After sleeping for three hours, woke up at 5am to get to Hualalampong(sic) train station to get to Ayutthaya ruins before the tour buses arrive and make it impossible to take photos. The train station is actually quite artistic and really beautiful if you ask me. Went to inquire about the next express train to Ayutthaya and was quoted 15 baht for a train leaving in 5 minutes without aircon and 310 baht for an aircon seat in 20 minutes. Decided to take the aircon so I can sleep. Thinking back now, the proper thing to do is to take the nonaircon in the morning and the aircon coming back as it was still cool in the morning and the breeze from the window is quite nice. Went to the convenience store at the station to get some water and a Bangkok Post. The trip took an hour and 35 minutes and made around 7 stops. They give you two pastries and coffee on your way there.

Once I left the train, I was really disoriented. I walked towards the river and noticed a small market for locals and quite a few street vendors and guest houses. Eventually made it to the river and paid 10 baht to get across the river(really narrow river) and then walked for about 30 minutes before I could figure out where the ruins are. There are no signs and it was 7:30am. Eventually made it to the center of the main ruins of the city. At each ruins, they make you pay 30-40 baht to enter, much less for Thais. After sweating my ass off and finding two major temple complexes, found a guy with a tuk tuk and asked how much to take me to all the temples. He quoted me 200 baht an hour which was fair so we went all over the city and many of the temples are 5km away so this is the best way to go. I would imagine if you arrive a little later, that there are quite a few guides that are at the train station. This guy knew everything about every temple and had photos of each temple so I could pick which one I wanted to go to and would stop at others I saw along the way. And guess what? He didnt take me to one gold store or overpriced restaurant.

Overall the place is incredible and a must stop for mongers wanting a quick day trip to get away from mongering for a bit. Took a non aircon train for 15 baht on the way back and it was real nice. The trains are real old with wooden benches and its general admission. Very peaceful and I never worry about my safety around poor people in Thailand. I would never ride on a train like this in the Philippines.

Made it back by 4pm after going through an hour of traffic to get to my hotel. Slept till about 9pm and went to CP2 to fuck a fairly hot girl and slept through half of the massage. This was the first girl that allowed anal and she was finger fucking herself while I was banging her ass in the missionary position. Slept till about midnight as I had to get up at 7am to get to my clients appointment at the US embassy. They paid for my trip so I had to be sobered up without a hangover.

Here are some photos for you culture vultures.

I remember most of the Buddhas at the ruins were headless. It looks like you got photos of most of the Buddhas with heads still attached. It also appears they've attempted some restoration work.

Too bad you didn't make it over to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. IMO, one of the most spectacular sites in Thailand. And you were so close.

Reclining Buddha is about 60 feet in length.

The head in the lower left corner gives size perspective. Reclining Buddhas feet:


The ruins



Thanks for the memories.

Flyngo
You seem to have your geography confused.
The reclining Buddha is not in Ayutthaya. That's Wat Pho -- in the center of Bangkok.

You're right. Thanks for correcting my mis-information. But I'm afraid I need more than a geography lesson...maybe a brain implant, LOL!

But I swear, there's a really awesome temple in Ayuthaya, not far from the ruins.

Actually if you look closely, a lot of the statues are headless. The statues with heads were not suddenly placed in the ruins, some of the major statues had their heads intact although the Burmese tried their damndest to remove all the heads when they attempted to destroy all of the temples.

Blazers
Yeah the Burmese certainly took all the gold buddhas and ripped out all the gems that were incrusted in some of the buddhas. Sad .
If you see the movie Bang Rajan after a trip to Ayutthaya it brings a whole new meaning to the film.

Many of the buddha heads however were ripped off by Western archeologists,museum curators, and unscrupulous art collectors many years ago before the current prohibition on exporting buddha images. Sad to see the heads even sawed off the sides of buildings.

Blazers,
As usual, a 'pros pro' report. enjoyed the headless buddhas; woud've dug the hotties too, but these fotos are still very cool. thanks for the great read.

the photos were great. i like your perspectives. good info about getting to and from. thank you. look forward to more of your report.

Headless statues - really depends on the temples you visit in Ayutthaya. I think certain temples have been renovated. Just looking at these two different locations in the same city you can see one is better cared for:





Then the other:







As for reclining buddhas, he must be a pretty easy going deity as he's found in this pose quite a bit:



Blazers

Great report.

E