The chilling and shopping found an end after we decided that it would be time for our first sightseeing trip last Wednesday. Our daytrip should go to Ayutthaya, former capital and UNESCO world heritage. We packed our backpacks with loads of sunscreen, our hats, and our cameras and hit the road to explore the temples. But first, we could make another particular experience: travelling with the train for the first time in Thailand. There is a train going from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, with a stop in ‘Rangsit’, the station where we got on. But before it came to that, we had to wait for the train over an hour, as said one is going neither regularly, nor punctual. The times to be found in the internet, don’t match with reality. At least about the prices you can’t complain, as for 20 Baht the ride was ridiculously cheap.
With the mindset to explore Ayutthaya with the bicycle, we nevertheless were convinced at the train station by a Tuk-Tuk driver to book a tour with him. In retrospect a very good decision, but more about that later. So we got ourselves into a conversation with a Tuk-Tuk driver, who could convince us after a to and fro. His English was quite reasonable and he even had a small booklet with ‘reviews’ of other tourist in there who did a tour with him before. He seemed very trustworthy and for 800 Baht for two persons, it seemed to be really worth it. Especially as we realized during the tour that the ways between the many temples are partially quite long, we really appreciated our Tuk-Tuk when we saw all those sweating tourists forging ahead. The price for the bicycle rent would amount to 40 Baht – but everybody has to decide by himself what he thinks is more important.
The Tuk-Tuk driver showed us the most important 5-6 temples, for what we needed approximately half a day. Which temples you should visit, you should decide by your own. In travel guides you can often find details of the various temples, so you can decide which is important to yourself. As already mentioned, the temples are quite far apart from each other, different from what I expected. After a visit in Angkor Wat in Cambodia about a year ago, I expected a similar territory, where the temples are basically all situated in one area. In Ayutthaya however, the temples are connected with normal streets throughout the city, which sometimes seems misplaced in the surroundings. The temples themselves were way less crowded and touristy than I expected. Maybe it was the time of the year, but even during noon time it was quite tranquil and hardly any tourists ruined our pictures. For the temples themselves one has to expect an entry fee of around 50 Baht per temple, sometimes less. Some temples can be also visited without paying entrance fee, or there aren’t really any controls. The temples were explained in detail by our driver in reasonable English, which was a great extra. If one decides for a tour in a Tuk-Tuk, it is important to question the trustworthiness and English proficiency of the driver. Also the offered services (e.g. explanations about the temples) and prices should be compared.
After our tour through the temple complex, the driver offered us to drop us of at a pier where we would have the option to see the city from the boat perspective again. We decided that it is worth 350 Baht per person and prompt got our own boat which drove us around on the river around Ayutthaya for around an hour. Sitting in the boat, we could get another perspective of the city. You can see the temples from another viewpoint, we saw a water snail, and we could see how the locals live directly next to the riverside.
The boat dropped us off directly at the train station where we hoped for an early return journey with the train, but it didn’t come off. It appeared the next train would drive in more than an hour, with an additional delay of 30 minutes. So, what we learned from that day: never trust the train, and some Tuk-Tuk drivers are reliable after all.
weltgereist 