Free breakfast in the morning, then some food. Talked with a girl named Tash, who is pretty much travelling in reverse of me, so we exchanged emails so we can send each other some reviews. Was planning on trading in my book, but decided I’d just leave it at the guesthouse, as I currently have two books plus my Thailand guidebook – which is just too much to carry. I’m better off with just one book, and the guidebook.
Checked out of the hotel, and headed to the Eastern bus station, where I was told I could catch a bus to Ayutthaya. Got there only to discover that I had to go to the Northern bus station. Thankfully both stations were fairly close to the skytrain, so it wasn’t a complete misstep. Got back on the skytrain and headed to Mo Chit station to get to the Northern bus terminal. Grabbed a motorcycle taxi, which was a bit challenging with my backpack, but not too bad. First time on a motorcycle for me. Exhilarating.
Got my ticket, and the bus was departing in 4 minutes, so I found the gate and hopped aboard. Bus made a lot of stops along the way, and I was a little worried I’d miss my stop, but I ended up finding it okay. Last one on the line, as far as I could tell. Took a Tuk Tuk to an area with a bunch of guesthouses. Opted for pretty much the first one I saw, which is really cheap (120 baht = $4), but located above a bar, so I may not sleep much.
Headed to another guesthouse to book a bus seat to Chiang Mai for the following night. While I was there, I enquired about the night Wat tour – since some of the Wats are illuminated at night. Turns out they weren’t running it on account of lack of interest. They don’t run it if there are less than 3 people. They were doing a river boat tour, so I took that instead.
Hired a bicycle (more my speed) for the day, and took it to see some of the Wats in the centre of the town. They’re actually ruins, as Ayutthaya is the old capital of Thailand. After many tries, it was eventually sacked by the Burmese. The ruins were pretty cool – the majority of the Buddhist statues were beheaded, and had no hands – which the Burmese believed took away their power.
Headed back to the guesthouse, and parked my bike for the night, then grabbed some lunch at the guesthouse that was running the tour. Headed off on the tour with a Canadian, Shawn and his Japanese girlfriend, Norita. There was another Japanese guy on the tour, but I couldn’t really get his name. He didn’t speak much English, which must be a bit of a challenge, since he didn’t speak Thai either.
The tour started with a songthaew to the pier, where a female boat driver (first female boat driver I’ve seen) took us in a loop around Ayutthaya island, with some stops at the Wats. The best Wat was one of the ancient ruined ones. The newer Wats are a little underwhelming. The river itself was nice, with people fishing, and bathing, and playing in the water.
We were dropped off at the night market, by the pier, and the four of us wandered around for a bit, then grabbed some dinner. The bugs were terrible, but we managed okay. I had frog for the first time, but it wasn’t really my favourite thing. Very fried, and the sauce was not really my thing. I’ll leave it to the French henceforth.
We made our way back to the guesthouse, and I headed up to my room after checking (for free, no less) my email (none!). As predicted, the music from the bar is pretty loud, but thankfully pretty good. Actually almost fell asleep without breaking out the earplugs, but forced myself awake. Headed out to get some water, then finally decided to get to bed.