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Published: January 27th 2007
Not the best idea to head out to a new town on the last bus... reason? none connecting. So we were stuck in Suphanburi, the interchange between Kanchanaburi and Ayutthaya where once again we were left roaming the streets for accomodation. Here we had a first hand experience of thai kindness in a bar that we stopped in for directions: The waiters did not speak english so one of the diners was dragged over to interpret, she gave us directions to a hotel, but it was hard to understand her so she insisted on showing us herself. She stopped eating halfway through a meal with her parents and took us outside to her moped where she offered for me to drive... I declined so me and yalini climbed on the back with our hiking packs and she drove us to the hotel! Unfortunately, we could tell from a distance by the grand drive through entrance that it wasnt really for us - we would like to be able to eat for the next month! So we stood in the entrance waving goodbye untill she left, and then we did too.
The only memorable thing that night was when an elephant
Longtail Boat
Boat that we caught to do a tour of the 3 outer temples of Ayutthayacame walking down the main street with its owner selling bamboo that you could offer the elephant. As this was the first elephant we saw, naturally we had to accept... however we have since learned that supporting this is terrible for the elephant as it encourages owners to come into the cities where the elephants are mistreated and are not in their natural element. Anyway, Yalini had a ball feeding it, one bamboo shoot after another as i got out my camera to take pics. Then just like that its all over... and im still standing there holding the camera wondering when my turn would come. Yeah it didnt.
A quick note, try and be sure of the exact price of your bus ticket before boarding... on our bus we were sure that the ticket cost around 40 baht but the ticket inspector asked us for 70 each. We refused to give more than a 100 baht note, and he shook his head and walked off. This process continued for the whole trip with him getting more and more pissed off each time. He glared at us and told off any locals that tried to tell us the real
price. In the end he took the 100 baht and didnt give us change. We learned after that he was trying to charge us the airconditioned bus fare, though we were on a fan bus.
Auytthaya itself was not that appealing to us and we only spent 2 days, the first night we hired bikes and cycled around town to see all of the temples lit up at night, then we made the same route the next day to go inside and see some of the amazing detail up close. you can only imagine how amazing the temples must have looked back in their day. Most of the ruins are just the brick base, so they lack any intricacy, however in some places the render remains displaying precisce, sharp, corners and designs with carvings throughout. Perched on many of the towers are statues of buddahs, nagas, and other animals that seemed to be guardian-like figures. How the builders managed to create such things to such a scale is amazing.
After our self-guided tour we went on a longtail boat to see some of the more distant temples, both old and new as the sun came down. On this
"Guard"
Pain in the arse guard stopping us from exploring the wat... Travellers Beware!! trip was more scaming, as one of the 'guards' demanded an entrance fee to the temple. We knew this was bullshit because there was no check in gate, and we were the only boat that he approached. All the other tourists handed over the money but we demanded a ticket as a receipt. Obviously he couldn't provide one so we didnt pay and walked off. Another couple follwed our lead, but then he followed us around the entire temple trying to block us from entering... in heinsite we should have just payed and avoided the hassle, but it pissed me off and i didnt wanna pay on principle... or maybe im just a tight-ass! but come on, that one dollar bought me dinner!
either way our suspicions were validated when we saw him splitting the 'entrance fee' money with the driver of the boat that delivered us to his feet. Small victories.
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Sian
non-member comment
WOW
Hey Broden and Yalini! So awesome to hear from you guys...i wont ask how ur doing cos i can tell that u are having a ball!! We miss you tho hehe you have got some great memories in those photos and have done some beautiful things. Go you not taking any crap! haha Guess wat i went to Third Day concert and was in the Front Row! YES Bouncer picked me! haha thats my highlight...Well thankyou for the email and keep each other safe, take care, lots of love Sian xoxox