Thursday, January 20, 2011

Ayuthaya and Monkey Town

We've given up island life in favor of the inland flavours.  Yesterday we got on a bus and headed back to Bangkok.  From there, we hopped on a train towards Thailand's ancient capital, Ayuthaya.  I'll post some pictures when I get the chance, but for now I'll just describe our adventures.  Ayuthaya is full of 700-year old ruins, huge structures that were all but destroyed when the Burmese sacked the city.  The structures are pretty amazing and the history is also interesting.  The main part of the city is surrounded by a few rivers that join up, making the town center an island. 

Robyn, Jevin, and I got off the train around 21:00 and jumped in a tuk-tuk to get to our guesthouse, Baan Eve.  We were greeted by friendly staff and found that our room was really quite nice.  So far we've had it pretty good.  I'm sure there will be an end to that.  In the morning, we rented bicycles to tour the city.  We travelled all around, each of us singing Hawksley Workman's 'Tokyo Bicycle' to ourselves the entire time.  We visited several ruin sites, got lost, and then lost eachother.  I was biking down the street, turned around, and there was no Robyn and no Jevin.  I was on my own!!!

I looked for them for about 5 mintues, decided it was pointless, and went find lunch.  I got some luke-warm chicken pieces served on rice at a street stall.  Maybe that wasn't the best choice, we'll see.  After that, I just biked around randomly.  We were on an island so I didn't feel that I could get too lost.  Eventually, I ended up in a huge marketplace.  The biggest part of it was all food: mangoes, pineapple, veggies, chicken and seafood.  Some of the food they sell there looks so bizzare.  I ran into something last night that looked like the contents of a chicken's intestinal tract.  Old ladies shopping for supper poke at the raw meat, looking for the best cuts.  Public health nightmare!  Some of the seafood was still alive and just left to writhe around on the chopping block.  There was a bucket of eels or water snakes or something, very weird, and a big bucket of toads, delicious!!

I also caught site of a food I really want to try, the durian.  It is a big spiky fruit that apparently smells and tastes like raw sewage, but the thais just love it so I figure I should give it a try.  I didn't have any today though because I had just finished eating four mangoes, all served on a stick.  Everything here comes on a stick.  I also had chicken on a stick, fish balls on a stick, pineapple on a stick, dessert on a stick.  It just tastes better on a stick!

From Ayuthaya we travelled by train to Losburi, Monkey Town.  There are also a lot of ruins in this city.  Modern buildings have been erected all around them.  Now, the monkey town gets its name from a roving band of monkeys that hang around, just like the dogs and cats do.  We saw them fighting and fornicating downtown but it wasn't too exciting.

Alright, this post is getting very long so I'll save some for next time.  In a few hours we're hopping on a night train the Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.  From there we'll head out on a three day trek through the jungle so I might not update until after that.  We'll see. 

David Parker

Update!  Pictures of Ayuthaya and Lopburi!

Ruins in Ayuthaya

Robyn found a friend!  Soooo big!!!

Ruins in Lopburi

Lopburi Ruins


2 comments:

  1. MmmmmMMMMmm!!! Fish balls on a stick! :)

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  2. Sounds like you're having fun! Don't eat anymore yucky old chicken!! too risky! xo

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