The Jungle Book: April 18 (Ayutthaya)

April 18 (Ayutthaya)

Sadly we were back on land on the 18^th after an awesome time on the boat to the Similan Islands. The dive shop gave us a ride back to Phuket where we were hoping to catch a bus from there to Chiang Mai (which consists of two 10-12 hour bus rides). The bus station in Phuket was crazy and packed since many people were trying to go back home via bus after the Songkran holiday. After asking around at all the sales windows, every bus for that day was sold out and they would not sell us a ticket for the next day; we would have to come back at 5am the next morning. A nice couple (white man, Thai woman) approached us and asked where we were trying to go. Since she spoke Thai, she asked around too to see if there was anything left for that day, but to no avail. They told us they had been waiting since 11am to catch a bus (it was now 7pm) and that we were pretty much shit out of luck and would have to wait one or two days for the next bus. Fortunately, our luck changed and an extremely nice Thai cop/security guard asked us where we were trying to go. He told us to wait a few minutes and he would go ask bus drivers if they had any room. After a few minutes he waved us around to a bus that was heading to the outskirts of Bangkok where all people going to Chiang Mai transfer buses. We hopped onto a full bus and were led by the driver where we were to sit: one person in a seat upstairs and the other through this tiny door at the back of the bus where the staff sleep at night. Steph gladly took this space and I the seat. After a few minutes, I was instructed to leave the seat and head to the back door where Steph was. Thus, we were both kept as stowaways for this 10 hour bus ride. They told us not to open the curtains or turn on the light so the police couldn’t see that we were there. There wasn’t enough space to stand-up (when I was sitting my head hit the ceiling) but it was the width of the bus which allowed us to lie down and sleep for 8 hours – ideal for the overnight ride.

The next morning when we woke up, we spontaneously decided to take a local bus to Ayutthaya (one hour north of Bangkok) to break up the long bus rides and to visit the old capital of Thailand (1351-1767). Ayutthaya is full of history and spectacular ruins (for more click here). Upon finding a place to stay in Ayutthaya, we also signed up for the boat tour of the city and some of the countless Buddhist temples (known as Wat's) and monuments. The tour was awesome and included stops at Wat Chaiwatthanaram constructed in 1630, Wat Phanan Choeng which houses the 19m bronze statue of Buddah (the largest in Thailand), and Wat Phutthai Sawan that has the reclining Buddha signifying Buddha's moment of enlightenment .

After the tour ended at night we walked over to the night market to have dinner and watch the local Thai dance show (which we didn’t understand any of).