Ayuthaya - Back to Temples!

Day 1 – Night Train

It was time to leave the Jungle and say goodbye to our room-rats, so we packed, had a bit of breakfast and waited for the mini-bus to take us to the train station which was around 30 miles away.

We had decided to head up north and had booked an overnight train to Bangkok, we had been told by Bastian that the Thai trains were OK and we would be OK with a 2^nd Class Sleeper ticket

The minibus duly picked us up and after around an hour we arrived at the train station and bought our tickets.   The only thing was the train was not due to depart until around 6.30 which meant we had 4 hours to kill.  So we checked our bags into left luggage and spent the time in a nearby café where we had some beers whilst updated the blog and doing some research on the place we were heading for, Ayuthaya.

Picking our bags up we waited for the train to arrive, being slightly apprehensive due to our Indian Train experiences.  However it arrived fairly promptly and we boarded and found our seats/bunks.

We needn’t have worried as the train was pretty clean and so we sat down and watched a downloaded program on Shell’s Ipad.  Whilst we were watched a female train attendant came along converting the seats into bunk beds, not only did she set the bed up but she made them up with fresh sheets and pillows and set up individual curtains so you had a nice little space of your own.

 

Getting hungry we decided to check  out the buffet carriage where we found that we could get a set 3 course Thai meal for a couple of pounds – British rail should take note!

After dinner Shell and I retired to our respective bunks and read for a bit before going to sleep, this train is the best method of transport we have had so far.

Day 2 – Temples & Darth Vader

Shelley taking over to give Glenn a rest!. Waking up to our alarm after a great night sleep I opened my curtain to be met with a camp attendant offering me hot coffee, how great!, Nice cosy bed, curtains, western loo’s and coffee on demand!.

We got off and negotiated a tuk tuk to a guest house which was a recommendation from one of the French folks we met at the Lake. The Tuk Tuks here are quite a different shape from elsewhere, the front looking a bit like Darth Vader’s mask, evidently they originated from Japan which makes sense given their Samurai appearance. 

 

 

Ayutaya was originally the capital of Siam in the year??  However it was sacked by the Burmese who decided to smash all their temples (over 300) and knock off all the heads of the Budha's when they invaded in the year ???

Checking in we had an early lunch and then set off on foot to explore some of the many Wats in the area. it was hot!, being away from the coast and jungle and being in the middle of a dusty town we really felt the heat!. We hadn’t got far when a Tuk Tuk approached and offered us a deal on driving us to a couple on the outer reaches, deciding that we couldn’t deal with the heat any longer we jumped in and headed off to the first temple

Neither of us can remember the names of the temples but the first was nice, with lots of Buddha’s, a climb to the top rewarded you with an opportunity to buy gold leaf and stick them on the various Icons…We decided to save our money for a cold G&T later instead.

The 2^nd temple was in the heart of the old city where you could board an Elephant and then go around in a corral to look at the various ruins. It looked a bit too touristy for us and didn’t offer much shade so we decided to explore on foot and save our money for a nice G&T later

We headed back to the Guest house to rest up a bit (the journey was starting to catch up on us) so that we would be ready for an evening Temple river cruise we had booked through the guest house. When the time came we were collected by Tuk Tuk, dropped off at a jetty and set off on our cruise. We both thought it would be a gentle cruise around the river with the opportunity of taking a few snaps from the boat which suited us fine as by now we were both a bit knackered!

So it was with mixed feelings when we pulled up at the first temple and told to go and explore for 20mins (we were back in 10) and the same pattern continued for the next 3 to 4 temples. But in all honesty we both did enjoy it and it allowed us to get a few snaps in for the blog.

Tuk Tuk’d back to the Guest House we thought that we had now thoroughly earnt the G&T’s we had in credit and so after checking a few price lists: (sitting down, given a drinks menu, getting up and leaving as it was too expensive and going to the next till we found one in price range) we finally sat down to enjoy. A small group went passed and was deliberating between the bar we were at and the next so I called over to them and shared our price wisdom and they came to join us.

The group was made up of 2 couples from Canada, for 2 of them it was their first time abroad and they looked blown away, and a little shell shocked by Thailand. The other couple had a fellow Muso for Glenn to wax lyrical about Rock Bands with. After a while, a loan travel asked if he could join us, Eddie from London who joined in the Who have you seen” “I was there”, “my mate met him” discussions about rock bands.

I think we then went to another bar further along where I got chatting to a German guy about the war (he brought it up honest!), I think it was a really interesting conversation but after those G&T’s it’s all now a bit vague so we headed off to bed.

Day 3 – How do we get out of town??

Getting up fairly early we had decided to rent a scooter for the day and do our own sight seeing.  First we had breakfast (they do pretty good cheese and ham omelettes here) and then we went across the road to rent a bike.

 

We needed to sort out our sleeper train for the next day so we headed for the station first and after a while we found it, only to find out that the overnight train we wanted to get to Chang Mai was fully booked for the next day, so we returned back to our hotel to have a rethink.

Our next thought was to check the coaches but they were an overnight affair that arrived around 4.00 in the morning and we now think the coaches/mini-buses are our worst form of transport in Asia.  So after some deliberation we thought it was best to get a train back to Bangkok and get a internal flight, which actually only worked out about £20 more than the coach..

After about an hour and quite a bit of swearing at the computer (Glenn not Shel!) we had booked our flights so then we headed back to the train station to book some tickets to Bangkok.  We were then told we could not buy the tickets until the next day (we were told this would be no problem).

So after wasting most of the morning trying to figure out how to get to our next destination (one of the downsides of travelling) we then set about sight-seeing. 

First we stopped at what was supposed to be a floating market, but it turned out to be a tourist hotspot and you had to pay to see that and a cultural show (Shell and I have seen enough ‘cultural show’ to last us a life time), but there was a little market there with school kids visiting to feed the sheep and ride Elephants.

The rest of the afternoon we rode along the border of the Island (It’s inland but surrounded by a river), looking at the various temples and people along the way, stopping off for a quick Sprite – Shelley, Horrible green thing – Glenn about half way round.

 

When we completed the loop we thought it was time to get some food and we found what we though looked like a nice restaurant overlooking the river.  Unfortunately the food was double the price we normally paid and once it arrived it wasn’t as nice, but we did try some dishes that were new to us  for a change (horrible fried mince thing)

Food done we then headed back to the hotel and deposited the scooter back, although we like exploring on bikes it’s always a bit of a relief to return us and the bike back in one piece.

It was then Gin O’Clock so we headed across to the bar we were in the previous night and soon got speaking to an Ex-Pat, Steve, who had moved there, worked for 10 years in the Elephant sanctuary before retiring (although he still pops to the sanctuary to help out on a voluntary basis).  We spent a few hours chin wagging with him, tried the local tobacco (which was 5p and pretty much tasted like it too), and when he left we had another drink before moving on.

Next up we went a few doors down to a bar that had been recommended by Eddie the night before, where there was a live rock band.  Getting there we got some seats at the front, the bar lady came and asked if we were OK there as she thought the band might be too loud for us oldies! (As if!!!!).

The band set up and they looked like very normal young Thai guys, but once they got into their set playing a few softer numbers they then ripped into stuff like, System of a Down’s – Toxicity and Drowning Pool’s – Let the Bodies Hit the Floor, I was quite impressed that this was a cover band for the tourists!!

 

Once the band finished and we had given them the thumbs up we got chatting to another German guys for the rest of the night until we were asked to finish our drinks outside.  We then returned back to the hotel, then Glenn not Shelley had to return to the bar as we had left our bag there, fortunately it was still under the outside table!!