Bangkok day 3 and journey to Ayuthaya.

Today we decided to sleep in until 9. We woke up, showered, packed up our bags and checked out of our budget hostel. We were able to store our bags in the back room for the morning and went for breakfast. Jason left to head for the Indonesian consulate to pick up his passport and visa for later in his trip. Niki, Michelle, and I went to the river and caught a boat towards a temple we noticed yesterday we wanted to check out.
The boat dropped us off across the river and we found a bridge and decided to walk to the temple. It was a bit of a long walk along the river and through random alleys. It was nice to be outside of tourist Bangkok. We saw some random smaller temples and shrines along the way and walked past a school with monk children. It was a really cool walk.
When we arrived at the temple and paid our 50 baht entrance. This Wat, named Wat Arun, was very cool. It's architecture is unique in Thailand. It is made up of tons of multicolored pieces of porcelain with one large tower in the centre and smaller towers around the outside and several little temples around the grounds. We were able to climb partway up the main tower for a good look at the river and surrounding area.
Once we were finished we hopped on a small ferry to take us across the river to the proper pier. Here we caught the bigger ferry down the river to our pier and walked back to the hostel.
We met up with Jason again, collected our bags and walked away from the heavy tourist area to try and find a taxi to take us to the train station. This is easier said than done. It was no problem waving them down or finding them along the side of the road waiting for passengers. The trouble was getting them to turn on their meters! On all the roofs of the cabs they say "meter taxi". Just because they have it doesn't mean they will turn it on. We were turned down several times sometimes rudely for suggesting the meter. They all tried to tell us a set price to get us there between 100-200 baht. Still not bad but more than it should cost! Finally we flagged a taxi down who was willing to use his meter and it cost us 65 baht, 70 baht after leaving him the remaining 5.
We bought our tickets for the third class train to Ayutthaya. Grand total for four of us to take a two hour train....60 baht....$2 Canadian. 15 baht per person. So crazy awesome!
The train was better than we expected. We found seats together and had plenty of room for all of our big bags. This was because we caught the train at the main station. Further down the line it became busy and people were standing up.
We arrived in Ayutthaya and took a minibus to an area with good hostels. We wandered around checking places until we found one with two double rooms. We checked in, dropped our laundry off and decided to check out a night market. The market was about a fifteen minute walk at most from our hostel. About four minutes into our walk a dog started following us. We were slightly worried because our lonely planet guide book had an article about stray dogs in this town and how they can become vicious and bite. The dog seemed fine and had a collar on. We figured he wasn't what the article meant because of the collar and how she was just following us looking friendly. It wasn't until we turned the corner that we started to learn just what kind of strays it meant. This town is run by gangs of stray dogs at night. It was CRAZY!! There were so many packs of at least six dogs together all over. The dog following us was clearly looking for protection and was attacked by every pack we passed. She would be bitten, snap back, and run to catch up with us. We felt bad for it but worried for ourselves since it drew a lot of unwanted attention and snarling barking dogs. Our little friend followed us all the way to the market where we sat to eat. The dog laid down beside us, had a little nap and eventually went out on it's own again.
We sat for awhile at the market and then ventured home without our dog attracting dog, or perhaps our protection from viscous strays? The route home had less dog gangs but still lots of them! One gang that sticks out in my mind, was eating something on the sidewalk (probably other tourists who ventured out alone). The pack leader noticed us as we crossed the street to be as far away from them as possible and went into the middle of the road starring at us. This would have been more intimidating if it were any other dog in the pack because this particular mean ass dog was wearing a blue sweater!!! Lol I guess it shows that even the softies are hard ass gangster dogs you need to keep clear of.
This was so different to the strays we have see anywhere else. Most other places the dogs just want food and attention. Tonight these dogs did not like us near their turf.
We made it back for bed safe and sound. Hopefully the temple ruins here are as awesome as they sound in guide books so it was worth being here! Haha just kidding. Everywhere is worth a visit. You just expect to be intimidated by people not gangs of stray dogs. They can't even be called packs of dogs. They were prison gang banging bad ass hounds!
Hope our little pooch who used us as a shield made it home okay!