Taking the Thailand sleeper train

After leaving Kanchanaburi, we will be heading to Koh Tao which is popular for scuba diving and snorkeling.  After much consideration we have decided to take the sleeper train to Chumphong then bus it to the Lomprayar ferries where we will then head over to the island.
We will choose either first class or second class sleeper on the train.  My husband and I are happy to take the second class but we want to ask our kids which they prefer as second class is a lot less private but I'm sure it would give lots to talk about.  The train leaves Bangkok early evening and arrives at 4am.  You then get a bus transfer to the ferry and sit and wait for it to go.  The ferry ride takes about 90 minutes.  Talk about trying all the transport I can jam into one day.
Once we are there we will be staying at Sensi Paradise Resort.  This is one of the few places that has a family bungalow to fit all six of us in and it's right on the beach.  Sensi is on Mae Haad which we thought would be good as it is still close enough to walk to Sairee Beach but far enough away from the hustle and bustle.

For information about the trains in Thailand go to
www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm

Second class sleeper - you are in one long row with just a curtain to give you privacy and the walkway is quite narrow.

First class before they make the bed - here you have the privacy of a door and your own sink

Ferry website
http://www.lomprayah.com/

We look forward to trying all this transport out and letting you know if we chose right or if it was a miserable failure and to let everyone know a better way.

Kanchanaburi Thailand

The next destination that we will be heading to will be Kanchanaburi which is about 3 hours from Bangkok.  My husband and I visited here 7 years ago but didn't know what else there was to offer here as it was all arranged through a travel agent and we just followed our itinerary.  We visited the Bridge on the River Kwai and some war museums and a cemetery.  We found all of this to be fantastic, and it wasn't till we were about to leave to come home to Australia, when i found out that there was a tiger temple run by monks not far from where we were.  I can't believe we didn't know about it.  On this trip with our kids, Kanchanaburi was definitely on our list of places to go.
First we did some research on what we could do around here.  We changed our minds a few times, not sure what was the best option and then we finally made up our minds that we would visit Erawan Falls and an Elephant camp.  Now I have been planning this visit for awhile, trying to find a private driver with a mini van to get us where we want to go.  Its very hard to organize transport with 6 people.  I decided that the Tiger Temple was out.  I had read a lot of information and most people recommended to avoid it as the tigers were ill treated and the money paid to go there doesn't go back to the animals.  Now I really wanted to go to this but I watched a video on youtube recently where it shows the handlers being bossy with the tigers and they all had spray bottles which you would think were full of water, but every time they wanted the tigers to do something, they would spray it in their face.  I had read in one forum that they keep urine in these bottles.  Once I saw this video it was enough to upset me and I couldn't be apart of that.  My dilemma now it seems is the elephants.  One of the best memories of holidaying here 7 years ago was riding the elephants in Chiang Mai.  It was a real tourist show.  They had the elephants painting with their trunks and posing for pictures and doing tricks.  Now I was quite naive back then and wasn't aware that these animals were being mistreated  I just wanted to experience something different, so when I looked up the elephant riding in Kanachanaburi it seemed to be a lot better and you still went for a ride but you also feed them and get to take them into the river for a wash.  I also read that they are kept on long chains so they can wander out into the jungle at night.  Is this true?  I have just started reading some more reviews regarding this  and it is a mixed bag of feelings from a lot of people.
I will have to think more on this and let you know once we come back from our trip.  My children really want to ride elephants hmmm.
One thing I know we can do without feeling guilty is going to the Erawan waterfalls.  They have seven levels of falls and if the pictures are anything to go by, then it looks pretty amazing.  Again I look forward to reviewing all of this once we return in July.

This is my favourite picture from seven years ago.  I new it would be rude to take a picture of a monk so I got my husband to take a picture of me on the bridge on the River Kwai, and I have my shot.

