We said goodbye to our lovely hostel in Bangkok as well as our newly found friends and navigated the bustling lanes of chinatown. Finding the train station was easy enough but I am always struck at how much construction is constantly going on everywhere in Bangkok, making awkward walking puzzles out of the sidewalks. We bought third class commuter rail tickets to Ayutthuya for 15 baht (50 cents) each and boarded the train merely minutes before it was scheduled to depart. Without much delay, the 100 year old train sputtered to life and as we creeped our way out of the station through unfamiliar neighborhoods of Thailand’s capital.
For the 90 minute ride, we sat among old women, uniformed military men, and a few other tourists on stiff wooden benches. We passed Bangkok’s smaller airport, industrial parks, agricultural fields and tall concrete support columns, probably for the expansion of a sky train line linking a large new suburb community to the heart of Bangkok. Another disappointingly familiar sight were large piles of refuse accumulating near numerous slums at the places in between our stops, and many passengers added to the problem by throwing their trash out the window.
Hopping quickly off the train at the Ayutthuya station, we strapped on our packs once again and walked towards the bridge to the old city. It is housed on an island, roughly two miles wide by three miles long, and divided by two chaotic six lane expressways that, conveniently enough, lack cross walks and sometimes even traffic lights. The hostel was easy to find along the main road, slightly tucked away from the highway traffic of the main road. After being greeted by the friendly owner, he gave us a map and the run down of the sights on and off the island. We then dumped our luggage, putting off lunch until nearly three o’clock before we found a river front restaurant where we shared a delicious red curry stew, rice and cokes for very reasonable price. Later in the evening, we browsed a street fair near our hostel and made our way across hazardous intersections and territorial dog packs to the night market at Ayutthuya’s main pier. After another waterfront meal, we found a safer and less dog infested route to get us back to our hostel. The next morning, we awoke to a breakfast of toast, banana and English breakfast tea. An Irish gentleman named Andrew sat down next to us and we discovered that we all had essentially the same plans for the day and ended up setting off to discover Ayutthuya together.
Mistake 1: Underestimating the power of the demi-tropic sun.
Eager to get started, we hurried off at about ten in the morning and walked five minutes to the first of many ruins of grand wats in the old city, some of which were constructed in the 14th century. The burning of the entire city of Ayutthuya by the Burmese empire in April 1767 left only the stone and brick wats standing, and time has taken its toll on those as well. At its peak, this city was the biggest in the world with roughly one million inhabitants and trade partners spanning the Asian and European continents. It was exciting to imagine these crumpling structures filled with inhabitants of this glorious city, praying, meditating and offering tribute. We toured one wat which featured a terribly claustrophobic crypt that contained faded but discernible paintings of times past. After passing elephant riders and an elephant show, we wandered into a marketplace where we sat down in the shade for lunch.
Mistake 2: Trusting all street food vendors
Mine and Megan’s stomachs were a bit unsettled after our meals of chicken fried rice but I attributed it to all the walking and put it out of our minds. The afternoon tour was hot but really awesome. The wat complexes we passed were bigger and much more void of tourists than the ones we visited first. The last exhibit that we could stomach for the afternoon was a giant, cement reclining Buddha that had seemed to have been constructed in one solid piece and was still in pretty good condition. We took many pictures along the way and had a lot of fun swapping travel stories and earning one another’s friendship.
Mistake 3: Underestimating the length of the walk back
We struggled to get a price to get us back to our hostel from a tuk-tuk driver so we set off on foot, remembering that the city wasn’t all that big. After a long day of walking in the sun, one more 30 minute walk back couldn’t be that bad, right? In the mid afternoon sun, walking was much more demanding than Megan and I anticipated and we relished in the 90 minute break we got in between arriving at the hostel and the next excursion on the itinerary: the evening boat tour.
We crammed seven hostellers into a tuk-tuk and set off to the pier to get a boat tour of the highlights off the island. The first two wats we explored were interesting enough; they were fully restored and functioning temples and one even had a Sunday ceremony taking place about a giant golden Buddha statue. The last stop, however, was a sunset spectacle. We arrived just in time to observe the orange glow of the great star in the sky disappear behind the many Khmer style towers (check out the Ayutthuya photo album to see what we saw).
The next morning, we awoke to intestinal cramps, sore feet and I personally sported a cherry red neck. Whatever bug we ingested over lunch the previous day had firmly established themselves deep within our digestive tracts. We rearranged our plans to avoid travelling and cave trekking the next day and opted to stay an additional night in the Ayutthuya Place hostel in order to stay within a safe distance to a toilet at all times.
