28.01 Day 13 Ayutthaya

Day 13 - Sun 28th Jan - Ayutthaya

Today is tuk tuk day. Guide books or blog articles will extol the virtues of hiring a bike and cycling around this flat small island to get from temple to temple, but I suspect they don’t have kids in tow. Although our two love to cycle and indeed pester us to hire bikes, its forecast for 34 degrees today and the effort of cycling would only make them more tired walking around each temple. 

So for three hours and 600 baht ($30) a man promptly arrives in his dated blue tuk tuk at 8am; early to avoid the afternoon heat. These tuk tuks are more like an Only Fools & Horses Reliant Robin with the back and sides removed rather than the more traditional shaped ones in Bangkok. 

With a perfunctory Hello - this is going to be a taxi driver, not a tour guide - we clamber into the back, sitting on the two small sideways benches facing each other and head off. There is no discussion of a route or itinerary of which temples to go to - he’s obviously on autopilot on a familiar path. I’m not sure we have a place on the road hierarchy, and it's only mildly alarming as cars, and a lot of utes, scream up behind us as we cross the main bridge onto the island leaving us feeling a little exposed, but with the misplaced confidence that being on holiday often brings. 

Oblivious in his little cab up front the driver continues on, at one point U-turning on a sixpence, shortly arriving at Wat Maharhat. 50 baht for adults, free for kids and we’re in a small temple complex that would otherwise be unremarkable (compared to the other complexes we see) were it not for the stone Buddha head entwined by tree roots - an image adorning guidebooks and travel articles the world over for years. This blog is no exception. 

I had read about queues to see the Buddha head and feared the worst, but at 8:30am on a Sunday morning there are only 2 other couples milling about allowing us several attempts at a family photo. All photos taken by the Spanish tourist have already been deleted but thankfully the well rehearsed smiling guard did a much better job. 

After strolling around the ruins we head back to our tuk tuk and driver who proceeds to drop us just 500 metres along the road outside Wat Ratchaburana. The kids think two temples in this quick succession is uncalled for, so Kate stays outside with them, crossing the road to enjoy another sweet mixed soda drink in an air conditioned cafe. 

In the meantime I hotfoot it around this complex which consists in the main of two large halls either side of a large structure containing a crypt once filled with treasures. Without having to worry about the kids wandering off I take the 60 seconds to read the inscription and learn that there were once 3 brothers, sons of a king. The elder two both wanted to become king so decided to settle the matter with a duel on elephant back. In the ensuing fight, they both died - “did the elephants get hurt?” asks Sienna, going on to say “Perhaps they sat on the princes for being silly” - leaving the youngest to inherit the throne who went on to build these temples where they were buried in memory of his older brothers. 

We continue on our way, driver still on autopilot, viewing a large Buddha’s head nestled in giant lotus leaves at Wat Thammikarat along with more building remains. And row upon row of cockerel.

All this historical park exists as Ayuttthaya was once the second city from 1300 onwards when these were all built, until the Burmese army invaded and sacked the city on the 1700s, chopping the heads off all the stone Buddhas and generally destroying temples with scant disregard for the blossoming international tourism industry some 300 years later. Though perhaps some of the mystique comes from the broken pillars and half height walls with occasional full size Prangs and Chedis (the bell shaped domes) give an indication of former glories. 

One thing that kids like is size - so the 46 metre long reclining Buddha lying out in the open at Wat Lokayasutha is enough to have them hopping out the tuk tuk. It’s 9:30am and we’re already glad for our at-hand motorised transport in the warm sun. 

En route to our next pair of temples we pass the disappointingly busy Elephant Camp where manacled elephants are forced to give rides to pairs of tourists with a mahout sat at the front. 

We walk, seeking the shade, towards Whan Phra Monokhon Bophit in its crisp white, reminiscent of the temples seen on Bangkok with green, red and yellow tiled roof and sparkling gold on every corner. But we veer right into Wat Phra Si Sanphet home to, amongst the walkable ruins, 3 giant Chedi. Kate and the kids each borrow an umbrella at the entrance to avoid the glare of the sun; ruined temples are not great at providing shade. 

All the complete Buddhas across the park have either been added since the destruction or have been reconstructed from the large pieces left abandoned, on some of the larger Buddha’s the joins clearly visible. 

Upon returning to our tuk tuk at 10:30am the driver gesticulates No Deal. I think he means the tour is finished, but we encourage him to let us have one more temple and to go via Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon which is sort of on the way home, in that it's off the island but it's clearly not in his plan but he acquiesces. 

Each of the temples had been getting progressively busier as more tours had begun their day, but this last one we visit is heaving. There’s a backlog of cars queuing to enter the undersized carpark so our driver nips through some gaps and as soon as we’re out of the tuk tuk, gives us another No Deal crossed arm sign and shoots off. Kate thinks he’s popped off to get petrol. I’m not so sure - even though the host at the hostel said I’ll get you a driver who won’t leave you stranded, its 10:45am and he’s assumed that’s as good as 11am and skedaddled. 

We walk away uncertain of our fate and do a loop of this tallest yet temple swarming with visitors. A local school group stop Sienna and Kate to practice their English and take selfies - as had happened to Kate and I ten years previously at the giant wooden temple in Nara, Japan, where after we’d entertained several groups, decided only our means of escape was to pretend to be French and to not understand their requests. 

Back out in the car park today in the booming sun and sure enough no sign of our driver or tuk tuk. But I do have sight of a type of food stand I’d seen on the bus into Ayutthaya - Roti Floss. We part with 35 baht to try it and are given a bag of yellow and green candy floss and six warm green rotis. We’re shown that we’re supposed to wrap the candy floss in the roti and, hey presto, you have a very sweet snack. 

That gives us the energy to walk in the sun along the main road to Kyoto Cafe, a doughnut and drink cafe with a bizarre winter theme including white sand out front and winter mural on the wall, along with christmas decorations inside the Japanese themed seating areas. The cool aircon is a blessing as the kids messily eat their doughnuts. 

On our roadside walk here we’d clocked a lady with piles of round oversized steam trays, two containing an array of steamed buns, the third with dumplings. We buy half a dozen of each to take back to Baan Are Gong courtesy of another Grab taxi. Eaten on the verandah the food is gone quickly - like the mango sticky rice stall the night before - do one thing and do it well. On hindsight then, being abandoned by our tuk tuk driver came up trumps for us on the food front. 

After settling the kids down in front of the ipad and using the hostel host as pseudo child minder - not that the kids would move when there’s a screen on - Kate and I head out and hire bikes for a brief cycle around the historical park. I’m not sure the kids even blinked whilst we were away. 

As we all then head out for dinner we invest in a pair of elephant trousers / elephant pants / ele-pants for Seb who is susceptible to night time mozzies at our dinners out. This new fashion item only serves to enhance his street cred with the locals. We head back to last night’s street, going next door to continue the Japanese theme with gyozas and fried dumplings, which were a disappointment. Stay local unless it has a good reputation it seems. From here we walk to one of the outdoor markets and snap up a pair of Thai football shirts for Seb and I.