Kanchanaburi

A steel bridge the Japanese built from spans shipped from Java, cut by Allied bombing in 1945 and rejoined. The curved spans are original, the angular ones postwar. Trains still cross several times daily, and between them you can walk over along the sleepers.

Close to 7,000 British, Australian and Dutch prisoners who died on the Death Railway lie here under identical bronze plaques in long rows. Each gives a name, an age and a line from family, mostly ages in the 20s. A register by the gate finds a grave by name.

A museum beside the war cemetery showing, with maps, models and prisoners' records, how the 415km line was laid across what terrain. It also covers the Asian labourers, who died in far greater numbers than the prisoners. See it before the cemetery.

A railway cutting prisoners hacked through rock with hammers and chisels, named for the torchlit night shifts. A trail follows the old track bed from Australia's memorial museum, with a dawn service on Anzac Day, 25 April. It is about 80km northwest of town.

Seven tiers of falls down a limestone gorge, each with a jade pool where fish nibble your feet. The top tier is over an hour up the forest trail, and no food is allowed above tier 2. Plastic bottles carry a deposit at the entrance, refunded on the way out.

Death Railway trains crawl along a timber trestle pinned to a riverside cliff. The train from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok crosses it, and you need a seat on the river side, the left, to see down. You can also get off at Tham Krasae station and walk it.

A small museum at Wat Chaichumphon: a rebuilt bamboo prison hut hung with photos, drawings and belongings. The name joins the initials of Japan, England, America and Australia, Thailand and Holland. It is on the Mae Klong, a short tuk-tuk ride from the bridge.

A temple whose tall pagoda and giant golden Buddha show from far across the fields, sharing its hill with a Chinese temple. Climb the stairs or ride the funicular; from the top, paddies and the Mae Klong dykes spread out. It is about 20km south of town.

Laterite temple ruins from the western edge of the Khmer empire, dated to around the 13th century. Traces of wall and moat survive where the Kwai Noi loops round, and with so few visitors you often have it alone. A station on the Nam Tok line is close by.

An old shophouse street along the river, below the centre, with timber shops close to a century old and a Chinese shrine. Plaques give each building's date. In the afternoon many shops are shut and it is quiet.

Water spills in several strands off a limestone ledge beside Highway 323, steps from parking. Nam Tok station, terminus of the Death Railway, is about 2km off, and a retired steam engine is parked at the gate. By late dry season the flow thins to threads.

A long timber footbridge over the reservoir to Sangkhlaburi's Mon quarter near Myanmar, billed as Thailand's longest wooden bridge. At sunrise monks cross for alms as villagers in thanaka offer rice. Nearly four hours from town, it needs an overnight stay.

A cliff temple on the Mae Klong whose stairway enters a giant dragon's jaws and climbs through its body to a cave shrine. The steps are long and steep; from the cave hall river and fields open out. About 20 minutes' drive south of town, with few tourists.

A seven-tier fall in Srinagarind Dam National Park, its mineral-rich water sheeting over stepped rock into bluish pools. Quieter than Erawan, with a dip at every tier. The mountain road north takes some two hours, so many visitors pitch tents in the park.

The second Allied war cemetery, across the Khwae Noi where the Chungkai camp served as a prisoners' hospital, holding close to 1,700 graves. Smaller and quieter than the town cemetery, its plaques sit under riverside trees. A short bike ride over the river.