Today has been more of the same though I am somewhat proud to say that we now have an elementary understanding of the rules of cricket and rugby. I pray for a swift recovery by tomorrow when we face a four hour train ride north to the city of Sukhothai.
For the 90 minute ride, we sat among old women, uniformed military men, and a few other tourists on stiff wooden benches. We passed Bangkok’s smaller airport, industrial parks, agricultural fields and tall concrete support columns, probably for the expansion of a sky train line linking a large new suburb community to the heart of Bangkok. Another disappointingly familiar sight were large piles of refuse accumulating near numerous slums at the places in between our stops, and many passengers added to the problem by throwing their trash out the window.
Hopping quickly off the train at the Ayutthuya station, we strapped on our packs once again and walked towards the bridge to the old city. It is housed on an island, roughly two miles wide by three miles long, and divided by two chaotic six lane expressways that, conveniently enough, lack cross walks and sometimes even traffic lights. The hostel was easy to find along the main road, slightly tucked away from the highway traffic of the main road. After being greeted by the friendly owner, he gave us a map and the run down of the sights on and off the island. We then dumped our luggage, putting off lunch until nearly three o’clock before we found a river front restaurant where we shared a delicious red curry stew, rice and cokes for very reasonable price. Later in the evening, we browsed a street fair near our hostel and made our way across hazardous intersections and territorial dog packs to the night market at Ayutthuya’s main pier. After another waterfront meal, we found a safer and less dog infested route to get us back to our hostel. The next morning, we awoke to a breakfast of toast, banana and English breakfast tea. An Irish gentleman named Andrew sat down next to us and we discovered that we all had essentially the same plans for the day and ended up setting off to discover Ayutthuya together.
Mistake 1: Underestimating the power of the demi-tropic sun.
Eager to get started, we hurried off at about ten in the morning and walked five minutes to the first of many ruins of grand wats in the old city, some of which were constructed in the 14th century. The burning of the entire city of Ayutthuya by the Burmese empire in April 1767 left only the stone and brick wats standing, and time has taken its toll on those as well. At its peak, this city was the biggest in the world with roughly one million inhabitants and trade partners spanning the Asian and European continents. It was exciting to imagine these crumpling structures filled with inhabitants of this glorious city, praying, meditating and offering tribute. We toured one wat which featured a terribly claustrophobic crypt that contained faded but discernible paintings of times past. After passing elephant riders and an elephant show, we wandered into a marketplace where we sat down in the shade for lunch.
Mistake 2: Trusting all street food vendors
Mine and Megan’s stomachs were a bit unsettled after our meals of chicken fried rice but I attributed it to all the walking and put it out of our minds. The afternoon tour was hot but really awesome. The wat complexes we passed were bigger and much more void of tourists than the ones we visited first. The last exhibit that we could stomach for the afternoon was a giant, cement reclining Buddha that had seemed to have been constructed in one solid piece and was still in pretty good condition. We took many pictures along the way and had a lot of fun swapping travel stories and earning one another’s friendship.
Mistake 3: Underestimating the length of the walk back
We struggled to get a price to get us back to our hostel from a tuk-tuk driver so we set off on foot, remembering that the city wasn’t all that big. After a long day of walking in the sun, one more 30 minute walk back couldn’t be that bad, right? In the mid afternoon sun, walking was much more demanding than Megan and I anticipated and we relished in the 90 minute break we got in between arriving at the hostel and the next excursion on the itinerary: the evening boat tour.
We crammed seven hostellers into a tuk-tuk and set off to the pier to get a boat tour of the highlights off the island. The first two wats we explored were interesting enough; they were fully restored and functioning temples and one even had a Sunday ceremony taking place about a giant golden Buddha statue. The last stop, however, was a sunset spectacle. We arrived just in time to observe the orange glow of the great star in the sky disappear behind the many Khmer style towers (check out the Ayutthuya photo album to see what we saw).
The next morning, we awoke to intestinal cramps, sore feet and I personally sported a cherry red neck. Whatever bug we ingested over lunch the previous day had firmly established themselves deep within our digestive tracts. We rearranged our plans to avoid travelling and cave trekking the next day and opted to stay an additional night in the Ayutthuya Place hostel in order to stay within a safe distance to a toilet at all times.
Today has been more of the same though I am somewhat proud to say that we now have an elementary understanding of the rules of cricket and rugby. I pray for a swift recovery by tomorrow when we face a four hour train ride north to the city of Sukhothai.