28/08/2009 - 30/08/2009 Ayutthaya

*UPDATE APRIL 2016 - WE HAVE SINCE REALISED THAT RIDING ELEPHANTS IS A BIG NO-NO. SEE OUR AFFILIATED SITE FOR DETAILS AT WWW.SUSTAINABLESIAM.COM*

This weekend we decided to take the short journey north of Bangkok to Ayutthaya, Thailand’s former capital.(1350 – 1767) which also ruled large parts of present day Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar until it was sacked by the Burmese. Sprinkled with Khmer influenced architecture and out of Bangkok’s smog, we decided to see what all the fuss is about. We needed to get to the Northern Bus Terminal as there are busses leaving for Ayutthaya every 30 minutes for 50 Baht a ticket. We had to get to Mo Chit BTS station in order to catch a cab to the terminal. It did seem pretty hard to actually get a cab from the station as they were all looking for a better fare, not a ten minute hike to the bus station. Looking like our usual selves (lost tourists, confused frowns, E has long blonde hair) we attracted the attention of the Loudest Woman In The World calling people onto her bus. When I told her we were going to Ayutthaya she told us to hop on. We hopped onto the bus which was still waiting for other passengers and I decided to ask someone if this was in fact the bus to Ayutthaya. It turns out it wasn’t and we got off. Yes, trust your gut instincts and always ask. Another kind soul who wanted to practice his English asked us where we wanted to go and advised us to hop on a public bus number 3 from Mo Chit Station, which we did. We finally made it to the Northern Bus Terminal and quickly shoved a bowl of noodles down our gullets. Due to this being a Friday, the usual expected traveling time of 1 hr 30 mins was in fact 2 hrs 30 mins but that’s to be expected. We were the only farang on the bus and most of the other passengers seemed to be commuters heading home after work. We knew we had to actually wake in Ayutthaya on the Saturday so we could use the mercifully ‘cool’ morning to ride our bikes around some of the ruins and therefore had no choice but to travel that day.

Arriving at Ayutthaya at the main drop off point we were greeted with the usual tuk-tuk drivers all clambering for tourist price-hiked fares. We were quoted 50 Baht, double what it would probably cost normally but at 50 pence each we weren’t in the mood to barter this fella down (although the tightwad within me will always remind me that it all ads up over time…).

 After a five minute tuk-tuk ride (our first in Thailand, surprisingly) we arrived at our accommodation for the weekend; an old fashioned Thai style wooden house called Baan Lotus Guest House. 

As we were arriving late, we had to ring the bell for the hostess to let us in and we were shown our room. The actual property is set away from the main road and is within its own mini-rural surrounds. Behind the building, and luckily also the view from our bedroom window, is a pond full of catfish, frogs and lotus flowers – hence the name of the guest house. On this pond is a wooden walkway with tables, benches and a hammock if you fancy chilling the evening away listening to the jungle chorus (of sorts…). 

We chose a double room with a fan and it was large, clean and had a fresh breeze flowing through from the pond outside. This was a welcoming feeling after being in stuffy Bangkok for a few weeks. Here's the view from outside our window.

We headed just round the corner to the main row of guest houses on Soi 1 and had a meal on the street before heading back for an early night ahead of what will be a big day. Not big enough for me to say no to a large Leo beer though.

On Saturday morning we were woken up by the usual dawn chorus – howling dogs, frogs and cockerels. Time for brekkie. We went downstairs and ate on the wooden jetty situated on the pond and then tested out the guest house’s bikes which they had for rent. Not the most man-like bikes really, they were more 'lady carrying loaf of bread and flowers home in basket' bikes but they did have changeable gears which was a plus for my skinny and pathetically weak legs. As you can see below, E is totally confident and comfortable with riding a bike for the first time in twenty years. Look at how her smile exudes pure joy in the prospect of riding a bike on busy Thai roads.

Using a free map given to us by the hostess, we headed off down Th Pamaphrao westwards towards our first site, Wat Ratchaburana. The ride only took five minutes from our guest house as most of the old city is on what the locals call ‘the island’. This is basically an area surrounded by water where three rivers meet – the Mae Nam Chao Phraya, Mae Nam Pa Sak and Mae Nam Lopburi. The island is great to cycle within, but to see the sites outside you will have to hire a tuk-tuk or do what we did later this day and go on a tour.

