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Published: October 30th 2011
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Raising levels
Beautifully green I arrived in Ayutthaya about five thirty and wanted to take a tuk-tuk to the shopping centre as it was near most of the accommodation giving me a chance to look around before I decided, but because they wouldn't get commission for that from the guesthouses they all wanted to charge me three times more. In the end I was able to take a pick-up type truck bus a few minutes walk away.
After first checking out a grubby looking place I found a really nice room not much further. And the street food mmm, but for some reason you don't seem to be able to get veg and meet in one meal.
Anyway it rained heavily the first day so after breakfast I took the chance to do some of my TEFL course and basically spent the day doing it.
My second day the weather was much nicer so I hired a bike for the day and headed for the temples, map and route in hand. My first stop was Wat Maha That and Wat Ratchaburana, next was the King Uthong Monument followed by the Wat Phra Si Samphet and Wihan Phra Monkhon Bophit passing the
Wat Maha That
The broken temples of Ayuttaya taxi elephants on the way. Then it time to head over the river for the giant Budda (Wat Lokayasutharam) and then onto the outside of the town for Wat Chaiwatthanaram. The temples are mainly made from bricks and concrete and have been significantly damaged by the Burmese before Ayutthaya fell. The Buddas generally don't have heads although a few do. But they are great to have a look around and are such an important part of Thailand's history. Some are old palaces but none have the detailed art like the ones in Bangkok.
Getting back to the hostel I was quickly asked if I wanted to go on a boat trip leaving in 15 minutes! I was hoping for a shower! But I took the bike back, got myself organised and was on my way. The boat took us around the mote dam around the outside of the town. When I was on the bike I noticed there were mud piles around the inside of the dam but the boat trip showed me why. The water level is so high! The temples we visited were having water pumped out of them and we had to jump over the wall
to get in. There was mud and sewerage everywhere. Many of the houses had water up to and past there doors and you could see roofs from buildings too low for the raising water levels. After visiting the temples we were left at the night market. We didn't realise when we first got on the tour that we got left there and had to make our own way back from there.
Walking back you got a strange feeling that they were getting ready for the town to flood. Fingers are crossed.
I had no idea what to do or where to go so I extended my stay by another night and waited to hear from the massage school in Chaing Mai to find out whether they were still open as Chaing Mai was badly flooded. I then ended up extending by another night to wait about a big typhoon. I also figured it would be better to take a day bus than a night bus if there was landslides and storms. But this gave me a chance to do some studying and Ayutthaya is a nice town to relax in. The massage school eventually got back to me
and the course is still on so hopefully there won't be too much more rain as I'm going north!
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