Treehouse Living In Northern Thailand - Guest post

[Real time update: we are now in Swaziland after a 36 hour day - eventually there will be a post on that :)]

Here is a guest post by our oldest..

Treehouse blog
Day 1

We were picked up from our hostel around 8:30, the driver was a little late but when he arrived we jumped into the big van with all of our bags.  Our driver was wearing a fox hat, and since he was really tall, it looked like a fox was driving us. [Editor's note: Mom & Dad were cracking up during this drive as mom kept mouthing the words "WHAT DOES A FOX SAY?" While we found this quite funny, it apparently wasnt post-worthy in the teenage world].  It was about a two and a half hour drive and we stopped at a market along the way.  The market was almost empty (the prime time to go is about 5:30am), but we observed some of the meat stalls before heading out to breakfast at a nearby bakery.  After grabbing some banana bread, we drove for another hour before stopping at the Sticky Waterfall.  Amazingly, this was actually one of the coolest waterfalls of the trip, it appeared as if a ton of large rocks were stacked on top of one another.  The water was even warm.  After the waterfall we drove for another half hour until we arrived at the treehouse.  The treehouse wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we had to wait for about 15 minutes while they were cleaning it.  When it was ready we walked over a bridge that crossed a stream and then down a path for about fifteen more yards.  Our treehouse was really close to the stream, so at night you could listen to the water gurgling.  It was basically like a house on stilts, although there was one odd looking room at the very top.  It wasn't massive, but it was plenty of space for two nights.  There was one bed on the very top level, two in the middle, and one on the bottom.  After we finished hauling all of our bags inside, us kids did homework, while mom and dad sat around a fire, and my sister played with another little girl from China.  We did homework until about six, when it was time for dinner.  For dinner we had fried fish, which was fantastic, along with sweet and sour chicken, and of course, rice.  After dinner, we walked back to the treehouse.  We all agreed that it was time for bed.

Who wouldn't want this guy driving you through rural Thailand?

"WHAT DOES A FOX SAY?" We giggled about this way too much while driving

Local market delicacies

Pig snout or hooves anyone?

Look good?  This pastry has hotdogs, ketchup and mayonaisse!

Sticky Waterfall on way to treehouse

Our "climber" hiked up it of course

Making a fire outside our treehouse

This is where we slept

Little room at top was a hit with G

A little fishing action in the creek behind our place

SJ made a friend from China

Day 2

Finally we were able to sleep in.  We slept until about ten and then headed to breakfast.  For breakfast the staff served scrambled eggs, sketchy looking sausage, toast, and delicious orange juice.  After breakfast we did homework for a half hour and then biked on some of the nearby trails.  We biked to a bat cave where we saw a few bats, and then we biked for about another fifteen minutes before arriving at some red sand dunes.  These were really fun to bike on and we stayed here for about an hour before heading back to the treehouse to have lunch.  After lunch we hiked down a road for about twenty minutes to try and find a waterfall that we weren't sure existed.  When about twenty minutes had gone by, I decided to turn around because I had so much homework to catch up on.  According to the story that I was told, everyone else proceeded to become lost, and then found their way back.  [Editors note: classic teenager version there, but this was actually a super cool family adventure. We were not lost but not sure we were on the right path for a while as we had hike through a deserted resort to find a steep path through the jungle up to the high point for viewing the sunset. The waterfall no longer exists because the river has dried up - hence the deserted resort].  Finally, when they found the treehouse again, dad made a fire, my brother and I decided to try and start a fire with a stick by twisting it back and forth on top of another stick.  We tried this for two hours, but sadly never succeeded, the only thing that we took away from that endeavor was multiple blisters on each hand.  After our failed fire attempt, we did homework until dinner time.  For dinner we had chicken with sweet and sour sauce, and chicken mossoman, a traditional Thai dish.  Surprisingly, when dinner was finished, mom and dad told us kids to go and do homework for about twenty minutes.  After the twenty minutes was up they had a fire going and told us to find sticks to roast s'mores with.  We did have to improvise though because the shop didn't have everything, so we used pink marshmallows and put them in between two Oreo cookies.  It was fun to get to roast s'mores again and it almost felt like we were at home.

This is literally called the "Bat Cave". Yes it has bats

Nothing like a bamboo baby bike seat

The "red dunes" were a hit

Another cave we explored

Hammock life

We found the dried up waterfall!

Waiting for the sunset

A successful adventure!

SOOOO miss sitting around a fire

Surprise s'mores

Day 3

Today we had to get up earlier, because checkout time was 11am.  After packing up and having breakfast, we loaded all of our bags into a pickup truck and we rode on seats in the back.  We drove for about five minutes until we arrived at a lake.  We then loaded all of our bags into a tiny little boat and boated across the lake for about ten minutes before docking and loading our bags into a different truck.  [note: because the road to the resort is actually is like an upside-down "J", the lake exit saved us about an hour on the way home relative to the drive there. Plus, its a lake!'].  We spent about 45 minutes in this truck before arriving at our Airbnb house that we were renting.  We thanked the driver and then hauled our bags inside.  Overall, I really liked the treehouse, it was so quiet and peaceful, and we were able to catch up on homework.  It made a great getaway place, and let us all have a chance to relax from the stress of traveling.

Riding in back still a treat

Lake we rode across on way home.