Family in Thailand: Kanchanaburi

Saturday we got checked out and rented a van to go to the floating market.  The plan was to meet up with my families tour group at the market, but not have to go to see elephants with them (since we already did them in Chiang Mai).  We ended up getting there a little bit after they did and they were ready to leave when we arrived.  Bryce decided to ride on the tour bus to Kanchanaburi and we would meet up with him at the war museum.

That left 6 of us to ride through the floating market.  We all got into one boat and headed down the river.  Our boat didn’t have a motor and the lady just paddled along.  We saw boats full of food, fruit and ice cream.  The other boats contained people selling things to eat or other tourists.  Along the sides there were countless shops.  As you rode by they would use bamboo hooks to pull your boat to their shop.  We bought some fresh coconut ice cream served in coconuts right off the bat and enjoyed the ride.  Tanner and I bought a wooden fruit bowl and some colored pencils made of small tree branches that I had been wanting.  We also got a pair of elephant pants.  My family bought a few souvenirs as well.  We had a great time eating, bargaining and laughing.  We were hot and ready to be done before our boat time was finished.  We asked for her to take us back.  I guess she thought we weren’t happy with her service.  We reassured her many times that we were happy with her, we were just ready to be done.  In the end I think she still didn’t believe us. 

Wild jackfruit.  Austin, this picture is for you!

At that point we were ready to head to Kanchanaburi.  Our driver took us to the Death Railway Museum where we met up with Bryce.  We got some ice cream on the way and had to eat it quickly since we couldn’t take it inside.  They had already been there for about 30 minutes and were going to leave in another 20 minutes.  That ended up being a perfect amount of time for us in the museum!  

Cemetery by the War Museum

From there we went to the bridge over the river Kwai.  My dad and Bryce went on the tour bus and the rest of us went in our van.  We got there about 5 minutes before them.  We walked across, took some pictures and enjoyed the view of the river.  This was the hottest, sunniest day of our trip.  The metal of the bridge was warm and reflected the sun really strongly.    

After 10 minutes I was hot, hungry and ready to find a late lunch.  We went to a little café we had walked past earlier.  Their sign said they had spaghetti and burgers!  Thai people think that any kind of meat sandwich is a ‘hamburger’.  So turns out that they didn’t really have hamburgers, they had chicken and pork sandwiches.  I got chicken nuggets and fries (which ended up being the best fries I’ve had in Thailand).  Wesley’s chicken burger ended up being the best choice and he won the lunch award.

After lunch it was time to part ways and head to our separate resotels.  We didn't know what a resotel was, but we found out.  My family left in the tour bus and Tanner and I left in the rented van.  We headed out of the city for about 40 minutes.  Then we saw a small sign and turned onto a dirt road.  We drove down the deserted dirt road for a couple miles and saw another sign: Momchailai Resotel 2.5 km with an arrow. We turned onto an even more deserted road.

There were no buildings to see anywhere... We had passed by a farm right after turning off the main road, but hadn't seen any sign of life since then.  At theis point I was feeling like it was NOT going to be easy to meet up with my family that evening--or even the next day.

Just as I was going to tell the driver to turn around and get us out of there we saw the final sign: Momchailai .5 km.  A few feet after that there was an abandoned guard room and decrepit gate.  Tanner and I kept glancing at each other and asking, "Does this seem strange?"  or "Do you think it's really open?"  We continued through the gate and into an empty parking area.  We saw a couple buildings here and there but not a single living soul.  Our driver looked at our reservation and called the number.  He spoke to someone in Thai and 20 seconds a tiny little Thai woman emerged between some trees.  She carried our bags and led us to the reception desk.  We then saw the second person woman (we would only see one additional person while we were there...) behind the desk.  She greeted us in Thai and we showed her our reservation confirmation.  She looked on her computer. Then she looked again... and a third time... and then asked to see our reservation again.  They didn't have our reservation.  I was ready to tell Tanner to tell then it was okay and leave, but she spoke to the small bag carrier and they soon produced a key and had us follow them both.

We followed them up a dirt an stone train about 1/8 of a mile.  We passed a really cool 3 story tree house-looking bungalow.  We also passed some rooms that looked like they hadn't been used in years.  Finally we got to our room!

