Jess & Jude's Adventures in Thailand 2004

Friday 18 June
Day tour to Ayuthaya

It was too god damn early for a wake up call, 5.50am. Had to drag Jess out of bed, grumpy bear. We rushed down to breakfast at 6.15am and picked up by the tour guide at 6.45am. We were picked up in a minivan then 1/2 an hour later transferred to a large tour bus for our drive to Ayuthaya. Our guide "Porn" gave us a 1/2 hour talk on the history of Thailand which was quite interesting and passed the time.

Our first stop was at the Bang Pa In Royal Palace. It was very touristy and not really worth a visit. The grounds and some of the buildings were interesting. We spent an hour here wandering around.

Next stop was Wat Naphrameru-rajika Ram a 17th centry Wat outside Ayuthaya. Just as we arrived a very heavy rain storm came over and the roads turned to rivers. It was quite spectacular inside the Wat.

The next stop on the tour was a large reclining Buddha. Luckily the rain had eased so we could take a walk around for about 15 minutes.

We finally arrived at the ruins I was interested in. Amazing crumbling brick structures built in Khmer, Cambodian and Sukhothai styles.

There were 100's of Buddhas all beheaded by the Burmese during the wars.

We also saw a Buddha head which had been completely enclosed by the roots of a tree. We only stayed here for 30 minutes. I could have spent a lot longer wandering among the ruins. Jess was totally bored!

Back on the bus we had a 40 minute trip to the river to board our cruise boat back to Bangkok. The River Sun Cruise boat was very luxurious inside. We had a sumptuous international buffet including Thai, Chinese and Japanese food. There was plenty to eat for everyone. We spent the next 4 hours cruising the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok.

We met a nice English couple, Fred and Claire(thanks for the good company). We passed many Wats, typical Thai river houses and factories. The Pepsi factory was very noticeable by the giant Pepsi can which I think was a water tower.

Despite a few rain showers the trip was excellent. We arrived back at the River City Complex at 4.30pm and hopped back onto our tour bus for the trip back to the hotel. At 6pm we were still stuck in the middle of a traffic jam outside the Siam Centre. We gave up on the bus and decided to walk back to the hotel. We got as far as the WTC before taking a taxi the rest of the way for 41bt.

As part on our hotel/airfare deal we recieved to complimentary tickets to a Kantoke Dinner and show. When we got back to the hotel we quickly changed and made our way to the hotels Sala Thai Restaurant at 7pm.

The food was very nice, we recieved small dishes of various Thai cuisine including Thai desserts and coffee.

After dinner we were treated to some great Thai dancing. The dancers were dressed in traditional costumes and performed many different Thai dances. It was a very enjoyable evening. We called it quits at 9.30pm, it had been a long day.