Worth It

Our little Bangkok home did not provide us a ton of rest last night. Just as we were getting ready for bed we heard a lot of commotion in the alley including people yelling, a truck, thuds. Peeking out the window Brandon thought it looked like a tow truck or something. Oh crap! With our AirBnB’s host’s blessing we had parked in the alley; were we getting towed?! I imagined the worst and was already working out getting the car back in my head as Brandon pulled on some clothes and went outside. Turns out it was merely the garbage truck making its way down the narrow alley. Loudly. At about 11pm. Later, another neighbor blasted music and sang along. An annoying bird cawed all night. The little home may be adorable, but the walls are paper thin. By 5:30am we were both awake. And both still exhausted.

Our morning was leisurely as we laid around, enjoying the warm patio, drinking tea, and figuring out our day. Apparently Brandon had his heart set on eating our leftover coconut griddle cakes as an early morning snack and exclaimed, “That’s bullshit!” when I confessed that I ate them all while he slept last night. The main house on the property had three dogs and two ran around the yard chasing birds while the old man slowly sniffed around in circles, fully outfitted in a t-shirt of course. Today we were leaving Bangkok and heading about 3 1/2 hours northeast to Sai Yok for a night at the Floathouse River Kwai. In true Laura fashion, I pulled up the directions and clicked around the google map to see what sights I could find for us to visit on the way. I came up with a list of nine stops that we could split between our way there and back, overwhelming Brandon with all the ideas I had in mind.

We were both in a rush to hit the road but also in no rush to start our trek. Our original plan had been to go to a floating market this morning but we scrapped that in order to get on the road sooner. Breakfast was definitely in order though so we walked back down the street to the market that had been bustling yesterday afternoon with our heart set on finding noodle bowls. As we walked in search of such a street vendor we savored a breakfast appetizer on the way, including two types of shrimp dumplings (only 50 baht/$1 USD for 6 pieces), iced Thai tea, and a matcha latte.

The noodle folks had not yet set up shop for the day so we had to change plans. Just as we were about to turn around, Brandon exclaimed that he really wanted to eat the food of the cart we were in front of. I looked around and sure enough, she had many tables by her cart, all full of locals. It seemed to be some sort of soup situation. There was no English or pictures to help us. We took a seat and tried to get a translator app to work. We weren’t having any luck when the man at the next table finished his meal and turned to us. He spoke some English and asked if we needed help ordering. We still didn’t know all the options but he suggested we order two mixed bowls and so we did. Mixed of what, I wasn’t sure. He ordered for us before bidding adieu. We continue to be amazed at how nice everyone has been.

The soups came and the garlicky broth smelled divine as the steam wafted through the air. Looking closely trying to figure out what we were eating, I quickly realized that this soup would be unlike any I’ve had before, one piece of meat in particular was thin and whitish with large veins; almost like the texture of a brain. I looked up to Brandon and said that the piece looked like an intestine or something. He had already figured out what we were eating from recognizing the pieces of meat (experienced from butchering when he hunts) and said that he was unsure if should tell me what was in our bowls. Tell me! Apparently our breakfast was a soup of all organ pieces. Pig organs to be exact. Hearts, livers, lungs, intestines, stomach linings, that was it. Talk about being pushed past my comfort zone. A different man was sitting down at the table next to us when we reached over to borrow spicy sauce and he offered one of the snacks he was eating. People are so friendly here! I slowly took my first bites and gladly completely cleaned my bowl of the fragrant, savory, yumminess. The two bowls of random pieces were only 55 baht (about $1.10 USD) and would keep our bellies full for hours.

Heading back to our AirBnB, I resisted the urge to top off breakfast with a waffle on a stick. Don’t calories don’t count if something is on a stick? I was by no means hungry but was amused by the waffles in stick form.

We stopped into a tiny general store in search of bug spray as we still don’t have any and were headed to stay on a river next. The translator app actually worked as I typed in “bug spray” and showed the lady behind the counter. The shopkeeper had a kitten with a cone on her head and when I gestured to her that the cat was trying to leave with us (I was guessing with the cone she shouldn’t be let out) she picked up the little kitty and showed us her tummy, she had just been spayed. It made me so happy to know that they actually spay and neuter their pets. Another cat sat on a moped in front of the shop. As we walked away, Brandon told me that when I leaned down to take this kitty’s picture one of the men in the group standing nearby raised his hand like he was about to smack my ass! But then looked up and saw Brandon staring and put his hand down. Not cool.

