We went out today to Ayutthaya, one of the old capitals of Thailand. We’d intended to go out by train, but Mr Pao Boon, our landlord, reckoned the trains only went early in the morning, + as he is generally a magnificently reliable guide, we took his word for it, + caught the bus up to the Northern bus station, + climbed on to a bus. Mr P supplied us with notes written in Thai to show to bus conductors etc, to smooth our path. The bus ride was not at all pleasant, however, the bus was crowded, the seats cramped, + it was very fortunate I had a Time magazine to lose myself in.
We were dropped off on the outskirts of the town, + had a cold drink while we gathered our wits, tried to gain our bearings, + rebuffed the attempts of the puk-puk drivers to take us on conducted tours around the ruins – we had to be pretty rude to dissuade one particularly persistent character. It was around noon, + we spent three and a half hours or so wandering around the various ruins – it was quite a hike, as there were a huge number of temples etc, scattered all over town, + we weren’t able to see more than half a dozen different sites. We had a map, but it seemed out of sync with reality, but we managed to get around the most important ones within walking distance. They were impressive too, not much more than the ruined piles of chadis, tho’ quite a lot of restoration work had been, + still was, going on. Which makes a nice balance. Like the Mayan temples, the temples were too old + too remote from my own experience for me to feel any humanity associated with them. But it was an interesting enough day, tho’ exhausting. We walked out to the station at the finish, + tho’ the first train that was supposed to come thro’ didn’t, for some unknown reason, the next one did. A quiet journey back – we had to sit apart, so lost ourselves in our own thoughts. That was quite enough for us for the day – we showered, had dinner, went to bed.
Pure sight-seeing, of the type that occupies quite a bit of our time. But interesting enough, for all that. But, like I say, we are just finding ways to occupy ourselves, until we can be on our way once again.
