Kanchanaburi Thailand: Life on the Lake

We headed four hours outside of Bangkok this past weekend for a houseboating experience. This turned into a total 2 day party atmosphere. We a big group of fifteen to twenty people and rented two houseboats that they attached to each other. We were then towed across a lake and anchored on a more remote shore, where we cracked beers, swam and partied for the whole weekend. We had food and beer delivered to us by boat, and had a liveaboard assistant who would clean all of our dishes and make sure we had ample ice to chill our beer- he also made sure the one electronic device we had was working- a karaoke computer.

Aside from the stunning nature and views, the highlight of the trip was likely when I joined forces with a friend of mine (Also named Alex) from Bangkok to assail some of our neighbors. One houseboat full of Thais had been parked around a bend from us. In the late afternoon, we saw a bamboo raft full of people wearing life vests drift into sight. Curious we swam closer and saw that it was a bunch of Thai people hanging out.
We said hello and they asked where we were from “Isaan,” I replied (a very remote part of Thailand). “It’s a small village of farang (white foreigners) who speak English”. Then laughed and I asked where they were from:
“Kanaadaaaaa- small village where speak Thai”. Ha, fair enough. Somehow Alex and I got the idea that flipping the bamboo raft would be quite fun. The guys on the raft thought this was funny, but the ladies did not enjoy getting put in the water… this was probably due to the fact (later revealed) that none of them could actually swim... We ended up having to swim their raft back to their houseboat.

The whole experience was a great change of pace from hot Bangkok.