Quickly after returning from our kind of relaxing, kind of exhausting trip to Hua Hin, another close friend named Ben reached out and asked if we would like to make a short trip up to Ayutthaya. This was one of those places that we had never even heard about before coming to Thailand, and once we did some research, placed it on the top of the list of places we wanted to go. We won't go into the whole history, but here is a short synopsis:
Ayutthaya is an island surrounded on all sides with rivers about an hours drive north of Bangkok. Because of its defensibility and being at the center of trade, it was the capital city of Thailand back when it was known as Siam. It began to prosper around the 1300s, and had a few hundred of years of prosperity until the Burmese came through in 1750, destroying everything they could so that they could be the new center of Southeast Asia. The city was never able to regain its capital status, because soon after, most of the prosperity, and the new royalty, found their way to Bangkok. What stands now is the ruins of everything the Burmese couldn't destroy.
With the history of this place swimming through Nolan's mind, we had no choice but to go. We decided to take the train there, and met Ben at the Bangkok Central Train station to catch the
9:00 am train. We didn't know too much about the process, so we went to the ticket booth to buy our tickets, and were pleasantly surprised when each ticket cost only 15 baht (50 cents) for the two hour train ride! The train station had a small food court where Ben and Jessica picked up some Hainese chicken rice for breakfast, and Nolan found a cafe serving up some smoothies. After our bellies were full, we walked out to find our train, boarded, and found an almost completely empty car with some overhead fans. The train left promptly at 9:00 am, and we started our journey.
The train ride overall was an amazing experience. For the first hour of the ride, we were moving through the entirety of Bangkok, seeing it from a completely new perspective. It was slow going, but there were lots and lots of stops in the sprawling city. There were vendors walking up and down the aisles selling full meals, drinks, and snacks. Once we made it out of the city, the train picked up speed, and we were in Ayutthaya in just over two hours later. Although there was no Air Con, the windows were open and the fans helped immensely, so we never got too hot.
Pulling into the Ayutthaya train station, we were so excited to see yet another city in this amazing
country. We were immediately called to by Tuk Tuk drivers, but after telling them we didn't need a ride, they politely walked away (something absolutely unheard of in Bangkok). The slower pace of this small city was a huge contrast to Bangkok, but we quickly found comfort in the smiles of everyone we passed along the way. We made the short walk to the hotel, pointing out the closest 7-11 as we went, and checked in. The hotel was old but very clean and nice, with one of the most powerful Air Cons we have experienced thus far (leaving Jessica quite cold). After the long train ride, we were fairly desperate for some lunch, so we dropped our stuff off and headed out to find lunch.
The main area of temples and shops was a few miles away, but we were happy to find a Tuk Tuk driver just outside our hotel. He offered to take us around the whole city, showing us all of the amazing temples and ruins as we went. His offer was tempting, but we knew what we wanted to see was all in a walkable distance, so he gave us a ride to the main area with restaurants and we headed inside.
Just like Phuket, Ayutthaya was a city driven by tourism, and we immediately felt that as we
entered the small restaurant. It was decorated eclectically with Thai statues and knick knacks from around the world. The menu was full of the common Thai fare, along with sandwiches, pancakes, pasta, and waffles. While Ben and Jessica stuck to our favorite Thai dishes, Nolan found himself sitting in front of some carbonara and pancakes (all very delicious). While we were eating, though, we weren't as present as normal, because we could see the ruins peaking out through the windows, and we just couldn't wait to explore them.
After lunch, we entered the first of many sites of ruins. Large spires of brick shot into the air all around us. There were walls, stairs, pathways, and temples, all in different states of disrepair. Some of the ruins looked like massive rooms with intact doorways, windows, and pillars. Others were piles of brick that were undeterminable because of their current state. There were large piles of broken Buddha statues that had clearly been compiled from the ruins all around us.
This specific site was most famous for a Buddha head that had grown into the side of a Banyan Tree. At this holy site, we sat in front of it as it stared back at us, smiling. It made us think of Grandmother Willow from the Disney rendition of Pocahontas, wise from all of the faces it had seen as the tree slowly grew around it. We found ourselves grateful once again for the experience of traveling around Thailand with such a lack of foreigners. We were free to sit in front of the Banyan Tree for as long as we liked, feeling the holiness of the space.
For the rest of our first day, we continued to explore the ruins all around us. The size of them was incredible, as we tried to ponder just how these ginormous buildings had been constructed as early as the 1300s. We were able to walk through the remains of temples, up ancient stairways, and past hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Buddha statues. It was amazing to walk through what was there while imagining all that it used to be. Although absolutely magical, it was maybe the hottest day we have experienced in Thailand yet, and after walking almost 7 miles, we were ready to grab some dinner, and head back to the room for an early night. We stopped by a local night market for some dumplings, fried chicken, and Pad Thai, and made our way back to the hotel, Nolan and Ben stopping at the pool for a late night swim before heading to bed.
The next morning, we slept in and headed down to our hotel breakfast on a patio right next to the Chao Prya River. We were blown away by the quality of our free breakfast. We had three options to order on the menu, Nolan choosing the eggs and pastries, while Jessica went with the classic Thai fried rice. Shortly after ordering, a huge spread of pastries, jams, tea, coffee, orange juice, and our orders were spread across the table. With full, happy bellies, we were ready for another amazing day.