Washing the Elephants in the River Kwai

Erawan Water falls

First night in Bangkok

Now that our children know that they are going on holidays to Thailand, we can book our first night.  I did lots of searching to find the best place to stay for just one night.  We will most likely be finished up at the airport by 7pm, so I wanted somewhere which was relatively convenient and not too expensive.  I checked out a girls blog which had some great information on the Bangkok City Hotel.
It is on Petchaburi Road where a lot of activity and shopping malls are and not too far from Siam shopping and only 10 minutes walk to the nearest BTS.  As we will only be there for one night, this seemed like a good option.  We can book in, have a look around and get a bite to eat and about two shops down we can all get a massage to unwind from a big flight.  At the moment on their website they have a room plus breakfast from 1090baht which is pretty great.

Bangkok City Hotel

The most exciting Christmas ever

My husband and I had been keeping a secret from our children that we were surprising them for Christmas, a family trip to Thailand. We were so excited but keeping this secret for three months was killing us. We nearly got caught a few times but managed to say a few fibs so they wouldn't find out. Christmas Day had finally arrived and we had planned out very well how it was all going to go down. We bought them all a carry on luggage bag which was the last present we would hand them. When they unwrapped their bags, on the front of it I had a big print out saying "our first family trip on a plane to Sydney" well they were so excited because they had never done either of these things. We then waited till one of them opened their bag where another print out read " on a stop over to Thailand".
Our daughter Emilie was the first to unzip her bag and she screamed and stamped her feet in such excitement, then followed the other kids with there screaming. One of them even had tears, it was so wonderful that the surprise went just how we had planned. The funniest part was when our youngest child who we thought would be the most excited, was sitting there with a stunned look on her face saying oh crap, I'm going on a plane and I have to get needles. We will have to work on her. The next six months will be lots of exploring with the girls, what we will be doing, and getting very excited and counting down the days till we go.
I will be blogging about our experiences of finding places to go with four teenagers so I can share it with other families looking at doing the same thing.

Christmas present to Thailand with four teenagers

It happened one afternoon during a glass of wine. My husband and I have spent the last five years buying investment properties and saving every cent to do so. I bought up the conversation about what we wanted for the future. Yes we had two great houses that we were proud of, but were we really enjoying our lives to the fullest. We hadn't been overseas for 7 years since our honeymoon and I had the urge to go again. I think we realized that we weren't doing enough exciting and adventurous things, so after a few more wines we were going overseas. We were both excited and I'm not sure if it was the wine talking, but I said "do you think we could take the kids". Our kids have quite often mentioned, so and so from schools family are going overseas on the holidays, and we would always reply, we'll it must be nice to have money, but this time after working out our finances, we were going to take Them. Now we new that this holiday wouldn't be cheap as we have 4 daughters aged 11,13,15 and 20, so Thailand was where we chose and it would also be a great Christmas present surprise.
We decided that we would go in the June school holidays 2013, this also being our three youngest daughters first time on a plane. As we wanted to give this to them as a present, we went full steam ahead into planning it. Talk about doing our heads in. There were so many hotels and things to choose from, I just didn't know where to start. I googled lots of info and signed up to the lonely planet thorn tree to follow what advise other people were giving. Let me tell you it's not easy finding accommodation for 6 people and with all the web sights and forums I looked at regarding traveling with teenagers, it was very few and far between. We decided not to go through a travel agent as they were a lot more expensive and by booking it ourselves it gave us a lot more freedom to look for specials and cheap airfares.
We began thinking about what kind of experience we wanted our children to have. I know it was high on our list to let them see for themselves just how fortunate they were living in Australia. We considered how much traveling we wanted to do once we were there and the best areas we could go to in our 16 day holiday. The search begins. 😁

I'm a big dreamer

I look forward to sharing my discovery on traveling, my experience in buying investment properties from someone who didn't have a clue and life in general. My love of going out for coffee with my husband and my whacky but interesting children.
Below is my favourite coffee cup