The queue for the vans tailed back a little, and a quick estimation put us at about the 4th van mark, into which we were being loaded about twenty minutes after. Seeing as there was no room for luggage we had to buy an additional seat on which to place out bags, but even then the total amount only came to 200 baht, or 180 if you don't include the change that didn't come back, or around 4 pounds total in real money. It took 40 minutes to clear the Bangkok traffic, and then another 40 to reach Ayutthaya after that including several quit drop offs en-route. After that the hotel was a long 5 minute walk away and the heat was such that I was sweating before hoisting my bag onto my stiff, manly frame. My strong manly knees lifting the substantial weight competently enough as my quadriceps bulged under cloth. This was the textbook health and safety stuff for which I had been trained, Gary at my old place of work would be so proud that someone at least had been paying attention during his induction process.
Ayutthaya is the site of the old capital of Thailand, and during the mid 1600's was apparently resident to around a million people. 100 years later, the Burmese army attacked and destroyed much of it, the buildings became ruins, the statues broken and decapitated and this is how it stood, pretty much, until the 1950's when the restoration projects began. The modern town there now has wide, quiet streets, a mixture of modern houses, internet cafe's and restaurants along them, never encroaching on the larger temples that are all around the site, but often built along side or incorporating small groups or individual crumbling stupa's, or parts of the old city walls and other buildings from around that time.
The first night there corresponded with a large market running over several streets, the final of the celebrations to celebrate the Chinese new year. As usual with the street markets there was an abundance of food to be had, but there also more of a carnival feel to this one as people took pot shots at targets at a shooting gallery, or fished for goldfish in a large paddling pool filled with the little critters. It took me a while but eventually I had to double back and go and get the camera, some things are just too good to miss.
At the end of the first street, where the road crossed over the river, the Chinese celebrations were in full swing, with traditional Chinese stage shows full of colourful characters and traditional sounds. Behind this were more stalls selling everything you never knew you wanted alongside a huge amount of tables laid out for a communal feast where everyone in attendance dressed in red for some kind of fund raising event being dutifully compared on stage by a young man and woman whose mannerisms would have suited a wildcard destination during the eurovision song contests scoring broadcast. The stalls light and tables carried on far into the distance, we however did not, instead returning back to the hotel just after 10pm, stopping only to grab a quiet bite to eat on the way back, and stopping at the 7-11 to stock up on snacks and coke for the coming days.
Just around the corner from the hotel lay Wat Phra Mahthat with it relatively famous and oft pictured image of a buddha head entwined in the roots of a tree that has grown all around it, as well as many other statues and ruins in varying states of distress. The site teems with tourists both guided and lone, but is surprisingly peaceful in it's large grassed area bordered by main roads and a lake. More historical sites lay scattered around the town both in distance and description and the following day we explored with slightly larger scope, with a river boat tour in the evening taking in 3 more temples that lay further away than the ones we had managed to get to during the daytime on bikes. The biggest hindrance was not the distance between the sites themselves, but more the temperatures in which we were now being subjected, hitting the mid 30's by around the midday mark and continuing to rise into the afternoon. With most sites exposed to the elements with little or no sheltered areas to which to escape, exploring was not as leisurely as you would want it to be and in only a short time of being in it's full gaze, my easy dri top had become an easy wet one. I'm sure I spent as much on coconut ice creams as I did on historical site entrance fees during these all too, but necessarily short outside excursions and If we had know the temperature was going to be as obstructive as it turned out to be, then maybe we would have allowed for an extra bit of time there to see more things. As it is though we still fitted enough in to warrant the journey there, and maybe warrant another trip back again at some point in the future.
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