Ayutthaya

In spite of having had a late night the previous one, we managed to wake up early and take a train to Ayutthaya. We were supposed to have gone the day before but having woken up late, we missed it. The local expats we were out with the night before recommended it saying that it was the Angkor Wat of Thailand, so we made it our priority this day. The train was a slow local one and the ride took almost two hours, much longer than we’d expected.

When we arrived in Ayutthaya and left the train station, we had no idea where to go. There were absolutely no signs pointing to the temples; instead, we were bombarded by tuk tuk drivers offering us a ride to and around the temples. However, we knew they weren’t far from the station nor were they far from each other, so they could all be done by foot. We asked and we asked how to get to them but everyone was just trying to get us to hire a tuk tuk for the day. It felt like everyone was working together to help the tuk tuk drivers get money from the tourists. We tried to explain that we didn’t have all day but rather just an hour or two. However, no one either wanted to listen or understood us, probably the latter.

We had a map that didn’t help us find our way out of the station because there was a canal between the station and the temples. Though, we could tell they weren’t far.

If only we could figure out how to get to them…

Then, as if sent from the skies, we saw a white blonde man walking up to us and offering help, as apparently we looked very lost. This heaven-sent was a British man who seemed to know his way around and might’ve been living in Thailand. He directed us to a small street that would take us to the canal, where we could then take a quick boat ride across the canal. Of course!

Although the walk to the canal was relatively short, it felt quite long to me as I felt we were so out of place. Finally, we found the canal crossing, a ride that took no more than two minutes. The canal water here was even dirtier than the one in Bangkok. It’s difficult to believe how people live like this.

At some point during this walk, we started to realize that we would get to the temples with just half an hour at most before we had to head back to the train station to catch the last afternoon train to Bangkok in order to make it on time for our overnight bus to Chiang Mai.

Feeling like we had wasted the morning coming here, we started exploring options. One of my travel companions had the great idea of taking a taxi back to Bangkok. For one, the taxi ride would be quicker than the slow local train. Plus, we can order it for the time that we wanted rather than have to follow a limited train schedule. Last, it wouldn’t be that expensive when split in three. We found a cab as we were walking, but the driver turned down our request since he already had a passenger he was waiting for. Fortunately, he kindly offered to call his friend in Bangkok and shortly after that, we had a ride back to Bangkok!

This way, we continued to the temples much more relaxed and content knowing that we’d have enough time to make this trip worthwhile. And worthwhile it was…

This was the first ancient ruins of temples that we saw on this trip. It was a taste of what was to come in Cambodia. The atmosphere was surreal, just incredible how these structures are in the middle of a small village and have been here for so long, sadly abandoned. How did they even build them back then to begin with?

By the time we had seen a good amount of the ruins, it was time to go meet our cab driver who was waiting for us eating an ice cream. He seemed a bit embarrassed about it, but I told him not to worry and to finish it calmly.

After some nerve-wrecking traffic heading back into the city, we got back to Bangkok at about 4:30 pm giving us just enough time to shower, check out of the hotel (we had paid for half a day in order to get a late check out), have dinner at the hotel, and go to the bus station. The traffic on the way to the bus station was even worse than earlier; plus, the evening rain had arrived hard this time, so we started to get really nervous about possibly not making it in time for our bus. When we told our taxi driver that we had to be there in 15 minutes because our bus was leaving, he laughed nervously and told us it would take longer than that to get there. We were very close to the station, but the traffic was almost at a stop.

At this point, I started freaking out and we started thinking up of possible alternatives. Worst case scenario, we had to get a hotel nearby for the night and leave the next morning. Not so bad. I managed to call the bus company and told them our situation and they said because of the weather and the traffic, the bus was leaving late anyways. This ended up saving us – we managed to get on the bus and even had to wait for it to depart.

This bus ride was the first culture shock I experienced in Asia. We were the only white people on board, the only non-Asians, and quite likely the only non-Thai people. Everyone was very quiet, which made me nervous as I’m not used to it. I suppose it’s only because they are such a gentle, peaceful society, unlike the loud, disordered rides I’ve gotten used to in Italy. Everyone seemed to quickly go to sleep, and I felt like we had to behave ourselves and stop talking and laughing – as Americans, Brits, or Italians would do – bringing attention to ourselves.

About halfway through the ride, at 1 am or so, we did our only pit stop at a service station. There was hot food being served, which many people helped themselves too. I was surprised at just how much and how often the Thai eat. On this bus ride, we got a snack and drink as soon as we got on the bus, then we got a ticket to food or drink at the service station –  when I was expecting to be sleeping and not eating – and breakfast with coffee in the morning before arriving at Chiang Mai at 7 am.

We had breakfast at the bus station while waiting for the next bus that we had to take to Chiang Rai. It was difficult to get breakfast since they eat the same type of food all day, meaning there’s rice, meat, and vegetables. I managed to find fried eggs, but of course served over white rice, and good coffee. I must say though that it was tasty even at this time and did the trick. This ended up becoming my go-to standard Thai breakfast when caught without any Western options.

Overall, while this was probably one of the longest days we had on our trip, it was definitely not going to be the last long one. We had many more action packed days to come.