Our last full day in S.E. Asia on this trip. We moved to the Hua Lamphong Hostel, directly across from the train station. We had originally planned to stay here for our entire stay in Bangkok, but as we had arrived ahead of schedule, The Montien had been a treat at $50 / night and a sanctuary of comfort for Jordan to recover slightly from his bout of flu. The station was not the hub of bustling activity we had seen earlier, but it functioned in a very orderly manner.
The Eastern & Oriental Express had arrived that morning delivering its passengers in 5 star luxury between Singapore and Bangkok - but for us today it was the slow local train to Ayutthaya, basic and cheap at 60 cents each round trip for the 1 hour 45 minute ride.
The tuk-tuks in Ayutthaya charge 120-150 baht for a one way into town, given the distance, and as we later found out there is also a passenger ferry across the river, it didn't seem like a good deal, so we rented bicycles across from the station for 50 baht each and armed with a free tourist map of the city, started to explore on our own.
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| Thailands most popular image |
The city sits at the confluence of three rivers, and it felt like that humidity added to the 35c heat, made it the hottest day of the trip. Our destination was Wat Maha That and we took a leisurely route along the southern riverbank, then heading north into the city along a tree lined boulevard. The ruins were quite different to those we had viewed previously - exposed red bricks revealed the construction dating from the late 1300's. Grabbing a bite to eat at a vegetarian restaurant, that also seemed to be a popular after-school diner for dating teenagers, we headed back to the station and return our rental bikes.
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| Pa Sak river crossing |
The train back to Bangkok was full and it was dark as we boarded. One of the Bangkok station exits is very close to the hostel, and eliminated the need to cross any streets. We regrouped before heading to the Chinatown area for supper. It had been an exhausting day and tomorrow would be a long day of travel.
The Eastern & Oriental Express had arrived that morning delivering its passengers in 5 star luxury between Singapore and Bangkok - but for us today it was the slow local train to Ayutthaya, basic and cheap at 60 cents each round trip for the 1 hour 45 minute ride.
The tuk-tuks in Ayutthaya charge 120-150 baht for a one way into town, given the distance, and as we later found out there is also a passenger ferry across the river, it didn't seem like a good deal, so we rented bicycles across from the station for 50 baht each and armed with a free tourist map of the city, started to explore on our own.
The city sits at the confluence of three rivers, and it felt like that humidity added to the 35c heat, made it the hottest day of the trip. Our destination was Wat Maha That and we took a leisurely route along the southern riverbank, then heading north into the city along a tree lined boulevard. The ruins were quite different to those we had viewed previously - exposed red bricks revealed the construction dating from the late 1300's. Grabbing a bite to eat at a vegetarian restaurant, that also seemed to be a popular after-school diner for dating teenagers, we headed back to the station and return our rental bikes.
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