Waking up after a good sleep and with a message saying that Ajax had won the Champion League match makes immediately a great start of the day! Time for Thai breakfast once again (same as yesterday). After breakfast, we packed our suitcases and put in the back of the pick-up truck. Our hostess will take us to the bus station (not the one where we arrived yesterday, but another one closer-by in the old city). Here we had to wait for the bus to arrive, but once arrived we had to take a ride with it to Chiang Mai for the next 5 hours on!
Today we had our first Thai breakfast. This includes fried rice with a boiled egg and a banana for 'desert'. After breakfast we rented bicycles, just like in Ayutthaya and we cycles through the old city. During our second temple-tour we stopped at the ruins of Wat Mahathat and Wat Su Si in the old city and Wat Si Chum (with a big sitting Buddha) and Wat Samphon Hin (to get to this giant standing upright Buddha you have to climb up 300 meters, to a height of 200 meters) outside the old city wall.
After having a nice breakfast once again we were picked up by tuktuk (pre-arranged) and taken to the busstation. I was surprised that 3 people and some suitcases all fits in a tuktuk! Upon arrival at the busstation we hopped in the luxerious, comfortable and modern touringcar. We will ride for 6 hours until Sukhothai, where we will be spending the next two days. We stopped halfway for some lunch, at a foodcorner. Here you could take some food just by showing your busticket.
The day started out well with a nice breakfast. After that the rental bicycles (which we ordered earlier) were ready. Because the program for today is a bike ride through the old city (which is also a park by the way). During this bike ride we're doing a temple-tour, This means that we cycle from temple to temple (the top 10 I was talking about yesterday) to visit them.
A stormy night turned out to be a bad omen. Once I got up and packed my suitcase it was time for breakfast. In the meantime a tropical rain shower had started. So we had to walk through the rain to get to the breakfast table... After breakfast is was time to leave. The owner of the guest house brought us with the car of the company to our next destination: Ayutthaya! This was about 2,5 hours driving. On our way we stopped at a gas station so we could get to the toilet but also to buy something to eat / drink. Turned out the driver had bought us some delicious (Thai) treats, very nice of him! Upon arrival we had to wait half an hour before we could check-in, but the owner of the hotel could already give us a map of the area and point out the highlights of the former capital of Thailand (just north of Bangkok, the current capital) and about all the do's and dont's.
After a short night there's a new dawn, even in Kanchanaburi. For today there's a relaxed program. After breakfast a tuktuk brought us to the bus station, there we took the bus to Erewan Waterfalls (part of Erewan National Park). The trio took about an hour / 1.5 hours and that in an old and rusty vehicle without springs!
In good spirits I got out of bed, this time my dad got some breakfast at the 7-Eleven. I could just sit down at the dining table, such a luxury! After breakfast, I packed up my luggage again, and we checked out of the hotel. Downstairs the taxi (that we ordered already yesterday) was already waiting, so we could just hop in and continue our way to our next stop: Kanchanaburi! This location is famous for the 'Bridge Over The River Kwai', a railway bridge which was constructed during WWII and led to India, via Myanmar (at that time called Burma). More about that later on... The taxi ride to Kanchanaburi approximately took 2.5 hours, where we also had a short stop for the toilet, and also we bought some things to eat and drink.
After once again a good night rest it was time for the first full day in Bangkok. We bought our breakfast at the 7-Eleven shop and ate it at a small park. Next we took the sky train towards the river where we continued by boat in the direction of Chinatown. Here we visited the local markets, and we bought some things for the lowest prices possible, for example a whole collection of socks for just 5 euros! In between we visited the Chinese Buddhist temple. Afterwards we walked through the Indian quarter, to the Sikh temple, but there was not much to do there.
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