Though our tiny AirBnB was super cute and we loved the location, we were glad we weren’t staying longer as it was so tiny; smaller than our RV. Brandon sprayed his arms with the bug spray and immediately felt a burning sensation and started to get tiny welts. Uh oh. Thankfully we were still there and he jumped in the shower to wash it all off. Crisis averted. Who knows what’s in there but I bet it works really well. We had gestured with the shopkeeper when we bought it that you are supposed to spray it on your body so I felt confident that’s what it was for.

Loaded into the the car and ready to go, we pulled up directions. We were heading out much later than planned so I whittled my list of stops along the way down to two. Brandon pulled up the route in Apple maps, and I in Google maps. I hate Apple maps, I even removed the app from my phone because they are so bad. I told him that it was showing a different route that no other map I’d looked at had pulled up and he should use Google maps and he tried to tell me he was. No you aren’t buddy. But he was the driver so it was his choice. A few minutes later, his map led us astray because the directions froze leaving him unsure where to go. He told me I was right, put away his phone, and let me navigate us properly. Thank god!

The drive to the pier to get to the FloatHouse River Kwai said it would take 3 hours 20 minutes. When we booked this little diversion out of Bangkok we imagined that the drive was going to give us the chance to see a more rural part of town. The first stop we wanted to make along the way was Wat Samphran, the Dragon Temple. The roughly hour drive to the temple was terrible bumper-to-bumper traffic pretty much the entire way. Getting even worse at times when the watering truck took up an entire lane to spray water on the plants in the center divide while a man walked ahead throwing fertilizer on them.

Arriving at the Temple, I did a quick outfit-change in the car back into my fun orange dress that I had tried to wear yesterday but didn’t get much use of out. It is perfect for the temples since it is long and I now have the beautiful shawl we bought at the market to cover my shoulders. You must have your shoulders and knees covered. Wat Samphran is called the Dragon Temple since it literally has a dragon winding its way up the 17 story cylindrical building. Multiple other giant animal statues dot the grounds. We entered through the mouth of giant snapping turtle, it’s opulent head beautiful above us, and found our way into a little tunnel that popped us out in another sculpture garden. I was quite disappointed to see that the path was closed and we were unable to visit the rest of the large sculptures it’s known for. After exploring the grounds for a few minutes we took our shoes off and entered the temple itself, greeted by ornate statues. We entered yet another tunnel and climbed the 17 stories to the top. It was definitely a great way to work off our breakfast! The views from the top were expansive but a milky haze of fog dimmed the sights around us. There was no way to actually get a good picture of the entire dragon on the temple though I later read and learned that there was another building you needed to climb to the top of to get such a picture. We stopped at the toilets before heading out and I was disgusted to see that you had to remove your shoes to enter them as well. As I took off my shoes and stepped into the the dingy bathroom, the same dizzy heavy-in-the-legs feeling I had yesterday washed over me again. It felt like a massive blood pressure surge. All I could think about the rest of the way to the FloatHouse was that I wanted to wash my feet.

I’ll be honest, the temple was cool to see but I don’t think I really need to see a bunch of them. Back in the car, the GPS told us we still have another 2 hours 45 minutes to go. Apparently there was traffic. And let me assure you, there was. We decided to scrap the idea of our second stop to just get to the river. Our imagined route of driving through a rural area was nothing like reality. Up until the last half hour, the entire drive was basically on a wide, city street with the majority being in heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic. At red lights, vendors would walk down the rows of cars selling snacks and flowers. If you wanted donuts, fried chicken, thai tea, and who knows what else; all you had to do was roll down your window. We were kicking ourselves for wasting so much time on this drive. Had we known what it would be like we probably would have scrapped the entire trip to this area.

We were getting hungry and pulled off into a small row of shops to find food. A little restaurant had a fragrant kitchen out front and we figured that would do. The menu of course was not understandable to us but we figured we could point to pictures of dishes that decorated it and get our order in that way. I tried to load a text recognition translator as a woman in the restaurant realized we didn’t speak Thai and helped us with her limited English. We both ordered pad Thai again, I love pad thai, and she suggested that maybe we also wanted a salad to start. Perfect. This place had a weird vibe about it. An AR-15 assault rifle sat, completely unattended, at a table against the wall. Who knows if it was actually loaded but there a clip in place. Where were we?!?!? The first course came out and it was a cold seafood plate with some processed hot-dog type meat. Not the salad we imagined. And not very good. Our pad thai came out and was presented beautifully, but had no flavor, no taste. It plain and simply, sucked. We didn’t like the vibe from the staff as it was obvious they were making fun of us and quickly finished our food and hightailed it out of there.

