Ayutthaya temple ruins and birthday journey to Chang Mai

After breakfast and prepping for the day we rented bicycles from our hostel. Our lonely planet guide book had a bicycle tour showing the main ruins around town.
Our first stop was the Ayutthaya historical museum. Here we learned about the history of Ayutthaya when it was capital of Siam. Ayutthaya was wealthy and powerful for centuries. However in 1767 the Burmese sacked the city leaving behind ruins that are now all around the city mixed in with the modern buildings of today.
There were so many ruins our book and maps didn't even show them all and we found slow progress following our written tour. We stopped and looked at many little ruins around the city and a couple large ones.
One of the large ones was Wat Phra Si Sanphet. This was a large complex founded in the 15th century as a state temple. The site was added on by many subsequent rulers until the Burmese sacked it in 1767. It was really cool to see the ruins after seeing the elaborately finished temples in Bangkok. You can't help but feel bad for the people here who built and lived in such extravagant places just to have it all ravaged and burnt.
There were still tons of Buddha statues in all the sites, some in decent shape while others were missing limbs, heads, or just crumbling away. One of the complexes had a large Buddah still in good shape and just down the steps from the platform it was on, a Buddha head grown into the roots of a large tree. It was very cool! It looked like it had always been there in a little crevice of roots.
In another area we saw a large tree that had grown on top of a big brick spire. It looked like it's roots were not all the way down to the ground yet it was a big thriving tree.
It was a cool day exploring at our own pace and seeing so many cool ruins.
We made it back to our hostel at six, picked up our laundry and went up to our rooms. Niki and I used the Internet and bought air Asia tickets from Chang Mai to Bangkok to catch our flight home. While we were doing this Michelle and Jason went across the street and bought bus tickets for the next day to take us to Chang Mai.
Once all of the business was taken care of and our bags were all packed up we went down the street for dinner. We found a cheap pub with a big screen outside playing soccer. We ate and hung out for awhile then the girls left to shower and Jason and I stuck around for another beer. We ended up being invited to a big table with one young German guy who spoke fluent Thai, and a bunch of Thai's. They were very nice but we were both a bit uncomfortable and left after our beer. Our bus was to leave the next day at 630am and a tuk tuk would be at our hostel to get us at 6am so we needed our sleep!
Today- the birthday bus ride
We woke up this morning at 530am to be in time for our bus. I of course woke up to Niki serenading me with happy birthday and a nice card. Michelle and Jason gave me a cool calendar, a small cake, and a Korean soccer jersey. Nothing like being spoiled at 530am!
When we were ready we went outside and waited for our tuk Tuk. And we waited, and waited, and started wondering if we were screwed over. The bus tickets were under $20 so it wouldn't be a huge deal. At 620 Jason went down to the main street and flagged down a random tuk tuk. We all piled in with our bags and were taken to the sketchy bus stop. Michelle and Jason went to show our receipt while Niki and I remained uncomfortably buried in bags. The person at the counter said the receipt was no good and we had to buy tickets from them. We debated together and decided we would just get taken back to our hostel so we would goto the travel place and see what the hell was going on. Easier said then done with a driver who speaks no English. We couldn't get him to understand what we wanted even when showing him on a map. He left to go inside and talk to the lady who was sending us away and came back to us. He still didn't get that we wanted to leave and it's a good thing. Jason went back in and came out saying everything is fine. All the sudden our receipts were good? They must have phoned the place we told them we had purchased tickets from. We paid our tuk tuk driver and loaded our bags into the big double decker bus. As we were about to get on the guy who Michelle and Jason met yesterday who was supposed to pick us up showed up. He was very apologetic and said something about his friend was why he was late. He asked what we paid the other tuk tuk and gave us the amount back plus an extra 20 baht.
It was quite an adventure of a morning but luckily everything worked out well in the end!
The bus ride was the fastest ten hour bus ride ever. We didn't get much sleep last night so we were all tired today. I must have gotten eight hours of sleep on the way here. It was way better than I was expecting it to be!
We made it to Chang Mai and got a hostel, dropped our bags and went to the Sunday market. We found some food stalls for a snack and then came back to shower and change. Now it's time to head out for dinner and drinks somewhere for my birthday celebration! But first Niki is taking us for birthday massages!! Yaay!