Days 11-12 

The ancient ruined city of Ayutthaya served as the capital of Siam until it was razed by the Burmese, who frequently warred with the kingdoms of ancient Thailand. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site for the unique architecture styles and city planning, built as a water-based settlement on a defensible isle with three rivers that flood annually. Most people visiting Bangkok will do day trips up here to view a few of the ruined temples, but I decided to stay for a night since it’s on the way north to Chiang Mai anyways.

The ride up was on the most decrepit looking train I’ve ever seen - 15 Baht (50 cents) for a 2hr scenic ride. We were delayed for an excruciating hour sitting in non-AC midday conditions, but I did strike up a conversation with a Thai guy around my age. He lived further north but came back every few months to visit family (but mainly party with his friends) and spoke great English despite not learning until high school apparently, with a slight British accent learned from his instructor. When I asked about his job, he said he was ‘a soldier’ but did mostly paperwork. He was bored and considered switching to training, but also mentioned that would require being outside of AC - I guess even locals don’t love the summer climate here.

Ayutthaya itself was a much smaller local town. I checked out some extremely photogenic ruins  but wasn’t particularly rigorous with crossing them all off, being burnt out from all the Bangkok temples. Biking around the second day and just chilling in the shade of the less frequented corners was my way of combating my to-do list mentality when normally traveling.

Most critically though, I FINALLY met some people at the hostel and enjoyed the local night market street food with them. It was much less stressful than the Bangkok oen but every bit as tasty. Everyone is heading up to Chiang Mai so we’ll hopefully stay in touch.