Day 219 : Ayutthaya

We hired some bikes from the hotel and cycled a route around the old town as suggested by the Lonely Planet. The ruins are more spread out and not as impressive as Sukhothai (or maybe we’ve just seen enough ruins that it takes more to be impressed). It’s also much busier here – it’s a big town with ruins dotted amongst the houses and shops unlike Sukhothai where there was nothing else. As a town it feels quite different to other places in Thailand – it doesn’t feel as cosmopolitan as Bangkok or Chiang Mai and there seems to be more poverty here. They also bore the brunt of the flood damage at the end of last year – many of the ruins are closed while they repair them.

Our hotel arranged a (free!) boat tour in the early evening so we got to see the temples from the river (Ayutthaya old town is an island surrounded by canals) and visit some of those which were only easily accessible by boat. The boat dropped us off at a night market and so we ate at a food stall by the river with another English couple from the boat.