Ayutthaya, Thailand

When I was in Bangkok recently, I took the opportunity to go and see Ayutthaya.

The city of Ayutthaya is the ancient Thai capital, dating back to 1350 and is situated in the province of Ayutthaya. In Thailand most provinces include a city of the same name!

Ayutthaya remained the Thai capital until 1767 when the city was sacked by the Burmese.

The temple site in Ayutthaya is quite spread out and you will often see it said that you need 2 full days if you want to see everything properly. This is probably correct if you want to take your time and see everything, but a lot of people do it as a Day Tour and drive between the temples.

I got various quotes whilst I was in Bangkok, but in the end, I decided to be a bit more independent and chose to get back to the ‘Traveller Mode’ of my younger years.

Because, I had opted not to stay in Ayutthaya and needed to be back in Bangkok by the evening, I had to be up early.

I caught the MRT (Underground) and headed for Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, which is now the main station in Bangkok as opposed to the old station Hua Lamphong.

The new station has a Rapid Train which only takes 1 hour to Ayutthaya, but the last Rapid Train departs around 7:45am

After that you need to take the Ordinary Train which departs Hua Lamphong from approximately 9:30am and at regular intervals, but it takes 2 hours to get to Ayutthaya, so by then a lot of the day has been wasted.

It is important to note that when travelling between provinces on the train, you will be asked to show your passport, so make sure you take it with you. I never had mine as I left it in the hotel safe, but they let me go anyway, and I wasn’t asked for it coming back, but I was returning from a smaller station.

The Rapid Train was fairly basic, but I am used to Thai trains, and it was a pleasant experience with people getting on and off at later stops, selling their food and drink products. And, it was the equivalent of 45 pence for the 1-hour journey!!

I was sat opposite a chap from Romania, who it turned out, was meeting a couple of people he had befriended on a Couch-Surfing website, a girl from Poland and a guy from India.

So, being in Traveller Mode now, I hooked up with them, to speed up my day and share the cost of travelling between the different temples.

At Ayutthaya Train station, there were lots of guides waiting, who tried to get us to book up with them. This was for various durations and prices, and the prices started tumbling with a bit of haggling, but we actually had other plans.

With some of the temples it is possible to walk from one to another, so you only need a few rides between the more out-of-the-way temples.

In Thailand there are a few popular Taxi Apps similar to Uber. There is one called Grab, which is popular throughout many places in Asia, and I used Grab a lot in the Philippines, and there is another called InDrive, but the one we used was called Bolt.

We booked 4 or 5 rides, and it worked out really well, especially when you are trying to find a taxi from a location where there doesn't appear to be a lot of passing traffic. When booking with Bolt, the driver was there in a couple of minutes.

Apparently, there are over 400 temples in Ayutthaya, but I don’t imagine many people visit all of those. You can reduce that down to under 10 with some of the most famous temples being Wat Mahathat, Wat Sri Sanphet, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Lokaya Sutharam, which is a Reclining Buddha.

Some of the temples are free to enter and others may charge a couple of pounds.

If you were staying in Ayuttaya, there are quite a few of options of varying size and standard, but the best hotel, and with stunning views of the temples is SALA Ayutthaya. I have stayed in some SALA Resorts around Thailand and they are all luxury 5 Star properties.

By about 1pm we had seen everything we wanted to see, so I said my goodbyes to my new couch-surfing acquaintances and caught an Ordinary Train back the way we had come, but got off at the next station which was Bang Pa-in. This little journey was about 5 pence.

The reason for my stop here was that I had been invited to a hosted lunch by SALA Bang Pa-in and it is also provided me with the opportunity to conduct a hotel inspection so that I am better informed if I send clients there in the future.

This hotel is in a quiet location and probably a 30-minute drive from the temples, but still close enough.

Ayutthaya is definitely well worth a visit, particularly if, like me, you enjoy the culture.

It is easy to incorporate Ayutthaya into a larger itinerary with a stop for a few nights, or it can be booked as a full day tour. Or, if you feel confident and adventurous, you can do what I did.

Thailand, these days, is a well-trodden path, so even if you don’t speak Thai, you will usually find someone only too happy to try out their English language skills and point you in the right direction.