Schatz Family Travels

Our final day in Thailand. Half a day really. We found a park on the map that wasn’t too far out of the way from the route to the airport, so we spent the morning there. Getting there wasn’t trivial, the streets of Bangkok are great for people who love a difficult puzzle! We again encountered the inability of Google Maps to keep up with reality, things like telling us to stay in the 4th of 5 lanes and continue straight, when there were actually 7 or 8 lanes, each going a different direction, none of which was straight. Frustrating! But we did manage to reach the park, eventually, and had a relaxing picnic breakfast. The Chatuchak park is really nice. It’s a very large green lung in the middle of the Bangkok megapolis. There are ... read more

We have a COVID test first thing tomorrow morning in Bangkok. We found one that's only ridiculously expensive, so we booked a hotel within walking distance of it, and we'll stay there for our last two nights in Thailand. But we have the whole day to go before that! And no hurry. So we started our morning with a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went for a walk on the beach. The Cha-Am beach isn't nearly as picturesque as Thai beaches appear in the brochures, it's a narrow strip of sand lined with tamarisk, not the wide white sand lined with coconut trees, but it's ok. After a short walk we checked out the hotel pool and had a nice relaxing swim. A quick shower later and with our bags all packed we checked ... read more

Today was intended to be a relaxing day (relatively speaking).We're going to spend the day in this area, and sleep in town another night. But not in this hotel. The breakfast served here is bad, the coffee worse, and the room is just too gloomy. So we reserved a room at the Water Park Hotel Kanchanaburi as it had good reviews and price. More on that later... We went for a walk to the famous bridge over the river Kwai, walked across it and took some selfies. We sat on the grass under the bridge and read a bit about it, and found that not only is the name a misnomer, but it's mispronounced as well! The bridge spans a river of a different name that, together with the Khwae Noi rover flows into the Mae ... read more

Today wasn't our best day yet. As I mentioned yesterday, we arrived by night bus (not recommended!) in Bangkok at 5:00AM, and were immediately mobbed by taxi drivers. After some harsh bargaining we got one to take us to the airport for 700 baht (about 70 NIS, or $22, more or less) instead of 1,200, and we paid the 25 for the toll road. When we got there he tried to get 800 from us. We stood fast. Then he didn't have change. We found someone who did and saw his back fast! We found the rental agency (it was open and the rep was there). After some paperwork we got our car for the next week, and sat down for some very much needed coffee! It was getting light now, and we headed on our ... read more

Today was another exciting day. We're off to an elephant excursion! We're going to visit an elephant sanctuary for animals rescued from unhealthy work environments. Our ride picked us up at the hotel right on time, and after picking up another family of four we were off to the mountains! It's quite a long ride, about an hour and a half in a songthaew (basically a pickup truck with a bench on either side of the bed and a roof over it). Not the most comfortable ride I've ever been on! At a rest stop along the way another truck joined us with four more girls for our group. Then we were off, and finally made it to the camp. And there were our elephants! Three beautiful beasts, all females. Our guide, Ken, was very enthusiastic ... read more