Camping

Jacob and I just got back from a weekend cub scout camping trip at Klog Sai. This is a campsite just outside Khao Yai national park, two hours outside of Bangkok. The trip was a lot of fun.

Jacob and I stayed in a small cabin instead of a tent. The main reason for this, aside from my lack of affection for sleeping in a tent, was my concern that we would have hot, muggy and mosqito filled nights. I was actually wrong, as the temperature dropped into the 70's at night and was quite pleasant.

We arrived at the camp site on Friday evening and departed on Sunday morning. In between, the kids had a whole lot of fun. There were lots of physical activities to keep them busy. One of my favorite memories of the trip was Jacob on the rope bridge. There were two perpendicular ropes suspended over a creek. The kids (or an occassional adult) would cross by walking on one rope and holding the other rope with their hands. The crossing was made more challenging by the fact that some of the older kids were bouncing up and down on the rope trying to dislodge would-be-crossers. As Jacob made his way onto the rope bridge, I noticed that he almost had to stand on his tippy-toes in order to reach the top rope with his hands. I thought that he would have a really difficult time making it across, but he actually managed two out of three times. By contrast, a lot of kids never made it across at all. While his height was a a disadvantage, his weight (or lack of) was a definite advantage. When his feet slipped, he could hold himself up on the rope with his arms very well. That was a bit harder for some of the heavier boys.

I think the highlight for the kids were the water activites, the glow sticks turned light sabers and the marsh mellow roasts. Jacob and I also went on a hike in Khao Yai national park. It was a fairly nice walk, but we spent almost as much time driving to and from as we did hiking. I had an interesting conversation with one of the scout dads who is also a trustee of ISB.

Tim and the girls ended up driving on Saturday and visited the park. After a few hours, they stopped by and saw Jacob and I for a bit and then headed home.

I took some pictures that I will post soon.