Sai Yok trip

Saturday morning we left for a quick vacation! Dayton used up his last personal day and we came back Monday afternoon. It took us forever to get there because we had to navigate through the Bangkok traffic and then go through the mountains to about 15km from the Thai-Burmese border. Good thing we speak Thai, because most people we spoke definitely spoke no English!

We drove to Kanchanaburi province, then to the town Sai Yok, and then to our hotel River Kwae Village. It was right on the River Kwae, and looking out our window, we could see the cliffs, the river, barges, boats, etc. Grace loved looking at the boats going by. Definitely not child-friendly though. The walkways had dropoffs and waterfalls under them because it was built right on the side of the mountain! We used their swimming pools quite a bit because no one else was using them. Most of the other hotel guests were with tours gone during the day. No other little kids, so our kids were quite entertaining, especially to the Thai staff!

On Sunday, we drove to the Hellfire Pass museum. It was the site of the Australian POW camp run by the Japanese during WWII. Amazing pictures. We didn't hike down to the pass because of little kids and short legs. If you get a chance, look it up and read about it. We then drove on down to the Sai Yok Noi national park, looked at the river and waterfalls, tried to explain that to Grace that her hat "went swimming" when it blew off and into the river, and then tried to find a place to eat lunch. We got lucky when choosing one of the many food stall/mini-restaurants. The food was great (Thai of course), they played with our kids, helped Grace dig in the dirt, helped her wash her hands, etc.. Grace got to use their squatty potty. For a first timer, she did well not peeing in her shoe! We really enjoyed the lunch, just talking with the people (all in Thai), explaining we weren't really tourists, etc. In fact, instead of the $5 per adult entrance fee to the park as foreigners, we pain only 50 cents each because we could show our Thai driver's licenses and spoke Thai.

We were worried that Grace, who'd never slept in the same room as us and had never slept in a big bed, would not sleep well or bother us. But she did really well and liked her roll-away bed with the bright pink comforter. She got no nap Sunday, so that night decided to put herself to bed at 9pm. Isaiah was easy as usual.

The worst part of the trip was Monday morning. Just as we were ready to finish packing up, Grace decided that she didn't want anymore pancake. She'd brought it with her from breakfast. I was busy packing up stuff in the bathroom, and Dayton was putting away the playpen. Isaiah (who had just eaten) was laying on his back on the bed playing with a toy. I heard a gagging sound and saw Grace stuffing pancake in his mouth!!! I fished out what I could but it was too late, he gagged on it and then threw up EVERYTHING he'd just eaten. Well, since we weren't going to use the bed anymore, the sheets were used to clean him up, and we spanked Grace and then changed Isaiah's clothes. What a mess!! Isaiah is still completely breastfed... what a shock to him!

So that was our trip. We most enjoyed the driving actually. The beautiful mountains. The huge trucks we had to navigate around... full of sugar cane, or taro (rolling off and almost hitting our car!), or pineapples. And Grace enjoyed the cows we passed every 5 minutes. They were grazing along the road and she'd try to count them. It was a much needed vacation!