After walking 7 miles in the intense heat the day before, we were ready to splurge for a little bit of luxury. The same Tuk Tuk driver was waiting outside our hotel, and we approached him, ready to hire him for our day of exploring. We agreed on 600 baht for the whole day ($20), and we sped away to our first destination in the back of the Tuk Tuk.
We were excited to experience our first floating market, which we had found online as one of the best places to visit while in Ayutthaya. However, as we drove up, it started to seem like it was much more of a tourist attraction than an authentic floating market. We boarded a small boat for 200 baht each ($6), a teenager started driving us around the market, which we quickly realized we could have just walked around instead of paying for the boat ride. We took a ride around the entirety of the market, filled with small shops of knick knacks and food, even though about half of all of the stalls were closed. After the boat dropped us back off at the beginning, we walked around. Nolan was very happy to find a store full of swords that the shop owner let him play with, while Jessica nervously but appropriately moved on browsed other shops full of small trinkets and toys. Ben found some matching fans that he gifted to us, a welcome purchase on such a hot day. As we finished our tour of the market, we were glad we came, but it was clearly designed as a tourist spot that we probably wouldn't need to see again.
Next, our Tuk Tuk driver Sing sped us towards yet another site of ruins, and we walked around admiring them just as we had the day before. In reality, we were passing some time until lunch, because we were going to have a new experience that we couldn't be more excited about.
Sing drove us to our lunch restaurant that Ben had found online. They were known for putting on lunch and dinner cruises. Since Ayutthaya was technically an island, surrounded on all sides by
rivers, the lunch would take us all around, showing us some unique views of some amazing sights along the way.
Our lunch was a delicious, traditional spread of Thai dishes. There were spring rolls, a yummy sour coconut soup, a few fish and shrimp dishes, along with some fresh fruit for dessert. While
we were indulging on the food, our amazing guide, Rebecca told us all of the history of what we were seeing. At the time of our visit, the river was completely full of what looked like lily pads, slowly floating down the river towards Bangkok. Our boat driver let us know that the river only looked like this during one month of the year, and it was clear that he had to steer very carefully through the floating green masses.
The highlight of the river cruise came when the beautiful Wat Chai came into view. Wat Chai is the only major site of ruins directly on the river, and it was absolutely beautiful to see from that perspective. Rebecca told us that back when Ayutthaya was a functioning city, there weren't motorbikes or tuk tuks to get around, so most people travelled by river boat. So, seeing Wat Chai on the river was how it was meant to be seen. Our driver slowed down so we could take lots of pictures, and really breathe in the beauty of the place.
As we arrived back at the port of the restaurant, we thanked our guide for the amazing tour. We were so happy to see the city from a new perspective, while also giving some business to this amazing restaurant. Rebecca had let us know earlier on the cruise just how slow business has been since COVID hit. We were so happy to support this local business, while also having the amazing experience that we did. This is a sentiment we have taken with us since then- we can justify all the money we spend on vacation by rationalizing that it is all in support of a struggling economy.
We spent the rest of the day hopping from temple to temple in the back of Sing's tuk tuk. The
ruins really were everywhere, with so many sites to see and experience. It was another oppressively hot day, so we were so thankful for the opportunity to ride around in the tuk tuk. We finished the day back at Wat Chai, walking around the place we had previously seen from the water. It was amazing to see it up close and take in all the details that were hard to see from our place on the boat. After taking some last photos and glimpses at the amazing ruins, we had Sing drive us to a restaurant we had seen from the river, were the seats were on the floor, and there was a hole cut out under the table for your legs to dangle. It was a fun and silly place to eat some incredibly spicy and delicious curries. It was right on the river, and we watched the sun start to set on our last full day in Ayutthaya.
As we rode back to the hotel, were talked about how grateful we were for our places in life, and our paths to finding our way here. Nolan and Jessica are on summer break from teaching, which is seriously one of the greatest blessings of being an international teacher. We are able to travel freely for two months, with absolutely no consequences to our jobs. Ben's teaching job has been delayed because of COVID in Thailand, but he was also able to make this trip out. As random expats looking for friends, and because apparently Dungeons and Dragons is a great way to meet people, we became friends in the most unlikely of scenarios. And then we found ourselves in this ancient city, exploring grounds that have been walked for centuries. It is so good to have friends in a new place, and we couldn't be more grateful for Ben's friendship.
We ended the night swimming in our hotel pool to cool off from the day, and slept deeply after another full day in the sun.
In the morning, we enjoyed yet another amazing breakfast, before Ben and Jessica tried and failed to find an open massage parlor (most things in Thailand don't open until at least 11 am, something we had forgotten when embarking on this adventure). At the end, we agreed to get
massages in Bangkok, and headed to the hotel to checkout. The train was supposed to depart at 12:00, but didn't actually show up until almost 1:00, which was incredibly unfortunate in the midday heat. When the train did arrive, we hopped on to find an almost completely full car, which made the temperature in the train much higher than it had been on the way there. So, the train ride back was little more crowded and hot, but it was still amazing to read a book and watch as the Thai countryside flew by. By the time we arrived back in Bangkok, we were ready to hop on the metro, order some food panda, and sit lazily in the reach of our Aircon.
Our trip to Ayutthaya was another amazing adventure, and it was so exciting to delve into Thai history with a new friend. It is one thing to know and spend a few hours with someone, but it is totally different to go on a trip together and experience something so unique with them. We were so happy that Ben reached out so that we can forever share this experience and our friendship with him.
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