After spending all day in Bangkok the previous day, we had planned to venture outside of the city to spend time in the historical capital of Ayutthaya. We took the public ferry across the river from the Millennium Hilton and commenced our walk to the train station (should have taken approximately 15-20 minutes). Unfortunately, we got pretty turned around on the way there and the walk ended up taking about 1 hour (did get a nice tour of Chinatown!).

As we approached the station, we were approached by a women wearing what looked to be an official vest for the rail company stating that the last train to Ayutthaya had already departed and she could provide a minibus for us for a relatively small amount of money. We contemplated and decided to confirm for ourselves within the train station only to find out she was in no way official and had been lying. Lesson learned to be on the lookout outside of the train station!

We purchased tickets for the air-conditioned train car to Ayutthaya (only marginally more expensive) and were on our way. Some pics below of the exterior of the train station, colorful Thai trains, the interior of the air-conditioned car, and the Ayutthaya station.

The train passes through suburbs of Bangkok for about half of the journey before emerging into agricultural fields for the final 30 minutes into Ayutthaya (did I mention the train is extremely slow!).

Upon arrival in Ayutthaya, one is approached by a handful of Tuk-tuk drivers offering their services to take you around to the various sites as they are quite spread out. We chose the one who seemed the most sincere and after negotiating a half-day rate with him, we were off.

Can’t recommend Ayutthaya enough, it was pretty marvelous and for someone who has not been to Angkor Wat, it was quite impressive! Make sure you bring plenty of water though; it was incredibly hot.

Photos below of some of the highlights:

Arrived back into Bangkok pretty exhausted but managed to rouse ourselves up to go out for drinks on the famous backpacker road (Khao San Road). It was quite the experience!  (no photos from that night though, ha)

The next day we were scheduled to head north to Chiang Mai, stay tuned for the next installment!