Temple Central

16 October 2010 – To Ayutthaya!

After our quick stint in Kanchanaburi, we went back to Bangkok for one night to get our Stray tour train tickets and head up towards the north of Thailand before heading into Laos (it’s perfectly possible to go straight to Ayutthaya directly, however). We were travelling on our own at this stage because we wanted to spend a few more days in Chiang Mai. It was right at the start-up of Stray’s hop on/off tour, so due to time restraints we headed off before the actual tour left and were meeting up with the group up north.

We met with the Stray girls at their office and they took us to the train station (Hua Lamphong), then insisted they wait with us. However, as delay after delay was announced, they could stay no longer, and had places to be and people to see. We didn’t really mind, and were just really grateful for all the help they had given us, not to mention being up and at work before 7 am on a Saturday morning… We entertained ourselves people-watching while waiting, and were on our way about two hours later.

When we arrived in Ayutthaya, we dropped off our things at our pre-booked hostel (interesting -looking rooms, but friendly and cheap with AC – and they had a pool!) and headed out to see the sights. It was really wet everywhere, and we knew it was rainy season, but weren’t really prepared for the torrential downpour that started while we were touring through one of the temple complexes. We were slipping and sliding around in mud and grass every time we left the concrete path, so we weren’t out for very long that day.

Our second day was much better, and we headed out sightseeing on bikes rented from the guest house. I would highly recommend getting some wheels when exploring the sights, just to get a little bit of perspective of the place as well.

We managed to cover some amazing ground that day and saw lots – the favourite has got to be Wat Ratburana, followed closely by Viharn Phra Mongol Bopit and Wat Mahtat. There were so many different ruins to explore, I think we only scratched the surface. It must have been an amazing place in its heyday.

The temples were awesome and we were in awe of all the unbelievably old remnants of times past which were sitting there right next to modern traffic lights, intersections and cars. The city of Ayutthaya, on the other hand, wasn’t all that impressive. A day trip from Bangkok would probably suffice if you are running low on time. The Stray Tour we were on would have stopped in Sukhotai further north, which we asked to exchanged for Ayutthaya, and that was a mistake I think. All the descriptions I’ve read about Sukhotai have been absolutely raving. Those Stray guys know what they’re doing!

The rain we encountered that weekend was nothing compared to what was to come. Flooding occurred all over the province and other parts of Thailand followed. Our train was cancelled because the tracks got flooded (of course we were very lucky that that’s the biggest problem we had – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/02/thailand-flooding) and we had to swiftly transfer to the bus station, where we boarded a bus going up to Chiang Mai. Up north we go!