A day in Ayuthaya

Ayuthaya is an old city located about 60 kilometres north of Bangkok. It used to be the capital of Thailand once, and consequently it is full of interesting sights.

The train departed from Bangkok around 11 o’clock. About two hours later we were there.
A green curry later, we decided on taking a boat ride around the town to see the sights from the water. You could see not only the temples and ruins, but also the effect the floods had on this town. There were rubbish caught in the trees, paint gone from houses, dead bushes suffocated by the water. Most trees survived though as they were able to reach above the surface. It gives perspective to see it all so up close.

I must say it again, I just love the nature out here. At one point, a giant lizard came swimming by in the water just ahead of us. It looked like a log at first, but I realized it was something else when it started to swim upstream and eventually crawled out of the water at one of the river banks. It was not a small thing either, it measured around 1,5 metres from head to the tip of the tail.

It took about an hour to go around town in this one.

If you look closely at the picture on the left you can see that the paint is less intense at the lower part due to the water that once covered half of the house.
To the right you can see how high the water was at the top level on land. 

  
We paid a tuk-tuk to go around the sights so we could see the remains of the different palaces. It was an impressing scenery. Apparently the burmese army came along at one point to pillage and cut the heads off all statues.
Our driver did his best to explain how it all happened, but to be honest neither of us really understood what he was trying to convey. Nevermind, he was a really nice guy.

 

Here we are, in the back of the tuk-tuk. :-)

 

The train ride in from Bangkok was also an experience in itself, it left almost as much of an impression as seeing the old temples.
We passed some pretty dodgy parts of Bangkok - people were sitting in between the train tracks talking and having lunch and the houses were made up of things found from the street. The life around the tracks seemed pretty tough.

This is the train station in Ayuthaya, and our train back to Bangkok is approaching in the background.

It was definitely worth spending the 15 bath (less than 50 euro cents!) on the train trip over there. I have no idea how the train can be so cheap here.

 

Well back in Bangkok we had dinner at a place famous for its Pad Thais, which they prepared in a classic manner over a coal fire. The food was fantastic, as the orange juice which was freshly squeezed. Some dessert slipped down as well. :-)