My Ayutthaya Ruin

Day 12 - 27th Oct

More night train antics to Ayutthaya, arrived at 04:48, which is far too early by anyones standard! The platform there is about 30yards long, i.e not as long as a 9 coach night train, so we got out straight onto the railway line. It is things like this that really make a mockery of the "Danger of Death $2000 fine for trespass onto tracks" signs littering England. I've done about 20 things here that I'm not legally allowed to do in the UK, none of which have been a problem!

Thankfully there were still a few TukTuk's about even at that time, so in we got for the run to P.U guesthouse. They are very different here compared to bangkok and ChangMai, with a larger rear section and proper cab, there are a few indications they're made by honda, and they've got a distinct 60s American caravan quality about them. For some reason they also have a regular steering wheel rather than bars.

After sleeping on the Sofa's in the guesthouse till 7.30am, listening to some noisy frogs, and the little lizards singing, we booked transport to Kanchanburi by minibus, and a boat tour that evening. We only spend a day in Ayutthaya so we needed to make the most of it, which means that after a brief wander up and down, I hit the bike rental shop for 125cc of PGM-F1 fuel injected mayhem, the ferocious Honda Click, in black, naturally. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this vehicle what so ever, but I still enjoyed it.

The bike makes a great deal of sense here, as much of the things we want to hop about seeing are just a little to far to walk, with lots of small journies in between. The main attractions here are ruined Temples, no idea how old, no idea why they're all knackered, but it was nice to wander around. The 32 degree heat meant a maximum 20 minutes before jumping back on the bike to cool down. After five or six Wat visits, I dropped Katie off at the Guesthouse before gonig for a final blast round the Island on the bike. Central Ayutthaya is encircled by the joining of 3 rivers, so it doesn't take long to bike round the edge, and it was good to be nipping in and out of the traffic again.

After dropping the bike back at 3.30, one of my very frequent cool showers, it was time for the boat trip. The good news is that it was one of the crazy engined long-tail boats I saw in Bangkok, which is great for my forign-vehicle-i-spy/ride game. No turbo on this one, just a 4cyl Izuzu diesel.

There were 3 more temple visits, some of these considerably more intact, and it was fun to zip about the river. They make use of some incredible barges to move coal and the like, gigantic trains of them with a Tug at each end with a huge rope, and they sling them round the river-bends with apparent ease.

The boat trip ended at a night market a few hours later, where I made a food mistake. After walking around a bit eying up the watermelon stalls, Katie spots something that looks like KFC. They had every part of a chicken available here deep fried, feet, neck and head, the lot. I thought we were safe with what looked like chunks of breast meat on a stick, but in the end was 5 chicken butts, in a batter with a grease density hithertoo unknown to the western world. The sausage on stick was basically rice and fat inside chewy intestinal casing, and after having a bit of each, and spending agest trying to clean my hands I gave up, grabbed an orange juice and went back to the hotel.

Another shower and a few drinks in a local bar playing the only kind of music I hear in bangkok, Jazzanova versions of western songs. This evening was bob marley covers, in the style of nouvelle vague. Katie had a pommegrannet cosmopolitan, and then took a wander back to the hotel to finish her books. Meanwhile I drank a great many beers with 3 German people I made single serving friends with in the bar.

I got back in completely hammered, and noticed how comfortable this bed was for a good 2 seconds before falling asleep, to be woken what seemed like instantly, but was actually 7 hours later, with a bit of a headache, and that "didn't need the last two beers really..." feeling in my tummy.

Day 13 - 28th Oct

Thankfully the minibus was awesome, comfortable, cool, and the driver made good progress overtaking a good 30-40 slower vehicles on the dead straight roads here in Thailand, a good watch, and also relaxing to be on the road again. The things I enjoy most here are the things that are most like motorbike touring in europe I think! Katie and I shared an iPod with an earphone splitter for the journy and it was lovely to arrive somewhere refreshed and relaxed, and most importantly, not sticky!!

Today has been pretty chilled so far, we have a nice room with air-con provided by a 70s Sharp unit, which despite looking like an antique does a sterling job against the sweltering sunshine here. We are in the Jolly Frog hostel, the bed is comfortable, we have deckchairs in a garden area facing the river, and the menu is varied, cheap, and tasty. Tonight I'm gong to order fish, and a melon and dragon fruit smoothie, before exploring the local bars.

Tomorrow is a day tour which I am looking forward to, and it is generally much nicer here than it was in Chang Mai, which in hind-sight, was wholly uncomfortable all of the time for one reason or another.

I'm Tom Tucker, for Quahog news, and now the weather from Ollie Willaims...

"IT'S GON' RAIN!"

Thank you Ollie.

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