Date Trip: April 10, 2012
Woke up at about 6am, packed my stuff, left it at the reception, and checked-out early from the hotel.
The primary reason I chose the @Hua Lamphong, the hostel I stayed in, is its accessibility to the Hua Lamphong Railway station.
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| Morning Walk Sight-- Monks lined up |
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| Hua Lamphong Railway Station |
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| Train ticket to Ayutthaya |
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| All sorts of travelers |
The train is a Class C economy train. There are some foreign travelers who boarded the train and will alight in Ayutthaya. But most of the riders are locals going out of the city perhaps to their native provinces.
The trip is an more than an hour long. As I arrived, I walked around the station weighing my options. So, how would I go around Ayutthaya? Will I join the young European couple who sat across me by the train or the couple of Korean guys who were . Anyways, I decided to just go by myself so I can be at my own pace.
I hired a tuktuk which cost me 400Baht to tour me for 2 hours visiting 4 temples. It's quite pricey though since I was alone, but I guessed it was the cheapest way to go around Ayutthaya anyhow.
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| My tuktuk and lady tuktuk driver |
And here are snapshots of temples in Ayutthaya.
Wat Yai Chaimongkhon
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| Wat Yai Chaimongkhon |
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| Wat Yai Chaimongkhon |
Wat Maha That
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| Buddha Head on Tree, Wat Maha That |
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| Wat Maha That |
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| Wat Maha That |
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| Wat Maha That |
Wat Chaiwattanaram
This temple was actually closed during my visit since for precautionary measures since it was damaged by the last Thailand flood.
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| Wat Chaiwattanaram |
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| Turista-shot care of other Pinoy tourists I encountered. |
Wat Lokayasutharam
My tour ended around 11:30 AM. I had a quick modest lunch of barbecued chicken and rice in the sort of eatery fronting the train station. My lunch cost only about 40Baht.
I waited for a train back to Bangkok. Train ride going back costs cheaper at 15Baht. The ride was long, hot, and sticky.
When I get back to the city, I tried hailing a cab going to Platinum Mall to no avail. I guess, it's rush hour and cab drivers here choose their passengers as well. So I asked the hostel receptionists how to take the MRT and BTS (Bangkok Train System) to Platinum. After giving me some written directions, off I go.
My quest to Platinum through Bangkok's city train systems is an adventure by itself. I got lost several times, boarding on or alighting from a station that sounds rather very similar to the one I was supposed to. And there was that time where I destroyed the ticket machine in one of the stations. (Another Nel moment for the books!)
So how in the world did I destroy a BTS Ticket Machine, you may ask? So, in the MRT, you're given chips as tickets. Apparently in BTS you're given a card (which I didn't know that time). I lined up the ticketing booth, told the man behind the counter my destination, gave my money bill, and he gave me coins. I thought the coins were the tickets, a less high-tech version of the ticket chips from the MRT. So i dropped it in the ticket machine. And it got stuck. They have to open up the machine to retrieve my coin. The man gave me coins to buy tickets from the ticket vending machine! I wanted to be swallowed by the ground, and I felt that the BTS guys were thinking that I am such a stupid tourist. Well perhaps I was. So anyways, the ticket machine broke, and even when I returned back from shopping in Platinum the machine is still broken.
I returned from shopping late in the afternoon, showered, and went to the airport.
Tired and anxiously waited for my plane to bring me back home.
As I was excited to embark on that epic 4-country semi-solo trip, I was more eager to come back home.
1 comment:
nice :) i love the kinda tourist that you are. no frills. next time, bring someone along. you know, your yiheeeeee. :)
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