On to Ayutthaya

I love transportation in SE Asia. Our 9 hour train ride form Chiang Mai to one of Thailand's ancient capitals, Ayutthaya, helps to illustrate why. Travel in Thailand is a mixed bag and you rarely know what you are going to get. Our situations ran from buses without AC so crowded you didn't get a seat to heaps of leg room, reclining seats, and the like.

We rushed to catch the train, making it just in time. As we were rushed, we didn't have time to get any snacks. We thought that would be a killer but were pleased when one of the conductors came around handing out free food. So excited by the free food, I dove in, only to have my mouth catch absolute fire. This was somewhat of a pattern during the trip, some people just never learn. The ride was going pretty well, I got nailed in the head with some falling fruit, but other than that it was a lot of rice patties some magnificent looking jungles/mountains, and smooth sailing. When the sun went down, our once clean train was exposed for what it really was... a dirty train. We soon found that along the window, a groove acted as a cockroach freeway. We spent the next hour and a half, watching the roaches scurry by, stomping about 25 of them, and keeping them off of us. When we rolled into Ayutthaya around 9, we were happy to get off.

When we got to our hotel, we were pleased to find that it was probably the nicest/cleanest we had stayed in yet... no roaches.

We spent 2 nights in Ayutthaya, and although we enjoyed it, I think Rachel and I both felt in hindsight like on such a rushed trip we would have rather gone elsewhere. While we were ther, we did have a fun day riding around on bicycles. It was tough trying to ride crazy enough so that we could keep up with the flow of traffic, but safe enough so that we didn't die. I was just amazed that neither of us got hit.

On our bike tour, we spent a lot of time ridding to the various ancient temples and palaces. It almost felt like being in Rome again, except not really. There were plenty of ruins to explore. Another highlight of Ayutthaya was the breakfast our hotel gave us as part of the nightly fee.


Tough traffic ahead



Taking a rest from our biking circuit atop some of the ruins



Rocking a sweet hat



My favorite thing in Ayutthaya, a Buddha head entwined and fastened in place by the roots of a tree


The ruins may have been able to stand the test of time, but can they stand my destructive mood?