A day outing to Ayutthaya

This place had caught my attention from the first time we started looking for nearby places to check out. Only later I realized that this is one of the most visited historical sites near Bkk. Since it is just a day outing mostly everyone does visit this place. So we too did this place.
There are different ways to get to this place, we took the mini van option to reach there. Since we were leaving a little later in the morning we opted out of train journey, generally a more suggested way to reach Ayutthaya. We took the BTS as usual and reached Victory monument to take the mini van. The junction is a huge place and considering there are hardly any sign boards in English it can get tiring trying to find the place where mini vans to Ayutthaya started from. We dragged ourselves and finally got the van. The tickets cost us 60 baht each. Sis dozed off as usual and I was in my mind palace sometimes peaking into the scenery our van passed through. It was about an hours journey and when we reached the place the van dropped us off at the Chao Phrom market place. Again it was burning hot outside. Some of the tuk tuk and car rental guys approached us as we got off our van. We pushed our way through them and then walked a bit to see if we could find some bike rental places. Somehow the dropping pt was no where close to where we could find bike rentals. So we just walked about a bit and then finally after seeing no other way out we hired a tuk tuk. He charged 500 baht for 3 hrs. It was a rip off again but couldn't help since we were just 2 people and were not too good with bargaining. Again sis and me had a tiff over the price.
So our first drop was at Wat Mongkol Bophit. There was an entrance fee to this place. From the gate the building is seen at a distance. Post rainy season this place must look amazing I am sure, with all the greenery around. So we walked inside. The temple has a huge golden Buddha statue. There was a guy/priest who was reading some hymns into the mike and some people sat beside him and offered prayers. It was nice inside. Here they have this habit of sticking golden papers on the statues, may be a sort of an offering or something. This sticking over the years has made those idols look from a distance naturally golden in colour. This is a in-use Wat. So it is maintained well. We got some pictures and then moved on to the next place Wat Phra Si Sanphet which can be entered from within this temple's campus. This is the original ruin Wat. The 3 big tombs are symmetrically built and look magnificent from any angle you see it within the Wat campus. A little less sun would have helped enjoy this place a bit more. There s a lot of historical importance to this, infact to Ayutthaya as a whole.
Next we moved to Wat Lokayasutharam. It is just a huge reclining Buddha in the middle of no where. They cover the body of the idol with Orange coloured clothing. His head rests on a lotus and He has an all knowing smile on His face. It is kind of nice to see the smiling face. There were some people offering lotus and lighting candle and incense sticks. This wasn't crowded as such. We bowed our heads and moved on to the next location.
Wat Chai Watthanaram is truly a magnificent structure. Loved the look from the distance as well as up close. Again, after rains this place would have looked multiple times more awe inspiring. This place has an entrance fee too. Since it is in ruins, some of the idols are broken but still some part of the structure is intact. There was some restructuring work going on. This place really made my day. Got pictures, read up on the stuff that was written about the place and walked out. There were people who cycled around within the town, really appreciate their courage.
Next we moved to Wat Thammikarat. This place has some weird things. No entrance fee. They have dogs lying around the temple complex and there were donation boxes for treatment of stray dogs here. There are ceiling mist sprayers here. Not sure if it was to keep the people cool or it has some other significance. Anyways, we went inside the temple and there was a reclining Buddha idol. There was a priest who was offering prayers and there was a background musical prayer being played too. We paid our respects and then walked further to see the ruins. This place has cock idols which can be offered to the king's statue. The black king was seated on a stage surrounded by an army of cocks of all sizes. Weird I know. Next to him was the ruin of earlier temple structure. Here people can take terracotta slates and write stuff on them using a chalk. And then place it at the feet of the ruins. No clue what anything here has a significance. Once we were out I saw a huge black Buddha head inside a lotus statue. Kind of makes one feel like smiling back when looking at the smile on His face.
