Travel with Kevin and Ruth: Change of plans!

We would have preferred to remain in Vietnam until March 22, but because of the screw up with the dates on our Vietnam visa, we had to leave the country by March 7th. Yes, we could have gone through the hassle and expense of getting an extension, but we didn't think it was worth it. In hindsight, maybe we should have, but of course hindsight is never useful, except as a learning experience!

Then we thought about going into Laos for a couple of weeks, but that was also going to involve visas, and the flights weren't cheap, and the route over land wasn't easy.

We know that the later part of this month is going to be expensive, with travel stops in Maldives, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait. So in order to keep costs down, heading back to Thailand was the cheapest way of doing things. Especially since our flight to Maldives on the 23rd departs from Bangkok.

So, the plan was to arrive in Bangkok, and take the train the next day to Kanchanaburi, about two and a half hours away. There are lots of waterfalls and hiking trails and scenery and things to see and do. That's the area where the original Bridge over the River Kwai is located.

Train Street in Hanoi.

Yesterday morning while I was researching the area and looking for places to stay, I randomly checked the weather forecast. Now... I knew it would be hot, because Bangkok is always around 35C (95F). But Kanchanaburi is forecasting highs of between 39C (102F) and 42C (107F) for the next week!

Yikes. That is simply too hot for us.

But, we didn't have a "plan B".

There was no point in going to Kanchanaburi. It wouldn't be enjoyable, and if we're just going to sit inside an air conditioned room, we might as well just stay in Bangkok! And we actually thought about that idea. But I kept remembering that our one week in Bangkok at the beginning of December was about five days too many! So to sit here for two weeks just didn't sound appealing at all.

So, we flew to Bangkok late last night with a one night reservation at a cheap room near DMK airport. Arrived at midnight last night, with no plan to wake up to!

Didn't sleep well because of it, and tried to extend another night but the place was already booked. Found another cheap room nearby though. And set to work on figuring out what to do for the next two weeks.

We looked at flying to one of the islands, but there are no reasonable airfare deals, and we didn't want to add yet another $350 to the monthly expenses, and there weren't many accommodation deals either.

After a lot of humming and hawing, we are headed down the coast to Hua Hin... we take a very inexpensive three hour train ride Friday afternoon. I've booked us a modern private condo with swimming pool, and negotiated a two week deal for 660 baht ($18.50 USD, $25 CAD) per night.

Here are a few more pics from our last day in Hanoi...