A Trip To Mon Bridge

In the west of Thailand in the province of Kanchanaburi (where the famous "Bridge Over The River Kwai is), is a little known and rarely visited small town called Saphan Mon - which translated literally from Thai as Mon Bridge. The Mon people are an ethnic minority that are from the mountainous border region of this part of Thailand and the borders that separate Myanmar from Thailand have sadly divided these communities - like many of the ancient tribes and communities that have have made theses mountains their homes for countless generations.

In this particular township the Mon people have built an absolutely incredible bridge out of wood. Apparently every few years it gets washed away and they simply rebuild it. To me thats rather an outdated concept but impossible not to appreciate in this day and age of concrete and steel.

The bridge is only open for foot traffic and motorcycles. It connects the the two sides of the town that are essentially split by the river. I was there during the low season so the river was very low. I'm not sure I would feel comfortable crossing the bridge during rainy season when the river is full and flowing very fast, particularly as its well known they have rebuilt it multiple times after it collapsed from the flooding...hahaha.

The visit to Mon Bridge was part of a motorcycle trip I did and this region of Thailand has many amazing places to visit. It's also home to the very cool village of Pilok - established as "the rainiest village in Thailand". I was there for 2 nights and guess what - it rained continuously. It was here that I dropped my motorcycle on a washed out muddy road that led to an old tin mine. Apparently there is an elderly Australian lady that runs a homestay there and being Australian I felt obligated to try and make it there, sadly the road proved far to treacherous for my motorcycle and I gave up after dropping my bike twice.

Image Source: https://www.tripgether.com

Anyway - I know this post has nothing to do with underwater filming (my usual posts) but I thought the community may like to see what else I do when I'm not filming underwater. This is an amazing region of Thailand and I cant wait to return. I will try to reach that tin mine and visit the Australian lady that lives there (on a more suitable bike!) Thanks for reading and have a great day!