Head out and take the 11:20am train to Ayutthaya, the first capital of Thailand... a very wealthy and intellectual city until the whole city was burned and destroyed by Burmese soldiers in one of the many wars between Thailand and Burma.
While waiting at the train station, we befriend a family of Canadians from Toronto. They're spending a month in Thailand and had only booked their first two nights. Everything else is scheduled and booked along the way... a few days in Bangkok, 2 days, in Ayutthaya, 2 weeks in Changmai, etc. They were unfortunate their first day in that they got in a tuktuk (at the police station, so they thought they could trust the guy) who took them to all these shopping areas and random travel agency. Before they knew it, the travel agent had a whole schedule for them for the next two weeks and when they tried to take the itinerary sheet with prices, the agent crumpled it up and said it was only valid that day and they couldn't take the sheet with them. Craziness.
Train station... first experience using a squat toilet. 2 baht service fee to use the toilet... and bring your own bathroom tissue.
The train to Ayutthaya... 1.5 hours... 15B per person (~45c), cheaper than any other transportation we had used in Bangkok. It's a class 3 train which meant it wasn't air-conditioned; however, it did have rotating fans and was quite breezy, breezy enough to have all these small dandelion seeds and what not covering me by the end. Beilie said compared to the trains in China, this train was "ok".
We didn't really have a detailed plan for the day, just get there and see ruins. The tour book said the best way for getting around was by bike, but I can't bike :-/ At the Ayutthaya station, we're approached by a tuktuk driver who offers to take us around for three hours. A sign nearby has the fixed fares for tuktuks to various locations as well as a message that says 200 baht per hour and another board has pictures and names of all the drivers. The driver offered 3 hrs for 900B before we saw the sign... and Beilie asked for 500B. We eventually get the 3 hrs for 500B... through maybe just insistence... I thought the driver had agreed to 500, K didn't but went ahead and insisted and pressured the driver. B later also said she didn't think the driver had already agreed to the 500... oops, my bad.
The ruins are all fairly similar. The Burmese really wrecked it all. And all the statues around have severed heads (not sure if that was supposed to be symbolic in some way)...
A requisite Buddha-head-in-a-tree picture...
One of the wats was renovated; strange that all the Buddha statues had water cups in front of them...
There was an opportunity to ride elephants near one of the wats, but it was really overpriced so we decided to skip it. Hopefully more opportunities will arise later.
When we got back to the train station, we thought we had just missed the train to Bangkok and would have to wait another two hours for the next turn. But it turns out the train was just about to arrive. As K fumbled to pay for tickets, B and I rushed over to the just-arrived train. The train ride back was much more crowded, so we had to sit in separate seats.
Upon arriving in Bangkok, K picked out a place to eat that required going on the subway and skytrain. The subway and skytrain is different from what we're used to... they play music videos in the waiting area (and on the train itself)... right before you get on, there's these arrows that tell how to get on and off... and instead of rechargeable cards, the subway uses these little token-like things...
The eatery got a good review in Nancy Chandler's Bangkok map companion, which I took to mean that it was now probably overpriced and catered to tourists. I was right. The meal ended up cost 738B (~$23), by far our most expensive meal yet. However, it was a nice restaurant, air-conditioned, tastefully decorated, and the food was yummy (perhaps less spicy, too).
On the way back to our hotel, I picked up a passion fruit juice (freshly squeezed, of course), the same stand from which we got guava and yellow watermelon juices the previous day.
Shower. Cleanup. Hopefully all our clothes (from "laundry" two days ago) will be fully dry by tomorrow morning.
Sleep. 12 midnight.
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