Can-O-Deana: Kanchanaburi

School break means entertaining 4 kids for 3 weeks. Ugh! All they want to do is sit around the house all day and play on electronics (XBOX, Ipod, Ipad, PC). I ALWAYS want to leave the house but end up doing what everyone else wants. After 2 weeks of sitting around we finally went somewhere. Ok, so we did go to Safari World, but that doesn't really count to me as we didn't leave Bangkok.

On the last Saturday before break was over we headed west to Kanchanaburi. You can learn more about this area here. The plan was to drive straight through to Erawan Falls and then make our way back to Kanchanaburi. We left late, 10am, and it took us 3+ hours to get to the falls.

Cow AND Elephant crossing.

Just your everyday Tank on the road.

By the time we parked and changed and started hiking up it was 2pm. The park closed at 4:30 so I was hurrying everyone along to get to the top before the pass closed. There are 7 steps of the Waterfall, we only made it to 4.5 before we gave in and took a dip. The steps were some of the steepest I have seen in Thailand (or anywhere else). Next time we will get there earlier and reach the top. We worked our way down as the time was dwindling. I definitely want to come back and spend more time here.

Ben trying to put Danny's feet in the water for a fish pedicure.

The 4th level was the favorite. It had huge natural rock slides. All of the boys tried it at least once. Ellie never made it around to climb up. I really wish that I caught Ben slipping off of the rock with the camera. It was hilarious!

Ellie eventually got wet just as we were about to leave.

We ate an early (Thai) dinner at one of the food stalls in the parking lot before heading back down the mountain to find somewhere to stay for the night. This was a bit stressful not knowing where we were going but we picked a place and drove there hoping they would have a room. It was already getting dark too. The setting sun made for a nice drive though, until it went behind the mountain and we were on the winding mountain roads in the dark.

We ended up at the Resotel River Kwai Resort. My thought was to steer clear of the "Resorts" in an attempt to find a cheaper room but when you don't plan ahead it doesn't matter anyway. When we arrived they said they had just one room left and it had 2 twin beds. We took it. Sleeping arrangements were quite interesting. The 2 beds were pushed together. Ellie slept in the 2 wicker chairs, that she pushed together to make a bed. Danny decided he wanted to sleep on the floor so that left Ben and I with 2 boys in 2 twin beds pushed together. We decided to sleep sideways on the beds, thinking this would allow more space. It worked until midnight when we turned everyone the right way and went back to sleep. Danny ended up back in the bed and slept in the crack between the two beds. I won't complain because I know we were lucky to find something but that must have been one of my least favorite nights sleep, EVER!

In the morning we got to see the rest of the resort and enjoyed breakfast before heading just down the road to check out a nearby cave. I have only been in a few caves in my life but have NEVER been in such a HOT cave. There was no exit on the other side (and being in Thailand) made for no airflow and the most humid, hot, steamy cave ever. We had 2 Thai girls about Ellie's age as tour guides. They were awesome and took us off the trails to see interesting stuff even though we didn't know what they were saying. We tipped them well. :)