From surprises, misunderstandings, and leeches

On February 28, 2018, we drove into the city of Kanchanaburi in the morning and visited the Bridge over the River Kwai. The railway track is still intact and you can even take the train to Bangkok. However, it wasn't very spectacular, but oh well, we've been there :D Then we drove back to the hostel and waited. Because at 7:00 p.m., our bus to Chiang Mai left. The owner of the hostel and his wife were very nice and accommodating. They immediately gave us a fan from their house and let us charge our phones with them. We had to check out in the morning. In addition, he offered to drive us to the train station. That was very nice of him. The two of them went to run a few errands and when they came back, it was around 4:00 p.m., he asked us if we wanted to go to the swimming pool. Of course, we said yes immediately :D So he threw our luggage into his car and we all drove off together. At a traffic light, someone was selling donuts and his wife immediately bought some for us. How sweet! Then we went to the unimaginably large army compound. It just doesn't end. There was a small swimming pool there. His wife did some exercise on the small exercise equipment downstairs, and we jumped into the water with all the Thai soldiers and pretended to swim :D It was definitely a successful surprise and a delightful cooling off! In the evening, he drove us to the train station, we had some food and then got on the bus. We had plenty of space and it was really cozy! We could sleep really well and arrived in Chiang Mai the next day.

Presently, we are staying with an acquaintance of ours, and he picked us up from the train station on March 1, 2018, at 5:30 a.m. He specifically told us to ask which bus station we would arrive at because there are several. The lady said Terminal 1. I passed that on to Christian. Of course, we didn't arrive there, but at Terminal 2 and 3, and then we took a Tuk Tuk to Terminal 1. But Christian wasn't there either. I reached him on the phone and he said they were at Terminal 1 first, asked around, and they said we would arrive at Terminal 2 and 3, so they went there, but we had already left. What a mess :D Oh well, at least we had each other, and he took us to his hostel. We chatted for a while and then went back to bed. We didn't do much during the day, except for having a delicious dinner in the evening.

Yesterday (March 2, 2018), Tim and I left early in the morning to go to a well-known temple located on a mountain, from which we had a beautiful view. On the way there, we were stopped by the police and had to pay 500 Baht because we didn't have an international driver's license. That's equivalent to 13 €. In the 10 minutes that we stood there, at least 15 tourists paid the 500 Baht. That's really mean. You can rent a scooter anywhere and no one asks for a driver's license, and then you have to pay. Oh well, now we've experienced that too. After the temple, we went to a waterfall with 10 levels. We started by walking up the 1.5 km. Then at level 7, we jumped in. And I sat on a rock over which the water flowed. Suddenly, I looked at my hands and was surprised by the small black worms on my hands. Then we both realized that they were leeches, so we quickly got out :D And it got even worse when I noticed that I had been sitting on the rock for a while. So I had to actually remove 8 to 9 leeches from my butt :D It was so disgusting! We quickly left after that. We then had some delicious food and went to BIG C. It's a supermarket that has everything. We bought breakfast and drinks for the next few days and then went back to the room and fell asleep quickly.

Today, we haven't done anything yet. We're being lazy, but later we'll go to the art museum and stroll around the city. I'm excited!