The boat of hell dropped us off at the port in Chumphon at 6am -
apparently 90 minutes late, but at the time we were too busy coming to
terms with the fact that we had actually managed to sleep at all, to
take any notice! We then got bundled into a sawawraw to a cafe that
seemed to serve as a ticket office, and then the same guy dropped us
off outside not a bus station but just a random bus parked down a
quiet street - with one ticket supposedly covering us 7 'farangs' who
had never met!

The 8 hours up to Bangkok were mostly spent sleeping on and off,
meaning that by the time we arrived at the southern bus terminal we
were pretty groggy and we actually didn't know where we were going to
try and head to next. After mucho deliberation and to try and keep
things a bit simpler, we decided to head to Ayuthaya which was only a
couple of hours north, as we couldn't face back to back overnight
journeys and didn't want to get further behind our plan.

Although simple enough, we had to get a minibus across town to the
Northern terminal (where the guy first tried to charge us for 5 seats,
and then didn't even set off for half an hour, by which time the bus
was full despite us only taking up 3 seats!) and this took a painful
3/4 hour - it very nearly broke me and had to do more than one silent
scream!

Eventually we figured out how to get our tickets, and then were in the
middle of a mini domestic when we realised that EVERYONE else in the
station were standing silently and observing the Thai national anthem
- you can get arrested for not showing respect and we felt terrible!!!

Tired and cranky we got dropped off in Ayuthaya about 830pm after what
had felt like an eternity travelling. Again it wasn't as if we were
left at a bus station where we could find our way from, but instead
were abandoned at a random crossroads! We set off walking, for some
reason trusting our shattered sense of direction, and were actually
heading in the right way when this 74 year old local guy on his moped
stopped by us and tried (in Thai) to point us in the right direction.
As hard as we tried to say thanks and don't worry, he basically
escorted us for the next 10 minutes, driving the wrong way down the
road, and wouldn't leave us until he saw that we had actually arrived
at our guesthouse! What a legend - he even stressed 'I no want
money!'. We secured easily the best digs to date with this cozy room
for 200 Baht, got some tea and then collapsed - appreciating even more
a bed that was anything better than a floating, exposed piece of
metal! Yet again, we found ourselves saying "What a day!"

After a well earned lie in on Wednesday we had some brunch and a
painfully slow session on the Internet until we set off on our early
evening boat trip to see the places of interest which are 'off the
island'.

It started off pretty badly with the first boat not working and so
having to lunge precariously over to the next one, and then the first
couple of temples that we got dropped off at were nothing special. But
then we came to some really good ruins and started to appreciate what
this place was all about and it's history as the ancient capital.

The last place then was brilliant, and we arrived just as the sun was
setting behind the tall chedis of Wat Chai Wattanaram. It was really
nice just wandering around amongst all the ruins and we really enjoyed
it.

The boat dropped us off at the night market which was pretty average
and so we set off walking home, only to realise that our map didn't
have any street names on and we didn't really know where we were -
overpriced tuk tuk back home to bed please!

We had another lie in on Thursday (two on the trot is unheard of!) and
then hired some bikes to go off and explore all the ruins which are
'on the island'. It was very sweaty work as the heat was really muggy
and we both felt pretty rank all afternoon, though it was enjoyable
taking your life in your own hands on the roads and seeing some pretty
cool sites, especially the budda head set within tree roots at Wat
Phra Mahathat.

We really enjoyed our time in Ayuthaya and it certainly served its
purpose and gave us a nice chilled out couple of days, as well as just
the right amount of culture. If only the night bus up to Chang Mai
would have been as nice...