The historic city of Ayutthaya, located just 80 km from Bangkok, is an ideal one-day trip destination before you move forward either to the south or the north of the country (depending on whether you prefer the sea or the mountains). And because I love trip, temples, ruins and historic sights, I could not skip this place while planning our vacation in Thailand. How to get here? What to see: How to move around the historic park? Keep on reading.
First, let me give a History 101 lesson.
Ayutthaya was founded in the 14th century an until the 18th
century was the capital of the Thai kingdom. 35 kings sat on the throne in that
time and the kingdom was thriving. In 1767, Ayutthaya was conquered by the
Burmese army and Bangkok became the capital city of Thailand. Since then,
Ayutthaya was neglected and a lot of the buildings were destroyed by time, but
in 1991 the historic park was listed as a UNESCO heritage sight and that
brought a lot of tourists into the region, which means that Ayutthaya can be
preserved for the generations to come.
Getting there and
getting around
Ayutthaya can be reached most comfortably by
train which leaves from central station in Bangkok about twice an hour. The
journey takes around two hours, depending on the type of train you take. There
are three classes of carriages in the trains. First class is the most expensive
and the most comfortable, but for such a short journey it is not necessary, I
think. The second class has AC and you need to buy your ticket in advance, as
it gets sold out in the rush hours. Third class is what most of you will go
for. It never sells out, because you are not guaranteed a seat when you buy a
ticket. There is no AC, just fans at the ceiling and open windows, but even in
the Thai heat the fans do their job of keeping the temperature in the train in
check. Most of the Thai people use the third class to commute to work, so you
get the true feeling of what life is like for the locals. And what is the best
part? The price of the ticket is just insane! No western company would even let
you enter their train for this price. We paid just 20 THB for one-way ticket,
that is like 50 cents or something. How crazy is that?
Third class, smooth
travels. And yes, the girl in a pink top is me, but I was looking like a crazy person, so I cropped myself out. :-)
After you arrive to Ayutthaya, you will be
greeted by a bunch of tuk-tuk drivers claiming the temples are too far to reach
by foot. Unless you plan to hire a tuk-tuk for the entire day, you can ignore
them and follow the crowd to the river, where you can use a boat to cross it. The
ferryman was missing a leg, but sailed us to the other side with grace. From there,
you can choose your mean of transport for the day – bicycle, tuk-tuk or
walking.
Since some of the temples are really far from
each other, I would recommend borrowing a bicycle. We didn´t do that (because
on the map, everything looked within walking distance), but that was a mistake.
You can also get a tuk-tuk and use the pay-for-ride system or just hire it for
the whole day. If you plan to use it a lot, having it for the day is more
convenient. Or you can just walk around the temples and jump in a tuk-tuk only
for the longer distances.
If you want to discover Ayutthaya on your own
(without a guide or a tuk-tuk driver for the day), I would recommend doing some
planning before you arrive. Because of the distances between the temples, you
might not have time to see all of them, which mean you have to prioritize. We
spent awful lot of time just studying the map and deciding where to go next,
and if we had a plan from the beginning, we would maybe squeeze one more temple
in.
What to see?
As I said, there is a lot of temples in
Ayutthaya, and we have barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer.
Some of the most famous are even outside of the city, so without a tuk-tuk or a
bike you don´t have a chance to see them. But I want to share which temples we
did manage to visit nad discover.
Wat Phra Mahathat is the first temple you reach, if
you walk or cycle from the river towards the historic park. It is also the one
and only place where we saw bigger groups of tourists, because it is a popular
stop for touristic buses (probably organized trip for people in resorts). The
main attraction of this temple is the Buddha statue, more specifically the
Buddha head, embedded in the roots of a tree. You can wander amongst the ruins
and admire what was left from the great city – the walls, columns, stupas and
so much more. But that goes for all the temples on my list.
Expectation vs.
reality. This is the biggest crowd we saw in all of Ayutthay.
Outside of this temple there is a big and
beautiful park, and is you have time I highly recommend having a stroll. From
time to time you stumble upon a ruin and if you look closely, you might spot
some varans. Just focus on the water, the local rivers and ponds are full of
them. We got lucky and saw quite a lot of them.
Yep, there he is. At
first I thought it´s some kind of a small crocodile, but they don´t live in
Ayutthaya.
On the other side of the park you will reach
three other temples, which are basically next to each other. Wat Phra Ram, though smaller than the
other temples in Ayutthaya, is still very beautiful and charming. Bonus – there
was not another living soul. We enjoyd walking around the central tower of this
temple (the tower in Thai temples are called “prang”). And the statues of
Buddha in this place are the most photogenic ever.
Wat Phra Ram is such a model!