Back on on the road it finally started to turn more rural as we entered a mountainous area. And the drivers became more erratic as it was now possible to pick up speeds on the road. At times, more than one car passed at a time so the two-lane road (one in each direction) would have three cars all side by side as the passing cars vied to pass each other. Finally, at about 4:30pm we made it to the pier that would take us to our FloatHouse. It was gorgeous. Seeing the flowing river was a welcome sight after the frenetic city. As we parked, two men grabbed our suitcases and gestured for us to follow them onto the dock. They showed us a sign and had us point to where we were headed. A very unhealthy sounding long boat pulled up a few minutes later and we loaded our luggage and ourselves into it. Still not being able to communicate a single word with these folks and relying on the gestures. The drive down the river was gorgeous but I can’t help but wonder, what lives in this water?!?!

Brandon looked over and told me it was worth it. The drive, the stress of getting here, all worth it. I couldn’t agree more. The magic of the FloatHouse was evident from the moment it came into view. So what is it? The FloatHouse River Kwai is a small, 30 room resort, that is literally floating on buoys in the river. Upon check-in we were handed little glasses of a delicious pink drink, shown a menu so we could select our dinner, and led to our home for the night. It is hard to find words to describe the feeling of this place, it is probably the most romantic spot I have ever visited. The bed was adorned with swan pillows and covered in flowers. The deck has three sitting areas for our river enjoyment, and the shower door opened to reveal an outdoor shower. I was giddy. We were giddy. This was amazing.

We walked to the end of the row of rooms to find where you are supposed to climb back out of the river, should you go for a float, and found a massage cabana! WTF?! Nobody told us we could get massages! Shown a price sheet, we hoofed it back to the reception desk to book one hour thai massages for tomorrow morning (only because they weren’t available right then and there). The price for these massages? A whopping 400 baht ($13 USD). A plank and set of stairs could lead us to shore where a fruit garden and cave can be discovered. We’ll save those for tomorrow. But it also led to a tiny little sandy beach area. We dipped our feet in the cool water and I was so happy they finally felt cleaner after the temple! The planks that tied this resort together reminded me of climbing on Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland when I was a child.

I’ve been craving a glass of champagne/sparkling wine since we got here and was thrilled to find we could get a bottle of Prosecco from the bar. It was close enough. I was excited to pop that puppy open but it had other ideas. The damn cork was stuck, and I mean stuck. Between the two of us it took over three minutes of working it to finally get it open. We relaxed on our deck, drinking our Prosecco and snacking on a fruit plate. Magical. Bats flew around us and we realized we needed to close the door so we didn’t end up with a friend joining us tonight!

Brandon got a little irritated at me for micromanaging a perfect picture I wanted him to take of our magical surroundings and it made me sit back and reflect on my own flaws. One of my largest weaknesses is being a perfectionist (I paid a lot of money for a career coach to help me realize that years ago). It’s a struggle for me not to try to take-charge when something doesn’t meet my vision of ideal and it is a continual challenge for me to be cognizant of my own actions and temper that urge.

As the sun set, dim lights gave the FloatHouse a glow, making it feel even more romantic, which I didn’t think was possible. The glow didn’t make it easy to do my makeup for dinner though, it was like working in the dark, especially as my vision issues makes it even harder for me to see in dim light. Thankfully I don’t wear much makeup so there is only so much I can mess up! Our dinner was eight courses including pork skewers, butter-fried calamari, coconut soup, stir-fried pork, seafood curry, stir-fried shrimp, deep-fried fish, and steamed rice. The menu said we’d have a choice of fruit or dumplings in coconut cream for desert but they gave us no choice, it was just fruit. That was the only disappointment of the meal as we were excited for dumplings. The dinner was delicious, the flavors so complex and in-depth. The curry was a little spicy for me but I powered through. The portions were perfect with not a single morsel left behind and our bellies just the right amount of satisfied.

We talked about seeing if we could stay here another night instead of heading back to Bangkok tomorrow but ultimately decided it was too much of a hassle since that would also mean adjusting our flights to Krabi in a couple days. This is truly the kind of place that will bring us back to Thailand just to stay here again.