Come with me to Ayutthaya! :-)

All is well that ends well - writes Shakespeare - and once again, (always?), he's right! My day started with the amount of frustration or even anger (towards myself, that I'm so lazy I don't even speak Thai yet.... etc.) and the feeling that I can't understand people and can't make myself understood. Anyway, the end of my day made up for the rough start! :-)

Well, let's start at the beginning, then. 

Since all my friends cancelled on me today and I thought the day should not be wasted, I thought I need to do something. I thought of a day trip to Ayutthaya which is not far from Saraburi and would be interesting to check out since this was the ancient capital of Thailand (Siam). My one and only Thai friend (who speaks really good English by the way!), didn't give me the correct information about the trains  - which is okay and it happens sometimes. So then I was off to take the bus. The bus - I wouldn't have thought - took about 2 hours to arrive!!! All this because it - of course - did not go directly to Ayutthaya, it stopped here and there, picking up and dropping off people. Fair enough. Luckily, I found the train station and I also hired a motortaxi (for 100 baht!) to the nearest temple. It wasn't THAT far as the taxi driver claimed it - so I'm pretty sure I also paid for the "foreigner tax", as well. I mean, I understand that they need to live off from something too (just like me, by the way), but I just felt frustrated by this. The frustration of not being able to check for the prices - because of again: language barrier. Plus that everything is chaotic. Plus, foreigners pay a price 5 times higher than Thais. Plus, lots of misinformation. (A friend of mine used to say that when you get lost in Asia and you'll ask a local for directions, you'll get EVEN MORE lost. Asian people in general don't say no. So when you ask them, they would give you a direction - which of course, could be wrong, as well. But here is the point: they did answer you, right? They would never say "I don't know", for their culture, it's something... unforgivable. It's like not helping someone who needs it. So, they can very helpfully mislead you and make you more confused. This exactly happened with me today.)

Ayutthaya for me is on a different level. I don't know, maybe it reminds me a bit of Rome, because on every corner there is a stupa or wat (or what?), from the ancient times. 

Walking up and down in the Rama Park though chilled my frustrations, I even had my little pocket lunch that I took with myself on one of the benches close to the River Lopburi, then walked more to discover more stupas and chedis. The further I got away from the main temples, the more authentic and wilder scenes opened up in front of my eyes. It was definitely worth the pain of getting there! Too bad the biggest temple was still closed. (Nevermind, my ticket is valid for a whole month, so I can easily (hehe :-p) return any time soon and "finish" visiting the rest of the temples.)

The more further I got from the main attractions, I met the less tourists, as well. It was also very calming. Unfortunately, with the reduced number of tourists in parallel increased the number of watermonitors around the lake and river. :O Also, there was a sight, where I was only alone and I found a huge golden Buddha statue, which was surrounded by elephants. I wanted to get closer and take a real good picture of it - when I saw that a snake, in complete peace and curls is sleeping under the nearest tree to it - and to me. Just as silently, as I came, I took off, as well. Maybe it was also just a watermonitor, who knows. I didn't risk - but I'm still shivering as I am thinking back to it. 

The beautiful grey and white herons have made it up though! 

Hanging around at the railway station... 

Note the Andean Cruz pattern... 

According to the legend, Burma attacked Siam back in the 1400s. The Buddhist monks who were living in Ayutthaya that time, tried to hide the Buddhas so that the Burmese don't find them. Nature did its work again, so now this Buddha-head is uncovered in the roots of the tree. 

Inside the stupa...

Contrast again: look at the tiny engravings how delicate they are... and compare them with the vastness of the buildings themselves.

Happily sunburnt not-at-all-frozen

When I looked at this, Ingapirca or Macchu Picchu came to my mind...

Here is a watermonitor - monitoring its surrounding, not the water. Bad watermonitor, you did wrong today.

Wat but which wat.... I do not remember anymore. 

Once again: modern and ancient fits so well together in Ayutthaya.

Random stupa, not far from the market place (where vans leave).

A Chinese temple close to the market place as well.

As for the good things: after the trip, refreshed, I was heading for the bus stop. I checked it on the map (on the touristic map) and meanwhile, I also asked some people on the way. At one store, I asked the customer (instead of the vendor - it was really confusing who is who, really). And the man (an older man) answered kindly. I headed to the direction as he pointed it out for me and then he was like: come, come, free, free! He gave me a ride on his motorbike! How sweet was that!  I bent till my waist in front of him, after the ride.... to show my gratefulness.

Then, before the bus ride, I went for a Chamuka kaimuk-tea and luckily the girl who was serving the bubble tea spoke English. In order to confirm my order though, I added: "kaimuk". Her reply was: "your Thai is good". Well, thanks. It's verrrrrrrrry faaaaaaaar from good, but thanks for the compliment. It felt like a ray of hope, anyway. :-)

And finally, after turning to my apartment, near Suk Anan, I bought some buns for dinner. The lady could speak English and she asked me if I was living alone. I said yes and then she added, I should make sure to take care and also that I should be very cautious and alert. It was so nice that someone without even knowing me reached out to me like that! It felt so caring (so from this also, you can understand how lonely I could get sometimes lol). But it was so pure and so sweet. (Like her buns. :-) ). 

So then that 20 000 steps I took today, didn't even hurt me anymore on the way home.

On a sidenote: Ayutthaya is not as spiritual as I had expected it before. I thought... it was going to be something different. Maybe the constant tuk-tuk drivers bothered me or the crowd of tourists (there were only 20 of them at the Buddha-head so I dare not even think how it could have been pre-covid times). (And the tuk-tuk drivers... "come, come, really cheap, really cheap, you tell, you get off" - pleeeeease, just came by myself, leave me alone, wanna enjoy by myself, can I?). 

All in all, I think I can say: mission accomplished! I'm really happy that I made this trip despite the initial struggling and that I could manage to get around and not to get lost. It gives some kind of achievement feeling but I should definitely start learning Thai.... soon.