Ayutthaya

Trip Start Aug 28, 2005
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Trip End Dec 10, 2005


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Wednesday, September 7, 2005

We made it out of the big smoke and eventually got up to Ayutthaya which is not far north of Bangkok. Our original plan was to take the train but when we found a taxi to take us to the train - the taxi guy claimed he was from Ayutthaya and that he could take us there and go home to see his family. His first offer was 300B each (it was only going to cost us 39B on the train which the taxi driver tried telling us it was 400B each!). Our fantasitc negoating skills bought it down to 100B each. Still a little higher than the train but we still would have had to pay for taxi to the station then again at the other end and the taxi was quite a lot faster. The catch - (theres always a catch here!) we had to see 2 shops. 1 tailor shop and a gem/tailor shop and 15mins in each shop or he wouldnt get his fuel money from the shops. Its really difficult to spend 15mins in a tailor shop when you do not want anything. 15mins was fine gazing over diamonds.
Eventually go on the way and arrived in Ayutthaya about 4pm.
We found a great little guesthouse called the P.U Inn. Very newish with kind staff who gave lots of advice on what to do. The room was awesome for only 160B each - large, warm,comfy beds, hot shower, air con and a fan, fridge, towels and satellite tv. Maybe not so good to get a benchmark like that on day 2 of my 3 month trip!
We took the owners advice and went on a tuktuk tour and saw 2 Wats and the highlight was the Elephant Karaal which was a reconstruction of an original where they caught wild elephants and now they house and breed the elephants there. We were in time for the elephant coming back from working the day at the temples and saw them bath down at the river. The youngest was 4 months and very cute. They came right up to the fence and stuck their trunk out to sniff your hand.
We walked down to the night market in search of some dinner and found a stall with fried mussels for only 25B!
Day 2 we hired bikes and went on a 3 hour bike ride around the island of Ayutthaya. Really just Wats to see and I must say that after visiting the Angkor Wat in Cambodia- the Thai Wats are just not that impressive.
Had a nice lunch on a floating river restaurant then it was time to make a move to the next stop Lop Buri.
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