Ayutthaya

---

Got up early from our stuffy accomodation, packed our heavy backpacks and got a taxi to the train station - all arabnged with the TAT.

The railways were like nothing else - made me really appreciate British transport! People were literally walking across the railway tracks, and getting water from random pipes - within the tracks, we saw some really broken down carriages go past - a far cry from the well layed out a clean train lines we saw in Hong Kong!

As we were waiting I saw some people stand up, thinking that it was our train coming I stood up too, there was some weird jingly jangly music playing in the background and then I felt eyes staring a at me and Bobby, I then realised that everyone was standing and the only one left sitting, slurping on a bottle of water was Bobby, it dawned on me that it must be there National Anthem - doh! Bobby wasnt a very popular person after that!

When the train did finally turn up, it was exactly what we expected, an absolute shambles, never seen such a bad train, made me wonder what the night train to Chiang Mai we had to sleep in would be like! gulp!

We had to wait in Ayutthaya for 8 hours to catch hour night train to Chian Mai.

- It was a very historiacl and picturesque place with lots of beautiful temples and buildings, you could get an elephant ride round all the places, but we held out for our Elephant trekking in Chiang Mai and did it all by foot - it was the hottest day so far and it was unbearable!

We walked round semi constructed building that was constructed in the 1400, the parts that were still intact were quite remarkable, they had kept together stone structures of where the old Buddhas used to sit and there was a massive staircase to the top of the building where a shrine was kept, although you would be risking your life to climb to it!

We had a nice seafood lunch by the river, then went to lay down on the grass, we were shattered, but couldnt lie for very long coz we had ants in our pants - literally!

We found a nice cool open bar with a big TV, pool and leather couch, played some pool, watched some TV then had a lil kip. A little while later we were surrounded by a few other people who were waiting for he same train. This included an eccentric American girl who had been bitten loads by mosquitos, who was taking it too chance - and fate whether she got Malaria in the Chiang Mai Jungle - crazy girl!

Boarded the train at 9pm it wasnt as bad as I had expected, there were bunk beds, quite small, with a narrow walking between them, curtains for privacy and a rack to put your bags - the bar at th end of the train was a comfort! Had a few beers with Bobby and others and went to sleep - 12 hours till Chiang Mai.

---

Photos

Builind of 1400
This is whats left of the building, the things wrapped in yellow material are where the old buddhas used to sit and pray.