January 15, Thursday – Fly to Bangkok – Overland to Kanchanaburi – River Kwai Bridge walk

Destination: Kanchanaburi – Accommodations: Hin Tok River Camp

Today was an all day travel day, so since not much happened until we arrived at the camp, I’m going to talk a little about what we have learned about Thailand so far.

Are told us that his wife is a nurse on a cancer unit and works long hours. She only receives about $1,300 per month in salary… Even after 18 years of experience.

Thailand’s birthrate has been dwindling in the last few years. Last year there were 400,000 deaths, but only 300,000 births. Many Thai travel to other countries to work because the pay is better. Many Thai doctors who are in their residency, travel to Israel and other countries to get their experience and higher pay.

Thailand is bordered on the west by Myanmar, a country they have no conflict with.

After breakfast we flew to Bangkok and boarded a bus to take us to the river camp where we will be staying for two nights. It was a four hour ride, but we stopped along the way and picked up a bite to eat in one of the many, many 7/11’s that you can find all over Thailand.

We arrived late afternoon to the camp and I believe we can say… We’re Glamping!! The camp scenery is beautiful with outdoor eating areas, a bar, a lovely pool, nice sized canvas tents, private veranda, and spacious bathroom with a large walk-in shower.

The tent has a canvas layer as well as a second layer of netting on the entryway. Both layers have zippers that you zip up (or down) to either enter your tent from the outside, or to access your attached bathroom on the inside. On the canvas outside “door”, there is a lock that you lock with a key whenever you leave. You have to squat down to unzip the both layers and the canvas layer not only zips up and down, but sideways ads well. You have to squat down to lock the padlock on the zippers if you decide to leave the tent.

Are told us to make sure we always zip the layers closed whenever we exit or enter our tent to keep out mosquitos as well as little critters like lizards and the like.

We all gathered on the patio to watch the sunset and enjoy a drink together and then it was off to the amazing outdoor dinner buffet. They served all kinds of Thai food as well as BBQ pork and chicken on skewers. Delicious!

We all sat at the table and had a lot of laughs and then it was back to our tent for a good night’s sleep listening to the crickets.