Ayuthaya

Thailand's previous capital, this ancient city was ransacked by the Burmese hundreds of years ago and its wealth of temples (in Thailand known as wats) and ancient culture practically razed to the ground. What is left is a island city with many ruins and lots of tuk-tuks wanting to take you to them. A tuk-tuk is a 3-wheeled vehicle which can act as a bus (normally called a songtheaw) or a sort-of-taxi for one or a group of people. They're notorious in Bangkok for 'near-death experience' stories but Ayuthaya is a whole different kettle of fish: far more relaxed and far fewer tourists than its modern counterpart.

Although I started early, the day was exceedingly hot – I must admit to fantasizing about -20C winters – and I managed to see about 5 of the numerous wats that the area boasts; not to mention a very sad, heart-breaking Elephant Village which was also home to 5 lions in very small enclosures (or cages i the case of the two cubs). Not wanting to sound disrespectful, but after a while you can get templed (to be locally correct, watted) out quite quickly, especially when your driver speaks very little English and the 'helpful' pamphlet you decided to buy ends up discussing a lot of historical possibilities in pidgin English but not explaining much about the wats, the different components and their purpose, etc. The Lonely Planet has a small box of information about the position of the Buddha images and what they mean in addition to a brief description of what a chedi etc. is but in no way goes toward a deeper understanding of the complexities of it all. As in Bali, I started to find myself getting frustrated by my lack of understanding and eventually a bit numb to the beauty and significance of the wats surrounding me.

The rest of the day was spend escaping the stultifying heat in the air-conditioned glory of shopping malls and going bowling for about 2 hours – procuring some 3 Baht sport socks in the process. I am now on the night bus to Chiang Mai, it is 00:30 on Saturday (?) - 24 April – morning and we're at some pit-stop. Not being sure when the slightly disturbingly rolling and bumpy ride will begin again (magnified somewhat by the fact that this is a double-decker 'VIP' bus and all the falang seem to have to go on the top deck) and the lights be turned off, I shall sign off now and try to find sleep of some sort again. Having stupidly left my iPod in my backpack (in the luggage hold) I'm unable to fall into its blissful lullaby obliteration.