Next we moved to Wat Mahathat, the most visited Wat. It is actually not disappointing as most touristy places have turned out to be these days. There was an entrance fee here. We saw the famous Buddha head within the Banyan tree. This was just a tick in the check list. As such it wasn't anything great to see but then why miss it. The campus has lots of ruins and infact one black wall too. Not sure how it looks black today even after being burnt ages ago. Walked around a bit, got pictures, read a bit about the place and finally saw the leaning towers here. 2 of the structures have slid a bit from their original shape and appear to be leaning towards the ground. It was still hot and I was really feeling exhausted. The driver told us that we had reached our 3 hr limit, I told him we still have 30 mins and lets finish the next pt. For 500 Baht stretching half an hr was no big deal for him actually.
Quickly we rushed to our next and last stop Wat Yai Chai Mongkol. This is again on the mainland of the town. So our tuk tuk guy had to drive a bit longer. We reached the place and saw another reclining Buddha wrapped in Orange/Yellow/Golden clothing, I was losing colour sense by now. We walked further and there was a temple where people were offering prayers with lotus and incense sticks. We went inside and saw a huge golden seated Buddha. Here they decorate the idol with golden wrapping studded with stones. This actually brightens the interiors and also make Buddha look brighter. We bowed here and went out to see the old Wat building. It is a huge structure and the only one where you can actually go inside. We walked up the steps and into the main enclosure at the top. There is a small well sorts where people had thrown coins, mostly like a wishing well I guess minus the water. There are some Buddha statues around the well, mostly placed in recent times. They looked new and intact, hence my assumption. Walked down and headed back to our ride. This place is well maintained with green lawns and couple of new structures within the campus. The sun was right behind the Wat structure and it was a perfect view. This is surrounded by many small stone Buddha statues on all sides.
Finally we were out, all exhausted and happy after an eventful day. We asked the tuk tuk guy to skip Wat Phra Ram and instead drop us at the railway station. On return we took the train, 3 reasons -  was closer to our last drop point, cheaper, wanted to experience the much hyped local train journey. Since it was 4 in the evening it was still hot. The railway station is actually well maintained neat and nice on the eyes too. There are huge fans and seats all around them for passengers to sit and feel light. We used the pay and use lu here just to freshen up a bit. There are 3 platforms, it is a small station but serves the purpose. The train arrived on time and we got seats without any fuss. Smoking is not allowed inside, but one of the passenger around us was making a beedi and we decided to move away. Finally we sat at another place. There are ceiling fans here, but not strong enough for the heat. There were 2 pretty young girls, European mostly. It looked like they were on backpacking trip. It s nice to see 2 girls managing to travel abroad with little worry and that too at a young age. The travel took us 2 hours to reach back. Actually we reached Don Mueng Airport area in just little over 1 hr and the remaining hour was to reach Hua Lampong station from there. And its true, as we were getting closer to the station we could see the not so rich part of the city, the usual near-the-station dirty and low living style areas. A complete contrast from the newer part of the city. We got off and took a cab to Silom station, had a decent Pizza dinner at Pizza Hut. Then ventured into the Patpong Night market and actually got a peek into those bars where all the activities happen. Should try them someday, but for now I don't dare to do it by myself!!

