23 May

We're up early packing and getting everything ready to make the early bus leaving at 09h20. A full English breakfast for myself and muesli and fruit for Leanne before we take a taxi to the bus station. We arrive at 09h15, but the bus has already left and the next one is only 09h40, which actually only leaves at 10h00 to Supanburi where we have to get on another bus going to Ayutthaya. We had hardly disembarked from the bus at Supanburi when a man came waiving us to the Ayutthaya bus, what luck, talk about fast service.


The bus drive to Ayutthaya was interesting to say the least, the speakers of the bus were on full blast with the newest of Thai pop. Lucky for us we sat right at the back with speakers adjacently in front of us, but our saving grace was that all the windows at the back were open and the back door so the noise of the air flow reduced the blare of music.

Arriving at Ayutthaya one can see the temples and ruins as you enter the ancient city, once the capital of Thailand. We continue to the bus station, find our bearings and look for accommodation. We will be staying in PU Guest house for the evening until our train departs tomorrow. The room is spacious with a large fan and the biggest bed we have ever slept on, probably king size.

We hire a motorcycle and head to the historical centre which we were told is a good starting point, else the ruins and their history are difficult to understand. After driving around unfortunately in the wrong direction for quite a while. We got the schooter with an empty tank, so we had to fill up at the nearest station. There was no station nearby so we had to settle for a lonely pump (we usually avoid those because we suspected that they are more expensive). We were right!! The guy could speak no English and in the end he put petrol in and charged us 50 baht - we had tried asking for a litre. The scooter slurped the petrol in no time - definitely not a litre. Luckily we found a proper station while driving in circles not finding our way - blessing in disguise. There they filled the tank with only 2 litres, costing us 47 baht!! To say the least, we were very disgusted with Thai locals at that stage, cheating us. At least after that we found the history centre. Its 16h15 and the centre is open until 17h00, but they won't let us in, apparently they closed early. In the end we decide to give the centre a skip and rather buy a booklet detailing the history of the ruins.

Along the way we stop at a day market where fruit and fresh fish are sold near a residential area. We decide to buy some ice chocolate coffee with black jelly balls and deep fried tempura chicken - delicious. The first temple we visit is Wat Chaiwatthanaram which is off the island, bordering on the river, reputed for amazing photographic opportunities just before sunset. We arrive just in time scaling the temple cheddi with its steep steps and taking panoramic photos with the setting sun, before exploring the rest of the site.

This was one of the nicest temples that we've seen today and well worth the drive out. We spent quite a while there - until after dark. When we came it was after closing time but one of the gates was still open so we assumed that maybe you don't have to pay after six….we were wrong. When we tried to leave, the gate was closed, but there was a guard who could open it, but he also wanted the entrance money…

We race around the island to the other side where we visit the local night market to sample some of their foods and look for anything interesting catching our attention. We end up buying Som tam, a salad made from shavings of green mango, green beans, ground chillies, garlic and other spices, it burns like hell but the flavors are very appealing. Glad we've discovered something more than pha thai that we love.

Returning to PU Guest house we enjoy a yellow curry which we share between the two of us before heading for our bed.