Arriving at Wat Ratchaburana the roads get quieter (better for E) and the scenery greener. The entrance fee is now 50 Baht (2009) for foreigners. You will notice that the entrance fees for Thai's will be lower. This Wat was built in the 1400’s by King Borom Rachathirat II in honor of his two brothers who died in battle, against each other no less. We were blown away by the beauty of this place and the fact that you had unrestricted access to walk around as you please.

I figured out I was humming ‘Bear Necessities’ from the Jungle Book about two minutes in. This place does remind you of the Jungle Book with its abandoned ancient buildings hidden in tropical overgrowth. I was just waiting for Kaa to slither up to me and say ‘You must mention us in your travelsssssss…’.

Aaaanyway, back to being a respectful culture vulture. I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves and add a bit of historical reference here and there. I could go on about the tranquil beauty and its other worldliness but I think you can determine that visually. The only thing you don’t have, dear reader, is the sun beating on your back, birds twittering, dogs barking and the smell of incense infused with pungent elephant dung. 

We left the Wat and headed for some shade to beat the midday sun and cycled past Wat Thammikarat. This wat is apparently the oldest in Ayutthaya. 

Cycling past the lake Beung Phra Ram...

And getting hopelessly lost...

When we figured out our bearings we decided to head on to one of the more famous wats - Wat Phra Si Sanphet. As I was minding my own business and generally enjoying a meandering ride down shady lanes, I hear E frantically shouting at me "Stop!!! Stop!!! Looooook!!!". I turned to E and gestured mild annoyance to her for interrupting my bliss.  And then I followed her open-mouthed gaze and saw something quite amazing.

We knew there would be elephants here; we had seen the photo's. But seeing photo's in a cheap brochure is quite different to actually witnessing these huge animals dressed to impress with their orange cladding and red umbrellas.  The chap you see on the elephant's neck is the mahout. A mahout adopts an elephant for the animal's entire life. He rides it, feeds it, cleans it, trains it - everything. E is South African and the only experiences she has of elephants is in Kruger National Park in South Africa. These African elephants are larger, completely wild and dangerous. When she was young her father was driving down one of the many gravel roads in Kruger Park and as they went round the corner they startled a large male in must. The elephant started to get very agitated and started to walk towards the car. E's dad had to reverse with the angry elephant coming straight for the windscreen and a very scared E. They escaped, of course. Now, to see these beasts walk the streets, E's inherent fear was still there but she was more excited than anxious. It had been a while since I'd seen tame elephants myself and we just sat on our bikes and watched with stupid grins as they transported tourists around their designated routes. 

After gawping at them for a while, we decided to follow them back to their base and saw them getting washed and, erm, dancing to techno music. I can understand some people want to be entertained and that the mahouts need to earn a living, but I didn't really like seeing a baby elephant chained next to huge speakers playing loud music. There are many differing views about the treatment of elephants in this manner but I don't know anything about these animals at all and therefore cannot judge. It just seemed wrong. They did, however, seem very happy and actually danced to the tunes.

After seeing these guys being washed and handled with care, however, we decided we just had to give it a go the next morning. In the meantime, there were more things to see.

On the way from the elephant area to Wat Phra Si Sanphet we parked our bikes and wandered through a market nearby. Expect everything from t-shirts, to fabrics to food. You can also eat Muslim dishes here and watch people make Roti, a type of stringy sweet made from palm sugar and it smells gorgeous. We, on the other hand, preferred to buy some coconut sweets from this fella.

And we continued down the lanes until we found a place to eat.

Sometimes you'll see idiot tourists like this guy below. Note the local speciality dish in his plastic bag, the new woven cowboy hat he'll never wear anywhere else, sunglasses in pocket, a Thai phrasebook and ruck sack that's causing him to sweat profusely. Oh, wait a minute...that's me.

After lunch and a bit of shopping, we finally made it to Wat Phra Si Sanphet. This wat is famous for it's stupas and was built in the late 1300's. A 16 meter high Buddha covered in gold was melted down by the Burmese conquerors and no longer stands there. 

 

Just opposite is Wihaan Mongkhon Bophit, a modern building built about between 50 - 80 years ago and it houses a huge 15th century bronze casted Buddha.