The porch had handmade wood furniture.

The view from our front door:





The room was actually kind of nice (ish). Better than what I was expecting at that point.  Plain and simple, but fine.

The bathroom was a fun mix of outdoorsy and fancy.

After they turned on the lights and air for us we set down our bags and went exploring a bit.  We were right by the river and surrounded by wild forest.  There was bamboo and crazy vines.

There wasn't wifi in our rooms (which I loved and hated at the same time), but they had some spotty wifi down by reception.  We made our way down to the reception area to try and contact my family. We still hadn't seen any other guests.  We ordered some stir fried veggies for dinner.  They brought us insect repellant and incense to put under our chairs to keep the mosquitos at bay.  I thought that was thoughtful (and necessary!)

We got a hold of my family and decided that it would be better if we stayed at their same hotel the next night.  Originally we didn't book a room there because it was more expensive, but after realizing that the transportation to get to their place and back would be expensive and a huge hassle we decided it would be worth it.  We would take it easy that night and meet up with them in the late morning the next day (Sunday).  We went online and found a good deal for their resotel for he next day.  That night we fell asleep to the sounds of the creatures in the night.  We had fun guessing what kind of animal was making the unfamiliar sounds we kept hearing.  We went to bed early and slept in late.  It was a nice break from the go-go-go! of the previous days.  Our final take on Momchailai?  It's a really cool place and we would have really loved it had we been expecting it...  For this trip it wasn't ideal, but  I would actually go back now knowing what kind of place it is.  It would be an amazing place to go with a big groups of friends of a family reunion.

They had told us that breakfast was from 8-10.  We got up front around 10:02 and figured we just wouldn't eat there.  They were very accommodating though and made us a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, sketchy sausage (true to Thai form) and orange juice. We ate while they called us a ride.

Our resotels were only about 4 km apart as the crow flies, but we had to go out to the main road, down, back on side roads, to the river and in a boat.  I'm fairly certain that the modeled the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland after this river and boat ride!  We hopped in a boat and headed down and across the river.  We heard what sounded like the River Cruise soundtrack and took in the gorgeous view. 

Tanner didn't want to take a picture and mentioned that the wind was blowing his hair like crazy.  I helped with that problem :)

We got there!  My family had warned us that it was not what they were expecting and it had a more rustic, secluded feel than they expected.  After the place we were the night before it felt pretty fancy and compact.  It was too early for us to check in so we hung out with my family in their rooms.

Our room: bungalow 801

We chatted and hung out.

Then my mom brought out a huge container of Jelly Bellies and we dumped them on the bed in search of our favorites (peach and pear).

We had a nice little church meeting before lunch.

Then I braided Annie's hair and she braided mine.  She tried a crown braid and it was a huge fail...  It was puffy in all the wrong places and just bad all around.  I unclipped hers and the end of the braid fell in the funniest way.  She made a frowny face to match her hair.  It was then that she (and my whole family) discovered that I can NOT frown.  We tried to take a picture of both of us frowning with our bad hair and we couldn't do it.  My mom took a video that I'll post later :)  For now here is a picture attempt.  We ended up just laughing really hard (to the point of tears).  That'll be a fun memory for me for years.  Funny how the simplest things can create the best memories.

The we got to play WHAT DID MOM BRING!  She unpacked the bag they brought for us and surrounded us with all the treats they brought for us!  Most were requests, some were surprises.  My brother Bryce also brought us a few fabulous things.  We really miss American things and it was like Christmas getting so many things!  As they unpacked they handed us things and covered us with the goods.

Phichit Thailand does NOT have ANY Mexican food.  We make our own the best we can.  They brought us 4 gallon bags full of Taco Bell sauce!!!  

That evening we played card games for a couple hours.  It was so much fun!  I learned a new game called "cover your assets".  My very first round I got SO MANY POINTS!  After that first lucky round... not so much...  But it was really fun and I just loved spending time with my family enjoying some Sunday evening games.  It was perfection :)

We called it a night around 10 or 11.  The next morning we were up and out by 7:00 am.  We enjoyed a complimentary breakfast and headed to Ayutthaya.