Blogs from Ayutthaya, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 7

Today was our full day in Ayutthaya, after arriving yesterday and grabbing some grub. We decided today we would either rent bicycles of motorbikes – depending on rental prices. We enquired: 80 baht (£1.60) for two bicycles for the day or 400 baht (£8) for two motorbikes for the day. Although when you convert it into English money, the motorbikes were a good deal, we decided to be stingy and sweat it out on the push bikes. We had already drawn up a rough route on the awful tourist map they give you here (there are no street names on the map so even figuring out where we were staying was difficult. I spent 20mins last night using lonely planet and google maps to figure it out and scribble all the names onto it). Our route ... read more

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 ... read more

Ruined Buddha head grown into a tree... read more

Unfortunately, on our journey to our next destination, we were accompanied by a group of backpackers who epitomised all of our worst fears about type of fellow travellers we would meet on our trip. We were subjected to 4 hours of them swearing, showing off about how many happy shakes and mushroom pizzas they had consumed and the amount of money they had spent on tattoos (one of them had spent over £600), and then complaining they were too broke to see any sights. When we arrived in Ayutthaya we breathed a sigh of relief when they got off at a hostel a few stops before us. Over the next day and another very early morning we set out on foot to explore the ancient capital and its temple ruins. The city was founded in 1351 ... read more

Sawadi Ka (Hello in Thai), Today I'll do a brief sum up of what I did during the last 3 weeks of my trip in Cambodia. After Siem Reap, I went to Kampong Thom to see some old temples. They are less impressive than Angkor, but they are so much less tourists, that make the walk around so much more peaceful. From there, I went to Kratie to see some fresh water Irrawaddy dolphins. In the town itself, there is not much to do but the trip to see the dolphins is nice enough to spend a day there. After that, I headed to Stung Treng, where I spent a day cycling around, along the river, which was really enjoyable and relaxing. I watched the day to day life in Cambodia, while waving to a lot ... read more