After seeing the Buddha we headed back to our bikes. For some reason a whole load of Thai tourists ran up to us and said something like 'Can you take a picture?'. Thinking they wanted us to take a picture of them we said 'sure'. The next thing we know is that we're surrounded by these Thai tourists with us in the centre and WE were central focus point of the whole photo being taken in front of us. After they took the photo, the crowd gathered around the camera smiling and seemingly amazed at the fact they had two (very awkward looking) westerners on their disc. We don't really know what happened there! Bemused, we headed back to the guest house to freshen up and get ready for the tour we booked ourselves on. When we came downstairs, we saw this waiting for us.

Six of us (four Germans, one Italian, E and I) had to fit into this tuk-tuk, which we actually really enjoyed. For 170 Baht each you get a three hour tour of the Ayutthayan ruins outside 'the island'. Hello to the others, if you're reading the blog. Sieh Sie in der Welttasse, meinen europäischen Vettern.

First stop was the Wat Yai Chai Monghkon, built in 1357 by King U Thong. This wat has a 7 or 8 meter long reclining Buddha adorned in a golden robe.

And then onto the elephant 'kraal' (Thai for stockade). Once used to house elephants as war machines or farming aids, this kraal is now mainly used to tame and train the elephants for tourism purposes. They still do their bit to help out around this farm though...

After hanging around and feeling like we were interrupting their working day, our driver took us to Wat Chai Wattanaram to witness one of the best sunset spots in SE Asia. This temple was built in the 17th century by King Prasat Thong. 

After sunset, we were given a quick night time tour of the main attractions back on 'the island' purely for photo  oppurtunities. E tried to take these photo's without a flash but to get a decent shot in low light you would ideally need a tripod, which we left at home. E did manage to balance the camera on a plastic stool which was  the placed on a hedge. Where there's a will... 

We were then taken to the night market to finish the trip. If you do this tour, the driver quickly stops in front of the guest house to show you where you are in relation to the market. Do yourself a favour and get off there because the night market was basically a few stalls thrown together in a car park. We thought we were going to be taken to the renowned Hua Raw night market but it wasn't to be. We and the rest of the group decided to grab a bite to eat instead and headed to the Lonely Planet recommended restaurant called Malakor. The restaurant was meant to have a view of Wat Ratburana lit up at night but our luck was out because when we arrived the waiter told us the light was broken. Never mind, the food will surely be great. Well, it wasn't really. Maybe it was an off night but our fresh water fish was tasteless and one of our German tourist friends sent her Pad Thai noodles back as something in the dish tasted off. If I were you, I'd just come here for a beer to enjoy the view - if the wat's lights are working, that is. Either way, we had a good laugh with our new found friends and carried on drinking back at the guest house on the wooden pier.

The next day we woke up early to go and ride an elephant. Sorry, I just have to write that sentence again; The next day we woke up early to go and ride an elephant!! We made our way to the elephant enclosure, paid our rather expensive 500 Baht each (for a half hour ride) and got on our new form of transport for the day. You'll see the elephant's name, Rayrai, on the back of the mahout's neck. She was 28 years old, same age as E and not too much younger than myself. It was brilliant. As you sit on your seat you just realise how incredibly powerful and strong these elephants are. It took a while to get used to the movements but after a while the slow rocking from side to side lulls you into a peaceful, if somewhat surreal, bliss.

And on we get!!!

And this is what happens when you shake hands with an elephants trunk.

Somewhat stunned after our ride, we headed to Wat Phra Mahathat to see one of the most famous images of Ayutthaya. See if you can spot it.

Well, after seeing the famous Buddha head we decided it was probably time to head back to Bangers. Ayutthaya is a pretty special place and we'd recommend it to anyone wishing to visit Thailand. It's a pretty important stop on the tourist trail in terms of this country's history and is still reasonably quiet. I'm starting my four week CELTA course on Monday, so updates are going to be minimal. E will write about her experience as a teacher at an international school soon and I'll review the CELTA course here once I've finished (after lots of sleeping in and celebrations first, of course...).

Tally per person (not including shopping):


Return Bus from Northern Terminal - 100 Baht 
Tuk Tuk total - 100 Baht (four small journeys)
Guest House - 400 Baht
Food and drink - 600 Baht
Breakfasts at guest house - 90 Baht
Bike - 30 Baht for one day
Tuk tuk tour - 180 Baht
Elephants - 500 Baht
Wat's entrance fee's - 200 Baht (four visits)


Total - 2200 Baht (about 40 quid)