We got out of school early on Friday due to parent conferences. Stephanie, Layla and I headed to Budget Rent-A-Car to begin our long weekend!

ROAD TRIP IN THAILAND!

The drive took a few hours. It probably could have been a bit faster, but my navigation skills landed us on this gravel road for a good while. It ended up working out, but I’m sure there was a more direct way.

We arrived in Kanchanaburi around sunset and looked around for a hotel. We decided on a place along the river. It was centrally located and the bathroom was bigger than the bedroom. We unloaded our things and walked up the street to find some dinner. Turned in early so we could have a packed Saturday.

Saturday morning we headed to the River Kwai. In 1942 when Japan occupied Thailand during WWII they ordered POW and Asian laborers to build a Thailand-Burma railway. The railway was 258 miles long. During construction over 100,000 people died due to the horrific conditions.

There is a train that still runs along part of the track. We boarded the train, not knowing the schedule or what tour it was going on. Right before it departed we realized that it was a 4 hour trip, we jumped off real quick. Instead we took some pictures and walked along parts of the track and across the bridge.

We had lunch at a big boat restaurant that was serving a buffet. A lot of mystery food and secret sauces, but they had mango sticky rice. Sold.

After lunch we headed to the zoo. I’m not much a fan of the zoo scene here in Asia, but this zoo is one of the better ones I’ve seen. The animals had big habitats, and the people had to drive through in a caged bus. We were able to feed the animals through the windows. Which made it so interesting when we got to the giraffes. Those things could smell the food before we even got in the gate! We had a few bowls of bananas that we tried to hide under the seats of the bus and only feed them a couple at a time. Well, when you have a 6-foot neck you can find anything. The giraffes went to town on the bananas. Slobber and snot everywhere.

Then this happened…

Brilliant. I didn’t even get any tongue slobber on my mouth. Thank god.

After the zoo we headed back to the hotel. Layla and Steph went for an afternoon snooze and I went on a drive around the city.

BEST DAY EVER.

Music up. Car Karaoke in full effect.

Oh my goodness, so great. Happy camper.

Met back up with Steph and Layla at the hotel and decided to take an evening boat ride on the river. We drove back to the River Kwai, parked and headed down to the pier. We got there right at sunset; the ride was beautiful. We drove by a few villages and then a ton of these things…

Giant party boat. People can rent them out by the hour. Live DJs, huge dance floor, food and drinks. Looked like so much fun!

After the boat ride it was time for dinner. We had seen a nice place along the river on our ride and walked there afterwards. It had a really nice vibe, relaxing, and delicious food.

We walked back to grab the car and head to the hotel. Unfortunately, the parking lot we had parked in was locked…. and had been for about 4 hours. We contemplated jumping the gate but that wouldn’t do any good because the gate would still be locked. Luckily, the security guard heard us chatting and came over to see what was going on. We asked him to open the gate.

He laughed at us.

What the heck?! He started asking us all these questions and then told us we had to pay him if we wanted the gate open. We agreed, with our fingers crossed. The gate opened and we ran to the car, the man kept making sly comments and being hateful. When we tried to drive out he only opened the gate halfway, clearly not enough room for me to drive through. Ignite angry Karen. I was not paying this guy to get the car out, that’s crazy. He was being a turd and I let him know it. I think he finally opened the gate because he was annoyed with me, perfect.

Once we made it back we decided to take Layla on a late night adventure. This was a real adventure, head lamps and all. There were three rules of our adventure: No sissys allowed. Be Brave. Have fun.

That we did. We climbed dirt hills, gave high fives to random people, found animal tracks in the concrete, and avoided all the cockroaches.

Sunday morning we had breakfast at a café and then headed for Erawan National Park. In the park there is a 7 level waterfall, which was our mission for the day. Climb all 7 levels.

Accomplished. The trail was so beautiful. Lots and lots of stairs and walking but the views made it worth it.

On the way home we made a pit stop at a strawberry farm and ate the most delicious fresh strawberries. Grabbed a coffee at the shop next door and were on the road back to Bangkok!