Visitors since 01/09/06

A 4.5km walking trail through the forest, following the railway makes this a fairly interesting birding location and birders travelling with a non-birding partner can use the interesting and thought-provoking museum as an excuse to visit and get into the forest. Although quite a number of birds can be seen as one walks along the trail, the main interest in visiting this location is historical; I include Hellfire Pass as a site which offers a chance to see Limestone Wren Babbler - a species with a restricted range in Thailand. When walking the trail, sweating and being bitten by the extremely numerous mosquitoes, spare a thought for the prisoners who had to work in these conditions until they dropped! There are some interesting birds here, but overall this is a sombre place.

The ornithological speciality here is Limestone Wren Babbler. This species has a restricted range; it is confined to areas with outcrops of limestone, as its name suggests. Two races exist in Thailand, crispifrons, which is dark and fairly large and is the race found in this area; also calcicola, which is smaller and lighter in colouration, resembling Streaked Wren Babbler and is found in Saraburi province.

Apart from this species a walk through the forest here gives the opportunity to see many other common forest species, notably Hill Blue Flycatcher and Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush.

Getting here is a relatively simple affair. If driving, head towards Kanchanaburi (pronounced GarnJaNa BooRee) and take the road towards Sangkla Buri on the Thai/Myanmar border. After a little over an hour the Hellfire Pass war memorial museum can be seen on the left; there is ample car parking here.

Arriving by public transport really is not much more difficult. Buses to Kanchanaburi originate from all nearby provincial capitals, but if coming from Bangkok one must go to the Southern bus terminal where there are buses that leave every 30 minutes for about 100 baht. From Kanchanaburi any bus going to Sangkla Buri will stop to let you off at the memorial museum and equally it should be easy enough to flag a bus down for the return journey.

The bus journey from Bangkok takes around 2 hours and from Kanchanaburi to Hellfire Pass can take quite a while due to the poor standard of the buses. On the way back to Kanchanaburi it may be worth hitch-hiking which is quite easy and safe in Thailand and can be quite entertaining; anyone with an open-backed pickup is likely to stop for you.

Konyu Cutting Trail: This narrow winding trail, which runs for a few hundred metres, offers the best chance to see Limestone Wren Babbler amongst some shapely limestone outcrops, be careful though as the trail was quite slippery on my visit; the birds seemed rather confiding here so there might be the possibility of getting some nice photographs.

Walking Trail: The 4 kilometre long walking trail proceeds mainly along forest edge, where birds such as Striped Tit Babbler and Black-naped Monarch live, with viewpoints over the surrounding countryside. The forest here is quite dry in nature but should turn up many forest species given the time (something which I didn't do). It is possible to arrange collection from the far end of the trail so that you do not have to retrace your steps, make sure you pack your insect repellent as the mosquitoes along here are rampant!

Apart from a toilet block there are no real facilities here. A few snacks are sold in the museum, but there is no food for sale nearby. In terms of accommodation, there is plenty of it in Kanchanaburi, ranging from quite luxurious hotels to backpacker guesthouses: Kanchanaburi Hotel Reservations. I have stayed in a few of these but could not really recommend anything that stands out; everywhere seems adequate.

Kanchanaburi is a fairly busy town and anything can be purchased here; the fruit market is pretty good and I would recommend Durian, Mangosteen and Rambutan. In and around Kanchanaburi are the war cemeteries where thousands of Allied prisoners of war that died working on the railway are buried. These cemeteries are very well kept and thought-provoking places. Along the river valley there are various floating resorts that appear quite nice, and way up the valley towards Sangkla Buri there are some quite nice looking resorts and some really lush forest that would be worth exploring.

Hellfire Pass is not a National Park and there is no entry fee to go birdwatching there.

Hellfire Pass, 11th July 2002

by Nick Upton