We're finally back home.  Got home yesterday afternoon, it was a
really great trip.
We were able to get close to the price we wanted at the leather
factory, so in August we should be receiving a new couch and loveseat.
Dennis and the lady were joking that it was my birthday present, hee
hee!
Hua Hin was nice, it was the cleanest and most organized town I've
seen in Thailand, didn't even really seem like Thailand at all.  But
it's definitely aimed at the upscale tourist and there were tons of
big high rise resorts all along the beach.  In the town there were
about 3 or 4 taylor shops on every block.  But we stayed at a nice
little boutique hotel for which we'd gotten a good deal online.  We
had a nice steak dinner for my birthday and a bottle of wine which
we'd saved from Margaret River.
We managed to do ok on the driving through Bangkok, took a few wrong
turns but didn't get too lost.  In the end it worked out ok.  After
Hua Hin we headed to my friend Elsa's in Bangkok and stayed there for
2 nights.  We wanted to pick up the underwater camera housing that I'd
ordered on ebay and had shipped to her parents in Texas.  They had
just come back from a 3 week trip home.  We wanted the housing before
heading to Kanchanaburi because there is a cool waterfall with fish in
it that we wanted to try it out on.
We had all you can eat dim sum and saw the new Star Wars movie in the
recliner seats.  We also did a pub crawl on Kao San Road one evening.
Definitely regretted that one the next day.
On Friday morning we headed out to Kanchanaburi.  We got a great hotel
right on the river with a pool and a great view for only 500 baht.
The town was very quiet and nothing was going on.  We went to the
bridge on the River Kwai again because it was right there.
The next day we drove north to Erawan national park.  This time we
were able to talk them into only charging us the Thai entry fee, so it
cost 70 baht instead of 430 baht, which is what foreigners usually
pay.  I think it's very unfair to charge prices based on skin colour

We went to the 7 levels of waterfalls and swam in the blue pools while
fish nibbled on our toes.  Got some nice pics with the underwater
camera.  What a fun toy!  Now we have to go scuba diving again!
After that, we continued our drive to Sangkhlaburi, near the 3 Pagoda
Pass at the Burma border.  We stayed there 2 nights at a very rustic
lodge place right on the river.  It was only 200 baht per night!  Mind
you, no private bathroom or aircon, but it wasn't hot there anyway.
On the second day we went on an elephant ride through the beautiful,
lush jungle scenery (I expected to see tarzan swinging on a vine at
any moment!) and a bamboo river raft ride down the river.  It was
better than most other times because the river was fast and there were
rapids and most people fell in all the time.  But due to Dennis' good
steering, we were able to stay quite dry.
The next morning (yesterday) we drove home.  We wasted about 45 min
getting through Bangkok because we accidentally took a wrong turn, but
other than that things went smoothly.  We got home at 4:30 after
driving since 8:30.  Vino was happy to see us and followed us around
the house all evening.  This morning he began his first attempt at
getting us up at 3:30.  Then again at 6:30 and then pretty much
continuously until 8:00 when we got up.
We have no plans for the rest of Dennis' time off.  Just going to hang
here and take it easy.
Anyway, that's about it for our trip report.  I'll post pictures in a
few days, it will take me a while because we took so many.
I had 1150 posts to catch up on, but am already down to 700.  Purrs to
everyone who needs them!
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album