ayutthaya trip

I decided to make the most out of my solo trip in Bangkok (not that meeting Seunggi is not worthwhile by itself) and squeeze in a day out of the city to visit Ayutthaya. To my relief, my seatmates in the plane going to Bangkok are going there as well, so we decided to meet at Victory Monument station to catch the van going to Ayutthaya.

 Wat Yai Chaimongkol

We decided to use the van route instead of the train since we’re in a rush. Best way to go about it is to have someone from your hotel to write down “van to Ayutthaya” in Thai and show it to people you meet on the way and they will point it directly to you (worked splendidly when we did it). I think we arrived there a little more than an hour from Bangkok (it was a bit longer than expected because of the LONG line at the gas station). It was raining on our way there, but thankfully it petered out by the time we arrived.

The van dropped us off a random highway, so thank the Lord that I have people with me who don’t have problems talking to strangers and are excellent at haggling! We got an awesome deal for THB200/hour and it was in a car, not a tuktuk. Hahaha, it was an honest mistake, we didn’t know the guy we’re dealing with is going to use a car :D

I was expecting more of a Siem Reap or Bagan layout in Ayutthaya, but apparently it’s not the case. It’s already a bustling town in itself and then you’ll just be surprised when a random turn off the main road will already show you one of the temples.

The temples and ruins are stunning, and most of them have that brick red look that I really enjoy taking photos of (Pre Rup memories!) I think it was because I still have that Bagan hangover from my Myanmar trip a few months back that there’s not much of a WOW factor (temple fatigue I guess) when I went through the spots. And maybe because I was in a hurry going around, we only made around six stops (we skipped lunch! Batteries made out of adrenaline!) so that we can take a van going back to Bangkok before the weekday rush. Nonetheless, I wish I could go there again to fully explore the area.

Wat Yai Chaimongkol

Wat Mahathat
 




Wat Lokkayasutharam
 

Wat Chai Wattanaram
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Wat Phu Khao Thong
 

Wat Ratchaburana