Ayuthaya

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It was an early 9am start for us (yawn, haha!) followed by a 3rd class train ride to Ayuthaya. the train was really hot but bearable and we both dozed on and off for the 2hr journey.

Outside the open train windows we pass little huts that people live in made out of wood and corrugated iron, people roam the train lines collecting rubbish. As we get further from the capital the land gets swampy and the huts even more rickety, balanced on stilts and connected by wobbly looking, plank walk ways.

The owner of our GH was a lovely midle aged lady who gave us a map and some suggestions of what to do. On our first afternoon we rode a tuktuk to some temple ruins.

Wat Maha that was the first old temple we had seen. The headless Buddahs and scorch marks are signs of more restless times when the Burmese destroyed the old temples, however the size and granduer of the ruins make us think it would have been an amazing place beforehand. Now the temple is a peaceful place to be and we are drawn to a shady corner where a fallen Buddah head is encased in some tree roots. You have to bend down to take a photo as its disrespectful to stand above him. The head has its own personal security guard reinforcing the importance of Buddah to the Thai people that we had not failed to notice already.

For our secind day here we hired bikes as the town is small enough to cycle around. We went past an elephant taxi service but the animals were chained up and didn't look particulrly happy so we didn't hang around for long. After our tour we heded over the river non a blue cheese hunt. We cycled 5km to a massive Tesco and whilst they didnt have blue cheese they did have chedder which was enough to keep me happy!

An early night as we were up early to head further north still!

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