The train journey down from Chiang Mai was pretty smooth to be fair. 10 hours on a train is never good for morale but it was nice and cool on there and not too busy at all. As soon as we left Chiang Mai, we were served some little biscuits and a coffee and then at about midday we had lunch. The meal consisted of minced chicken soup followed by Kur Kling Mackerels which I'd never heard of. The soup tasted fine, the meat in the soup was basically not meat. Jimmy Oliver needs to get out here and address that because I'd have taken turkey twizzlers any day over the stuff that they called chicken. However, it went down. Now the main meal... It looked fine and actually tasted quite nice. It was ridiculously spicy but I like that so that didn't bother me. The slight concern I did have was the crunch every other bite I was encountering. On closer inspection of the meal I could see little bits of like vertebrae and general other bones that were providing the crunch. They must basically just get the mackerel, lob it in mincer and that's it. I'd be surprised if they even took the eyes out. Luckily, having been an avid follower of masterchef over the years, I know that key to a great meal is having different textures within it. So I admire the creator of these train meals, he has thought outside the box and used the main bone of a fish to bring something new to the meal!

I rolled in the Ayuthaya amid a huge thunder storm, jumped in a taxi and arrived at my home for the next 2 nights. It was a quaint and quite quirky place called Ayuthaya Riverside House, I liked it and for £8 a night you can't complain too much. It was next to the river, clearly, and felt like I was kipping in a tree house. If you looked up when in the shower you're literally underneath a tree. My original plan upon arrival was to go for a little walk and get some dinner but the storm was that bad, I just bought some microwaved fried rice off the gaffa of the place and had a couple of beers while watching the storm. The gaffa came over to me as soon as I sat down and asked me if I knew B.B.King. I naturally said yes and then he broke the news to me that he had died. I'm pretty sure this happened a few weeks ago, prior to me setting sail for SE Asia but I thought i'd pretend I hadn't known. He genuinely looked devastated that he had died and it was like he was in mourning! He was playing his music on youtube and strumming his guitar along with it. I'm sure I saw a cheeky tear roll down his cheek at one point. I asked him if I could have another beer and he literally clicked his fingers and a little old chap came running over. I wasn't too impressed with that, he was a bit of a pillick in all fairness. When he knocked it on the head for the night I got chatting to the little chap who was called Saman and he was a really nice and kind man. Communicating was hard as he had very broken English and me being a quintessential ignorant Brit can speak no Thai, however, we had a common liking of the Beatles and spent a good 5minutes or so taking it in turns naming songs. Random.

Next morning I was up early and went straight to the Tourism centre in town to get a bit of a better feel for the place. It had a good exhibition on which explained the history of the place and that put me in good stead to roughly know what I was going to see that day. I'd decided I wanted to get a bit of sea time in and have a boat trip around the place. Once I got to the longed tailed boat terminal I was told that it's better to get the one in the evening as getting a private one would be too expensive, so I decided to head back there later at 1600. I then saw a man in a tuk-tuk who said he would take me around for 3 hours, visiting about 9 temples and it would cost 600 baht (£12). I thought jackpot. It was scorching hot and I didn't fancy plodding around all day so it was a winner and on reflection, actually not too pricey at all. Mol (tuk-tuk driver) and I then spent a few hours visiting all the main sights which included the elephant village. When we pulled up I had no intention of having a ride. I had thought about it and I did want to do it at some point whilst over this way but I thought it was another temple upon arrival, had no idea they even had an elephant village there. The lady gave me a sob story about how much these elephants need to eat and that if I ride one it will help feed them… So I agreed to have 30 mins on one. I did enjoy it, they are magnificent beasts and I really liked being up close to them. And they all looked quite chirpy and happy to be there. On the way out though I was offered to go meet a tiger and have a photo with it. I peeped in the room where he was and he looked quite sad to me although reading tigers emotions has never been a skill of mine. Now for me, this isn't cricket. Some can argue that riding an elephant is also wrong and I wouldn't disagree with that. But the tiger is a whole different ball game. In the wild you could probably get close to an elephant, maybe give one a cheeky pat on his trunk or even head if you can reach. But the chances of having a snuggle with a tiger? No way, they'd destroy you. So although I understand that having animals in captivity certainly has it positive points, particularly to endangered animals….Having a single tiger there just for people to have a cheeky picture with is wrong. I'm sure the tigers eyes were rolling when I peeked it, he was that drugged up. Bless him. Mol then took me to "Mommas" for some food. The restaurant was by the river and was not cheap at all. Actually Ayuthaya as a whole wasn't cheap. It's probably because it's a tourist magnet and not far from Bangkok so has a steady influx of tourists all year round. I ordered a deep fried snakehead fish in a tomyam styled soup and it was bloody delicious. The head on it did actually look like a snake…surprisingly. I washed it down with a beer and then went to a few last temples before getting on a boat for 2 hours. The boat trip was good but at this stage I had a bit of a temple hangover so the 3 that we visited, I didn't mess around too much. I jumped out, few pics, back in the boat for a beer. It was a pleasant few hours. The skipper of the boat was a funny erratic guy. At one of the temples I caught him dragging a stray dog on its back! I don't think I have ever seen a happier dog though (See the picture!) so I might give it a go when home. Towards the end of the boat trip the skipper pointed at something in the water. I only caught its head and it looked like a huge snake. He kept pointing and eventually I saw that the river was full of these huge lizards. I bloody hate lizards!! I've googled it since and I'm pretty sure it's the Monitor Lizard, terrifying!

After the boat trip I headed back to the hotel. I got dropped off at a shop about 5 mins away to get a few supplies. On the way back I encountered a huge pack of dogs. I'd read about this prior to arriving. That the dogs live in packs and it really is strange and quite scary. They seem to take over the temples at night time. About 8 of the s***s started following me so I just didn't look at them and kept walking. When I did look back I had one about 2 foot away from me who growled at me. I was stupidly nervous to be honest, more so than when I met the ladyboys the other night. The rabies jab was one I overlooked before heading out here. I just thought to myself I wouldn't go near any dogs, not even considering that they'd come near me! Anyway, they left me alone in the end and I successfully made it back. I then sat down by the river (not too close though!) with a few beers and relaxed for the evening. The gaffa wasn't there so it was just Saman and I. He was drawing some pictures and a few of them were actually quite good. He'd draw them, photocopy them and then colour them in again which was different I thought. Anyway, I decided to buy one off him. He seemed really happy that I liked them and kept emphasising that he "had been no school", that it was basically just natural. I gave him about £7 for one and promised I was going to frame it and that it would always remind me of him and Ayuthaya…Which I will. I liked Saman, he was 60 and clearly treated like a skivvy by the boss but he was a good man. I'd like to think he went home that night, grabbed some good scran, some flowers for his wife and a cheeky bottle of something strong and told his missus how he'd sold a picture to an English chap. Either that, or on the way home he hit an illegal c*** fighting event, gambled it all on the scrawny underdog c*** which ended up smashing the others, and won. Either way, all the best Saman. All in all I had loved Ayuthaya, so much history and things to see. One night and a full day is enough for the place but I'm very happy I chose to go there.

This morning I jumped on a train back to Bangkok. I wanted to catch up with an old school friend who lives out here when back here, but it's literally a flying stop so I have set up camp near the airport. I'll hopefully catch him for a beer when I'm here again for 3 nights prior to hitting the Philippines. I'll replenish tomorrow and grab stuff I need for the next few weeks and then on Saturday I fly to Mandalay. I'm very excited about getting out there. I'm hoping it's still reasonably "untouched" so it should be a cracking few weeks.