Kanchanaburi
Second Visit to the Land of Hospitality
My flight arrived in Bangkok late in the afternoon on July 10th. I arranged to get there early enough to check in, and have all of the arrangements settled for Stephanie and Caleb to arrive. Their flight came in just after midnight, though I had no idea what time it would feel like to them after traveling for over 24 hours from the other side of the world. I knew one thing. Stephanie would likely be ready to sleep.
I found a nice redemption for the Hyatt Regency Suvarnabhumi. In addition to being a very nice hotel in general, they had an extremely generous 24 hour reservation policy. If you booked a room, you could use it for any 24 hour period beginning with your check-in time. I thought that was a particularly useful option since I was catching my wife, who generally operates best on about 10 hours’ sleep, and often is not able to sleep in airplanes.
I filled out all of our necessary arrival paperwork while waiting for my plane to leave Saigon. I made my way quickly through customs and immigration, but had some difficulty finding my way over to the Hyatt. The Hyatt Regency Suvarnabhumi is actually on the airport property, but there is no way to walk to it by simply leaving the airport exit doorways. I didn’t know how their shuttle worked, or if there was a separate fee (it turns out there isn’t). I eventually solved the puzzle. I had to wander out through the basement and under the parking structure. This path emerged next to the lower floor entry to the Hyatt. Once I had figured it out, getting over and back was simple.
I arranged all of my things in the motel, had a quick bite to eat, and laid down to sleep for a couple of hours. Stephanie’s flight arrived at about midnight. I set my alarm and went back to pick her up and escort her and Caleb through the basement maze to the comfort of the nice hotel. It was good to be reunited.
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Stephanie was up and ready to explore surprisingly early the next day. Vun and his girlfriend were kind enough to pick us up from the Hyatt around midday. We shared a nice meal with them on the way to our extremely warm welcome in Kanchanaburi. I had forgotten how long it took to drive to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok. Vun was incredibly kind to shuttle us so far, and his family was just as welcoming and generous as they had been when Caleb and I visited the previous year. We had a delicious meal with Vun’s family that evening, and enjoyed a wonderful time visiting together. Our supper was at an open air river side venue. We were surprised to see that even some of our Thai hosts ended up ordering food that was too spicy for their own palates.
The next morning, our hosts had a nice breakfast for us. I had a quick run to work up my appetite. We then set out to see some sites around Kanchanaburi. I mistakenly assumed we would be visiting the places I had seen on my visit the previous year. We did go back to the most common site at the Bridge on the River Kwai, but before we made our way there, stopped at an impressive archaeological site I had not yet seen called Prasat Mueang Sing. There are two temple ruins located here that represent the westernmost extension of the Khmer Empire that was responsible for the Angkor Wat complex I would be visiting in Cambodia. The architecture in these temples, like those at Ayutthaya, are clearly of the Khmer pattern. Mueang Sing was built in the late 12th to early 13th century, in the Bayon style. For more information on Khmer temples, check out the page on Angkor Wat, in the Cambodia section.
After visiting the Mueang Sing site, we went to the Ban Kao Mantional Museum, which explains the impact of different civilizations that had occupied the region from centuries before the era of Khmer domination until the area was known as Siam. The highlight of this museum was an interesting personal story of a Dutch prisoner of war who happened to have some anthropology training. While digging around working on the Burma Railway, he unearthed prehistoric artifacts. He managed to hang onto some of them and had them sent to Harvard after the war. He later returned to catalog and study the site in subsequent years. Most of the artifacts here date from prehistoric times. We walked around in the cool air of the museum for a while, then headed back out for more sightseeing.
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Vun and his family led us around to the standard Kwai River Bridge tourist stops. There is a market near one, and a small cave with Buddhist worship paraphernalia inside. Caleb and I saw all of this in 2024, but it was enjoyable to walk again. We posed for many shots with the train, the bridge, the river, and the generally nice rural Thai scenery. Bangkok and even Chiang Mai are large, busy cities. They are developed by Southeast Asian standards, and relatively easy to get around. But I think if I were to live in Thailand for an extended period, I would want to be out in a rural area like the Kanchanaburi region. It’s just a more pleasant setting and a pace more to my liking. Our friends there also make it a special place.
We had no shortage of food presented to us. We enjoyed another nice supper with the family. They never would let us pay for anything, but Stephanie and I had a plan in store for that the next day. After an evening of rest, and another run, we began our last day in Kanchanaburi. We went out to breakfast. We visited a cave temple complex. We had a light lunch on a hill overlooking the river. All of that was fun. We also spent a good amount of time grocery shopping.
In addition to the hats, cowboy boots, and other Texas mementos we brought to distribute, Stephanie had asked Vun what he might like her to cook up. We figured this was the only way we would be allowed to contribute to the food train, and we sincerely wanted to do so. We were somewhat limited on ingredients, but Stephanie figured she could concoct something close to some good old TexMex fajitas from what we could acquire in stores in Thailand. It took visits to a couple of different grocery stores to find what we needed. It isn’t easy to find tortillas in Southeast Asia. We got what we needed, and Stephanie went to work. There wasn’t all that much for me to help with, and Stephanie may not have wanted my help anyway.
Stephanie worked her magic, and we had a spectacular supper. We socialized again. We distributed our gifts. We listened to Vun’s kid sister Fashai play her traditional musical instrument. We had a fun evening, and left feeling a bit less ashamed about the hospitality balance. Of course, we had been outdone again. This may have been unavoidable. But hospitality is not a contest. At least this time, we had some nice things to give and to do, which made the exchange feel more comfortable. I think a good time was had by all. We certainly enjoyed all that Vun and his family did for us both times I have visited Thailand.
We were sent on our way with another great breakfast. Vun was kind enough to return us to the airport en route to school. Stephanie, Caleb, and I then flew to Chiang Mai to see a part of Thailand that was new to all of us. Kanchanaburi had been great, but there were more things to see.
