Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a town most people know for its temples but not much else. Its not too far north of Bangkok so its usually ideal for a day trip. However I planned on spending longer than that there, two nights at the least. I had picked out a hostel online since I was going to get there late in the evening and you dont want to be looking around in the dark for a place to stay. It was called Moradok Thai and despite not looking up to much on first impression it turned out to be one of the nicest places I stayed on my travels. I was greeted on arrival by two ladies called Somsam and Gina and it soon became clear that I was their only guest. I suppose the place is a little out of town so only if you looked it up would you know it was there, its not in the kind of location where you would stumble upon it. Nonetheless it is pretty close to some street food stalls to which I was directed when I asked about places to get something to eat. Here I got some traditional cheap thai food. I was starting to like the place already! I soon realised a storm was brewing so I quickly moved from my slightly exposed plastic chair in a car park to my hostel which offered a little more cover from a monsoon.....

The following morning I went for a wander towards the town centre and in search of some internet access since it was one thing my hostel lacked. After some searching I managed to find both. I also found a little tour operator who convinced me to go on a sunset tour of the town outskirts. Basically the town is on an island with a river encircling it. But it was still early enough in the day to do something else so I went in search of the floating market. I found it and I also had an opportunity to go elephant riding or see a snake show. Since id been on an elephant before I took the opportunity to go see the snake show. This was a 30 minute show by a guy who had spent most of his life working with snakes. What he did was imitate the movements of a snake with his legs to hold the attention of the snake and seemingly agitate it. He would crouch in front of the snake and wave his knee from side to side. He did this with a cobra first then a python and another I didnt know. The cobra seemed the tamest or the one he had the most control over and the python was the rebel. When he finished with each snake he would catch it behind the head and bring it over to me to show me its teeth and in the case of the cobra the venom in its fangs, which could drop an elephant if it bit one..... After he finished up I had a chat with him and he showed me the injuries and scars he had obtained in his work with snakes including the loss of a finger on one hand. A hazardous occupation clearly!

On my way back to the place where I had booked my trip I stopped off for lunch at a little restaurant. The guy who ran it proceeded to throw puzzles at me while I was waiting and when I started solving them he began throwing footie trivia questions at me as well. It was good fun and a pleasant way to spend an hour over lunch. I would have been happy to spend longer there but I had a boat to catch. So off I went on my tour and it was quite a nice one. The boat was basically a taxi between temples but travelling on water is pleasant on a hot day. The temples we visited were nice, especially the one with the giant buddha but having come from Angkor recently they didnt quite blow me away. Later that evening a spanish guy stayed in the hostel and we shared a beer and had a chat. It was nice to have some company in the hostel. The next day I went around some of the temples in the town of which the most famous one has a buddha image trapped in the roots of a tree. Basically the temple got abandoned and the tree grew up around the buddha statue. Having been to Angkor recently the temples didnt exactly blow me away but it was a nice way to spend a day nonetheless. I ended up staying longer in Ayutthaya primarily because of the staff in the hostel. Ive rarely felt so looked after and wasnt in a big rush anywhere so I was quite happy to hang about. They gave me breakfast in the mornings and id have a beer with them in the evenings.

My last day in town was spent trying to remove a nasty virus from my laptop with the help of my mates back home. I settled myself in a restaurant with free wifi for the majority of the day and got to work trying to remove the problem from my hard drive. Finally thanks to Tadgh I managed to fix it. Happy with this piece of good fortune I was all ready to go to Koh Samet early the next morning for some beach therapy!