PS: For someone from Asia, the much talked about train journey was not that great. The route seemed boring with nothing very striking or beautiful that could describe actual Thai way of life except for a deserted railway station we passed on the way. Just my opinion.

Charming Cha Am

This place happened by chance and by laziness on not planning a place in advance and properly. But it was worth it.
Our weekends here are hectic at times and lazy at others. So essentially Sunday was a lazy day mostly, evening we visited the Wat Traimit, our first local sight seeing in Bangkok. So we dint really have much time or energy to plan for the next day. Cha am was suggested by sis's colleague as a favourite of the locals here and we were happy that we did this place. So with little googling the previous night about the direction and travelling time and options we set out for the Beach the next day.
We snoozed the alarm a little while more than we should have and tried to get some more rest. Weekends are turning out more to be hectic visiting places than relaxing. Hurrying up and getting ready finally by 10 we set out to go to Victory Monument, place where we had to catch our ride to the destination. We took the BTS from Silom to VM. Got off at the station, asked the ticket counter folks and got the right direction to reach the Complex where the buses started from. It was a hot day and we were heading to a Beach, I was having mixed feelings about our trip. But nevertheless my idea of covering as much of Thai as possible was on a higher priority than the heat and thought of skin getting burnt. And so we went ahead with the trip anyway. Paid 140 Baht each for a ticket and waited for our minivan. By now we were used to the idea of these vans. They are compact but cool and dark inside. So keeps the sun away as long as we are inside. We waited for about 30 mins and finally got our ride. The ticket guy showed us to the van, just means they keep track of who s going where and help tourists get into the right vehicle, else its easy to miss the vehicle in the huge crowd. The commute lasted for about 2.5 hours. On the way the van was stopped at a fuel station for refuelling. Most of us got off for a lu break or may be catch a bite. And then we were back on the road. The road was good, as are most roads which lead out of Bkk. Highways are well maintained here I guess.
Finally after about 2+ hrs we got off at the dropping pt, same pt where our pick up drive would arrive on our way back. It was fuming hot when we got off. So we tried to walk by the other side of the road by some shade. We saw some Bike taxi guys and asked for drop off at the beach. It was a loot for them, about a km distance, 50 Baht for 2 ppl on one bike. I missed to read about this distance the previous day along with the other little research I did and got fooled. Finally we got to see the beach. Sis got a little of hearing from me for jumping into the first bike taxi guy we saw and ended over paying him. But in a way it was good we picked these guys cause they were the only guys we saw on the road, no other means of transport otherwise. After getting off the bike we walked straight to the beach. It was the starting point there and so it can be imagined how crowded and dirty it was. So I decided that we walk a little further and get some place which was cleaner and less crowded. We must have walked a km or so before we picked a place to get into the beach. It was comparatively less crowded and was opposite to some huge 4 or 5 star hotel. So I suspected the crowd would be fine. They have this nice arrangement where there are public bathrooms to take a shower, change and freshen up. You have to pay 5-10 baht each and you get to use the bathrooms. We changed into something more comfortable for the beach. Then found a small open restaurant for lunch. It was an ok place, the lady understood some english so that helped. We ordered shrimp fried rice and chicken fried rice and 2 singhas, both were just ok and we could eat it all up cause we were dead hungry. Finally with filled stomachs we walked into the beach. The whole beach is lined with umbrellas and chairs and tables to sit by the beach. We took up one and sat down for a while. Luckily for us we found the tube guy who watched over our backpack when we indulged in the beach. Somehow by our chance the weather turned out to be cloudy all of a sudden. We played in the water for almost like 1-1.5 hours, jumping with the waves and feeling the sand under our feet. Water is actually a nice relaxing agent, especially if its at a beach. The tube experience was good. Just sit in it with your hands and legs popped out of it and you can keep floating around. The water keeps you floating. Sis stayed in the water for a little while longer just floating around. We finally made up our mind and wrapped up considering it would take us quite some time to get back home. Got out, took a bathroom, freshened up and started back. Since we couldn't take pictures when we were in the ocean we got some clicked after we got out and were walking back. It was an exhausting walk, we must have walked like 2 kms or so. But we were fresh too, after having played in the water. And finally we got to see an amazing sunset. When we got on to the main street where we had to catch our ride back we saw the most amazing sunset. The sky was literally painted golden, there was also a silver lining to the clouds only this time it was in gold. The sun was red and it was at the end of the road we were walking. The road ended into a mountain on the west, I really missed having a good camera. The timing was so perfect even the roads were painted gold. So our picnic ended with a beautiful sunset. We reached the pt and took 2 tickets for our return. Since we had another 30 mins at hand we ventured out a bit. Just as we walked along the highway and we spotted a pizza place. We got some bread sticks and chicken packed and were good for dinner. At 7 we got our van. We stunk of Sea as we settled in the van. But the a/c helped and we relaxed for the next 2 hours. As we got off at the Victory monument and started looking for a way to get back to the room a guy came up to us and directly asked which place are you headed, in Hindi. We replied and he helped us with the direction. It was just boldly and clearly written all over our faces that we were not locals and we were Indians.. Got onto the BTS and reached back to the cosy little home of ours. We took a quick shower and hit the bed. The day was well spent. If time permits we might go up to this place again..

Observations: Every Caucasian male who travels around in this place has a local lady partner with him. Every time I come across such men I somehow can't stop myself from thinking if they are genuine acquaintances or a mutual acceptances of fulfilling each other requirements. Such views still catch my attention even after a month here. I guess I am a slow learner\accepter.
Our onward van companion was a young lady, with really long legs. I couldn't get my eyes off the length of her legs and the wavy hair she had. They were really long. And she sat at the fuel station grabbing a bite and catching up on taking selfies of herself. Not sure if she was genuinely minding her own business or was trying to grab attention of seekers. I wonder..