Wat the heck

---

From Bangkok we headed a couple of hours North by government bus to Ayuthaya - small Historic city that was once the capital of Thailand. Stayed in fab guest house for a couple of nights - no air con but couple of fans, own bathroom and shower.

Huge mix of nationalities & ages staying there, from French family with very young kids, to old Dutch guy traveling alone and German couple who were touring in an amazing VW camper van, fully kitted up with water system and everything (needless to say Xan was pretty taken by it!)

We hired bikes for a couple of days to explore, the rickety old bikes were fab - Xan looked so manly on his! Like a vicar riding around the parish. Great way to get about though and once we got used to dodging tuk tuks, taxis and buses, was like having our own portable fan, not so great when you stop though and feel the 35 plus degree heat hit!

Ayuthaya is full covered in Wat ruins - Buddhist Temples. They are amazing

To be brutally honest though they all look pretty similar and the lack of info means you're not really sure what you're looking at, difficult to get an idea of scale or context. We much preferred the local market - couple we saw in Bangkok were great but this was different, for locals, not a trashy souvenir or bit of tourist tat in sight! Groceries/meat/fish/cooked food stalls/house cleaning stuff/clothes. We didn't see a single other Westerner the whole time and the locals weren't fussed about us at all - just carried on about their business. Best sight was a plastic bucket, full of huge catfish writhing and splashing about!


Towards the end of our second day, and just as we were about to do a full circuit of the town I managed to get a puncture! Had to load my bike into a tuk tuk and take it back. Xan attempted to keep up but the driver outran him - much to his amusement. When we stopped he was pissing himself laughing, doing a impression of Xan trying to keep up and saying 'I run him, I run him'! Xan later pretended there had been something wrong with his bike and thats why he couldn't keep up.


Went to the local night market for dinner on last night in Ayuthaya. Had some amazing grub - weren't totally sure what animal/vegetable/mineral some were but all pretty damn delicious. The atmosphere was so laid back - quite a lot of tourists mixing with the locals, was clearly the place to hang out! But again no one was bothered by us, Xan was looking at a watch on one stall and we had to actually go and find the owner to open the box it was in for us!

---