The third-world train to Ayutthaya
leaves with a 30-minute delay from Hualamphong Station.
Ayutthaya welcomes us with the same
sultriness and moistness as Bangkok; we will have to wait to be in the north to
enjoy that pleasant mountain breeze.
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| Ayutthaya Train Station |
Ayutthaya, centuries-old centre of
Asian power, today offers a partial evidence of its glorious past. Until now
the place has been relatively undamaged by the strong tourism flow and it boasts
a special charm, but its contiguity with Bangkok makes it a compulsory stopover
for tourists heading north. Ayutthaya is also the city of dogs There are many
of them, often aggressive, mindless of cars, people, I've never seen so badly flea-bitten
and dirty ones before.
We rent a bike just outside of the
station, we have to carry it on the ferryboat with us, a wearying deal, and we
had to pay for an overpriced fare, unaware of the fact that once gotten out of
the vessel, we would have found several and much cheaper "rentals".
Grrr what a damned nuisance! Experience is a brutal teacher.
We visit Ayutthaya riding our bike.
We sweat, we laugh and we sweat again. And we have fun.
We arrive by chance to temple which
is not widely visited and off the touristic routes, the Wat Suwan Dararam, a
mixture of Thai architectural styles. Then in the wake of other cyclists we
arrive to the more popular Wat Phra Mahathat where a Buddha's head is set into
a centuries-old tangle of tree roots. Nobody knows how the head could reach
that place but according to the legend it was abandoned during Ayutthaya's
plundering from the Burmese and the roots then grew around it.
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Buddha’s head set into a centuries-old
tree
2011 © Giovanna
Puccia – All rights reserved
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We take our bikes again, riding for
a few hundred metres to get to the well-known and widely visited temple of
Ayutthaya: the Wat Si Sanphet.
The three overshadowing chedis are
some must see places. Inside there used to be a 16-metre tall statue of Buddha
(Phra Si Sanphet), covered in 250 kilos of gold, then melted by the Burmese. It's
late afternoon already and we have to return our bikes at the scheduled time so
we decide to circumnavigate the island by bike to avoid to take ferry boat
again. Everything went well but we are starting to be hungry. Seba is eating
some chicken skewers cooked in a little stand on the road, but I reluctantly
refuse to have some. But I'm starving so I decide to try some. And then some
more. I learnt a lesson, never judge a book by the cover! So that on second
thought, after a few minutes I ask Seba to go and get some of that simply
cooked but delicious food.
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Wat Phra Mahathat
2011 © Giovanna
Puccia – All rights reserved |
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Wat Phra Mahathat
2011 © Giovanna
Puccia – All rights reserved |
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Wat Phra Mahathat
2011 © Giovanna
Puccia – All rights reserved |
We have to wait for a full hour
delay to take the overnight train for Chiang Mai and this adds up to the other
several hours wandering around the train station. Come to this point we don't
look like a couple of travelling lovebirds anymore but a couple of flower
children jogging on the dusty roads of the city of dogs.
The overnight Thai train could be
honestly compared to most European trains as for cleanliness and staff
efficiency. When you get on the train, the staff makes your bed, they lay clean
sheets and blankets to then take everything off in the morning. The berths are
placed in one only coach and they are located one next to each other. After
getting on the train, we shortly after fall asleep. 12 hours of travel pass by
very quickly when you are comfortably dozing off.
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