A Frustrating Day in Ayutthaya

Today was kind of a frustrating day. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a bad day but it was the first day of this trip that wasn’t totally awesome.

I got up early, checked out of my Bangkok hostel, and took a cab to the train station. I bought a third-class ticket to Ayutthaya for 20 baht, which is less than one dollar. I had read that third-class cars have fans instead of air-conditioning but the ride was only two hours so I saved some money and took third-class.

The ride was quite pleasant. The tracks pass a lot of interesting sights like fields, ramshackle houses, and bits of graffiti. Vendors walked up and down the aisles selling bottled water and styrofoam plates of pad thai. The Thai man sitting across from me asked to see my ticket and let me know when it was time for me to get off the train.

After I got off the train, I had no idea where to go. I had written someone from the Couchsurfing website the night before about having a place to stay but hadn’t hear back before I left. I needed to find wi-fi so I could check to see if I had received a reply.

A tuk-tuk driver told me there was wi-fi at the tourism information center so I had him take me there. When I got there, I discovered that they did not in fact have wi-fi. They did, however, give me some maps of Ayutthaya and tell me where some guesthouses were.

I decided to check out the temple ruins then try to find wi-fi to see if I had to book a guesthouse or if I could stay with the person from Couchsurfing. On the way to one of the sites, I passed the elephant park where tourists were riding on elephants. There are a number of animal-based tourist attractions in Southeast Asia involving elephants and tigers but before I left I decided I wouldn’t do any of them. By all accounts, the animals are treated poorly and many people believe that the tigers are heavily drugged in order to allow tourists to play with them.

Happy tourists on sad elephants.

My room for the night.

I eventually made it to one of the temple ruin sites and explored it for a bit. It was cool but I don’t know that it is worth making a trip to Ayutthaya for. There are a number of other sites that I didn’t see though so if you were to hire a tuk-tuk to drive you from site to site it might be more worth it.

After the ruins, I still had no idea what to do about accommodation for the night. I came across a tourism police office (where you report scams and pickpockets and the like) and asked if I could use their computer. They said sure and I was able to check and see that I hadn’t heard back from the Couchsurfing guy.

By then, I was tired. It was very hot out and I had been walking a lot. I decided to find a place to stay for tonight. One of the maps I had gotten at the tourism office mentioned a cheap guesthouse called Tony’s Place so I decided to head there. It ended up taking me about 30 or 45 minutes to get there. When I got there, I was told that they were out of the cheapest kind of room so I had to pay an extra 100 baht for a nicer room. That’s only about three dollars so it’s not a huge deal but I’m trying to stretch my money as far as I can so it was a little annoying.

So I’m at the guesthouse now. The room I got is a small room that I have to myself that’s actually pretty nice. I think I’ll spend the rest of the day resting or something. I wanted to head to Chiang Mai tomorrow but you need to get your train ticket in advance and after all the running around today I have no desire to pay a tuk-tuk to drive me to the train station just so I can try to get a ticket. Because of this, I think I’m going to go to Phitsanulok tomorrow. I’ve written someone on the Couchsurfing website for a place to stay and hopefully will hear back before I leave tomorrow morning.

Today was frustrating but I suppose it’s all part of the travel experience. Bangkok was an easy city to get around and find stuff to do in but I’m not always going to be in big cities. My lack of planning was my downfall today so I’m going to try to start preparing more for each location.