One day in Ayutthaya: Trains, Temples and Trickles

It was sad indeed that I had to say goodbye to Bangkok, but it would have been too easy to stay there for longer. The hostel was friendly, the free tea superb and the city addictive, but there is too much I still want to see on this trip.

So, having delayed my departure for a day already, I felt compelled to head on to Ayutthaya, two hours north of Bangkok by train. The small city once served as the royal capital until it was sacked and ruined by the Burmese in 1767, and the remains of those ruins still lie scattered within the modern settlement.

I was looking forward to seeing the city, albeit only briefly. I had already booked my sleeper train north to Chiang Mai for 9pm that night, and so I had only one day to see the city.

It was going to be a long day.

I was greeted by that thought when I woke up at 7am, after merely 4 hours sleep, hungover and in disarray.

It was not a nice thought to start the morning with.

In fact, my first reaction was to throw my rucksack off my bunk bed in disgust, nearly incapacitating a Swedish girl packing her bag below me.

My second reaction was, slightly more sensibly, to shower and see how I felt after that.

I felt better.

I decided I should go to Ayutthaya after all.

On the train, and I met with my travel buddies for the day; Daniel and Celine from yesterday, and Celine’s fellow surfer Cassie.

All aboard for Ayuuuthayyyaa!

Have I mentioned how much I love train travel. It’s so laid back, I don’t get travel sick on a train (except for one really shitty Indian one) and so much more local life is visible from the train tracks than from a highway. Also, you can buy fruit and water from a train, needed in my hungover state, which you cannot on a bus.

Basically, buses are shit. Trains are awesome.

Yes, I am a six year old inside. I like being six. I giggle at fart jokes.

Assorted train fun

Anyway, after two hours, we arrived in Ayutthaya. We hunted out some bikes to rent, and dumped the big rucksacks. Then, with stomachs rumbling, we headed to the floating market labelled on our bizarrely-French cycle maps.

We briefly got lost and in being lost found Wat Mahayong, but a little backtracking found us at the market for lunch.

The Buddhas here are all amputees.

It was less a floating market than a market near a pond, but it was still atmospheric, and many of the stalls offered free samples of the snacks they were selling. The smells were amazing, and the food was pretty good too.

Not quite floating.

I eventually settled on a variation of Pad Thai I had never seen; instead of noodles, the base was crispy wontons. I managed to make Pad Thai even less healthy. It was exceptionally good. I am sad that I have not found it since, but I will be back in Thailand a few more times, so there remains hope.

Super Pad Thai

A really bizarre highlight of the day for me was a small stall sat next to a pond offering baby-bottles of feed with which you could feed the fish. The large carp squirmed and fought to suckle on the bottle of feed, and I let out a genuine cry of delight at the adorable sight and bizarre sucking noises they were making. Like I said, bizarre, but brilliantly bizarre.

My broodiness kicked in...for fish...geez I need a life.

By this time, it was approaching the afternoon, and we had not yet seen anything of the ancient capital’s centre. I was getting antsy, and eventually bothered the others back into the heat and dust of Ayutthaya’s roads. But first, an elephant I spotted by the floating market car park.

I feel its gay exterior is at odds with its sombre expression.

Ayutthaya even without the temples and ruins is a realy beautiful little city, set on an island at the confluence of three rivers. The fact that there are silly tourists paying money to tour the city by elephant really improved the atmospherics.

Beautiful Ayutthaya

Right, we now get to the temples. I swiftly decided that the brown brick and grey plaster of the temples did not render particularly well on my phone camera, so elected on a black and white theme for my pictures. They look far, far more dramatic, and made me feel like even more of a Indiana Jones clambering around ancient ruins.

Well I say ancient. I actually mean early modern, as most of the buildings dated from 1600 or later. So, many of the ruins are younger than the still-intact and still-inhabited colleges of Oxford. Ayutthaya obviously just wasn’t built to last.

Oxford rules!

In all honesty, I appreciate the very real difference in climate between temperate UK and tropical Thailand, and understand that the two examples aren’t historically comparable. And regardless of their state of disrepair, they still managed to impress and awe.

The start of many temple pictures

First was Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was once a grand royal palace and temple complex. Little beyond the white-washed stupas and some odd few pillars remain to bear witness to a sprawling palace complex.

Next we ducked inside the neighbouring wat for some much needed shade and idling by a fan. Wihan Phramongkhon Bophit, as it was properly called, was surprisingly photogenic.

Then, we cycled onto the other major temple I wanted to visit (there are dozens of sights, but the others were not that keen to pay for anymore than one, nor visit too many, so I had to be ruthless in my choices), Wat Mahatat. It was like Sanphet, very atmospheric, but very brown and grey, and so again I resorted to B&W to get some good shots.

By this time, I was getting seriously hot. Ayutthaya is the hottest I’ve ever felt, ever, and the heat was even affecting my phone which overheated and turned itself off. I continued to look around the temple for a few minutes, but swiftly rejoined the group and we headed into the city to find some food and some shade. Coming across a market, we explored a little, and sampled some food at a local stall - aside from a faux-pax involving halal meat, it was all delicious. Then, it was on the ferry back to the bike rental.

A very green river.

Bikes returned, I to my delight discovered there was a shower in the station that I could use. Irritated but also slightly reassured to be charged 15B to use it, I came out feeling so much better, though I continued to sweat for the next 3 hours whilst I waited for my sleeper train. It was sad to say goodbye to my new-found travel buddies, as there is something reassuring in knowing who you will spend the day with, but it isn’t worth the freedom I get from my independent travels.

My partners in crime today.

Next stop, Chiang Mai.

Yay train...only 30 minutes late.

DSP

PS: Apologies for the sloppy editing on this one but it is midnight and I am sweating buckets.