked online and the prices of rooms are about double what I pay in most of Thailand. I decided it would be better to just visit Pilok as a day trip from a cheaper hotel with power all the time.
I rode route 3272 with all it's curves stopping at a couple of viewpoints on the way.
Once in the Pilok area I rode up to the Nern Chang Suek Viewpoint (เนินช้างศึก) with the border of Myanmar above the parking area. The views and the pictures were not that great because of the haze which I believe is due to the start of the burning season in Southeast Asia.
My bike in the parking area at the viewpoint.
Following is my picture of the hotel area in Pilok.
After the return trip through the 399 curves I filled the tank and made a left heading north going to Sangklaburi (สังขละบุรี). I have been to Sangklaburi about 2 years ago and have seen most of the tourist attractions. I thought I would check into a hotel drop my bags and head to Three Pagodas Pass to buy some cheap booze but all the curves through the mountains had worn me out. I found a local market got something to eat and called it a night.
I didn't really have any plans of things to do or see in the Sangklaburi area but thought I could find something to do so asked if I could stay an addational night at the hotel in the morning. Unfortunately the hotel was fully booked for Friday so I would have to move to a differnt hotel if I was going to stay in the area. Since I didn't have anything specific to see or do I just rode over to spot where I could see the Mon Bridge and snapped a picture and headed home.
I rode back down route 323 that I had rode up the day before between Sangklaburi and Thong Pha Phum. This is a pretty ride and I think I enjoyed this road more than the road up and back to Pilok. It is a lot of curves but not as sharp and it ride this road a higher speed so was a fun ride.
Route 323 goes all the way to my home town but when I got to Thong Pha Phum I stopped for a cup of coffee and decided I wanted to get off the highway and try a different route. I found route 3089 on the west side of the river where 323 was on the east side. I decided to give this a try and google maps kept wanting me to take 323. I ended up adding stops to my route every 20 kilometers or so to stay on route 3089.
I enjoyed riding on route 3089. Not much traffic and a few pretty views from the road. I did have to make a lot of stops to remove stops and added a few in as well. I crossed over the river at Mae Nam Noi Bridge and it had a really pretty view down at the water. I really should have stopped and taken a picture from the bridge but didn't. I also didn't know that I had saved this bridge in my google maps until later when I was retracing my route.
I took a couple of more detours on the route to get home and arrived home about 7 hours after leaving my hotel in Sangklaburi. It was a good day on the bike but taking the long way home about doubled the time that google maps said it should take me to get home.
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