The temple Wat Na Phra Men is working to this day and you get to see a lot of monks in their traditional orange clothing. Inside, you can see old photographs from before the reconstruction.
Right next to is is the stunning Wat Phra Si Sanphet, the biggest of the
three temples. Three white stupas are shining in the afternoon and one can only
imagine how beautiful Ayutthaya must have been in its time. Walk around the
temple and don´t forget to explore hidden corners of the ruins as well. We
found ourselves a very nice spot for a snack, overlooking the stupas and
cooling of in the shades.
The three central stupas in Wat Phra Si Sanphet.
Afterwards we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the
next stop – Wat Chaiwatthanaram. This building reminds of Angkor Wat in
Cambodia (even though I have never been there, just seen the pictures). This
temple has everything a proper ancient temple should have – never-ending lines
of headless Buddha statues, giant central prang surrounded by smaller stupas
and a nice view of the city. The Tuk-tuk driver waited for us, and then took us
back to the park area, basically to where we started our day and where we also
finished it.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram is
a bit further away from the rest of the temples. We overcame the 4km distance
with tuk-tuk.
Last temple we visited was called Wat
Ratchaburana, and we couldn´t have picked a better place to end our tour with.
Out of all the temples we saw during the day, this was the only one where we
could actually climb. Instead of admiring the buildings and ruins from the
ground, we were able to climb the stars to the central prang and enjoy the
wonders of Ayutthaya from a brand-new perspective. It was almost 6 p.m. when
all the temples close for the night, the sun was going down, and the brick and
stone walls were beautifully sunlit. I was super tired by the day we had, my
feet hurt and I was thirsty, but to be honest, I was the happiest little
traveller in the world at that moment.
Our last stop of the day was the only
“climable” one
And what else?
Maybe you are wondering when I finally get to
the cotton candy part from the title, and what the hell it has to do with
ancient Thai architecture. Roti Sai Mai is a traditional food originally from
the Ayutthaya region and more than anything in the world it reminded me of crêpes. But it´s green and its filled with some kind of
sweet sugar strings, which tasted a lot like cotton candy. They sell this
delish thing at food stals, you get a plastic bag full of the sugar strings and
the amount of crêpes you want… And then you find yourself a piece of shade and
enjoy the sugar explosion in your mouth. You dietologist neither your dentist
will praise you for it, but after walking or cycling around the temples all day
you deserve this!
Yeah and we also had THE BEST noodle soup in
the entire universe. We got it in a shabby looking food stall slash restaurant
(because it actually had one wall and something like a roof) and we paid like 1
Euro for it. But oh… my… God! My mouth waters just thinking about it.
Colourful “cotton
candy” ready to be wrapped into a crêpe. and the best soup I have ever
tried.
After returning to Bangkok, we attacked all the
street food in the area where we lived and rushed to bed. On the following day after breakfast we took
taxi to the airport (to safe some time, because otherwise getting there would
take forever) and flew about thousand kilometres south to the Krabi region. We
said goodbye to the sights and architecture and finally were looking forward to
the tropical paradise that is the Thai cost.
The advice you never
asked for:
- Leave Bangkok early in the
morning and return late in the evening. You will have no problem creating
an itinerary for your long day in Ayutthaya, because there is just so much
to see.
- Take the third-class train.
Seriously. I have no idea how much the second- or first-class tickets
cost, but third class was super fun, reasonably comfortable and sooooooo
cheap!
- Don´t forget you need to cover
your knees and your shoulders to visit the temples. Unlike Bangkok, you
keep your shoes on, because you are outside all the time.
- If you plan to use tuk-tuk a
lot, hire one for the entire day. It will be so much cheaper than
pay-per-ride, and you will have a chance to see temples further away from
the city.
- You will see some elephants in
the city with tourists riding them. Please, opt-out from these activities,
since this business is very cruel to the elephants. Don´t support animal abuse, don´t ride the elephants.
The cost of things
(autumn 2019):
- Train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya
and back (third class): 35 THB (1 EUR / 1,1 USD)
- Ferry over the river (one way):
5 THB (basically nothing)
- Bicycle rent for the day: 50
THB (1,4 EUR / 1,6 USD)
- Entrance fee: 50 THB per temple
(1,4 EUR / 1,6 USD)
- Tuk-tuk (one ride): 100 – 150
THB depending on the distance (3-4 EUR or USD)
- Tuk-tuk (all day): I don´t
remember exactly, but I think the rate was something like 700 or 800 THB
(around 20 EUR / 25 USD)
Where to next:
Previous part: Bangkok – the Asian city ofangels
Next part: Ao Nang – a beginner´s guide
Two weeks in Thailand – check out our itinerary here
You can find even more picture from past and current travels on my Instagram – whereisiveta. Don´t forget to follow so you never miss an article.
Comments
Post a Comment