Nick’s world tour

After an unintentional late night, I grab a one way ticket on a mini bus for Ayutthaya, a couple of hours north of Bangkok.

Ayuthaya is an island at the confluence of a few rivers, and was once the capital of what is now Thailand. The Burmese tried, with varying degrees of success, to capture the island. Now a modern city, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with monuments and Wats (temples) scattered throughout.

I take a room at a nice teak house, with a large groundfloor open area, which serves as a bar, restaurant, travel agents… and an area for just watching the world go by.

The first afternoon there’s a long boat trip around some of the temples on the mainland. Passing teak houses on stilts, and crossing the wake of huge barges transporting goods, we stop at three sites. Ruined and collapsing, with a number of Buddhas is Wat Chai Wattanaram.

Wat Phuttaisawan with a reclining Buddha (to signify the moment of elightenment) is interesting to walk around. Finally Wat Phanan Choeng is an ornate building containing, at 19m, what is apparently Thailand’s … you guessed it … large Buddha.

For the remaining time, I wander around the old city areas. It’s a bit like the Roman forums, lots of old towers, pillars and monuments. After a while all the prangs (towers) and chedi (bell shaped towers) all merge into on, and I feel watted out.

The evening of the King’s 60th anniversary is celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm. Giant stages are built all down the main street with various bands, troupes of olde-time-musical-hall style dancing girls, plays and comedians. Although I didn’t understand the comedians, you knew when to laugh as each punchline was accompanied by a clash on the cymbals: very Phoenix Nights. A sea of people in yellow “Long live the king” t-shirts moves between them and past the colourful markets selling everything, including all manner of fish and meat products on kebabs, interesting looking sweets and some odd black drinks. As very little is written in western-script, let along English, some of the food are a gamble I don’t fancy taking!

Having done the ancient city thing, I decide to head straight up to Chiang Mai in the north of the country, where hopefully it will be a little cooler and maybe less humid? Probably not, but I can hope! I ended up spending a day longer than intended, as it’s a night bus, and if I’d gone on Saturday I’d have missed the England match.

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