Ayu-wat? Ayutthaya!
Trip date: December 7, 2016
Since we had a week in Bangkok, we decided to take a day trip to visit Ayutthaya, which is an ancient capital of Thailand. Ayutthaya is a UNESCO World-Heritage site and is kind of like Thailand's own smaller version of Angkor Wat. The city was eventually taken and overrun by the Burmese, resulting in a lot of the Buddha statues being destroyed.
There are many companies that you can go with for a day tour of Ayutthaya, but from reading some stuff online, it sounded relatively easy to get there on your own and thus, have more flexibility on which temples to visit. The main temple area is also much smaller than Angkor Wat so you can bicycle around to see the various sites quite easily. There are also some temples and monuments outside the main historical park that you can get to by bicycle or take a tuk tuk.
I thought biking around a historic park sounded really fun but since we didn't get a super early start on the day, and I wanted to check out some of the sites that were a bit further away, we ended up renting a bike to go to some of the wats and taking a tuk tuk for the rest of the day.
Biking route on Google maps
Upon arriving in Ayutthaya, we rented bikes and did a loop to see the following wats:
- Wat Ratchaburana
- Wat Mahathat
- Wat Phra Ram
- Wat Phra Si Samphet
We then returned our bikes and took a tuk tuk to see Wat Phu Khao Thong and Wat Chaiwathanaram.
I liked this mix of wats because each offered something a little different while still being in relatively close proximity to one another. Here are some pictures of each of the temples!
Wat Ratchaburana - this one retains some of the original stucco and frescoes
Wat Phra Mahathat - this one is famous for the Buddha head in a tree
Wat Phra Ram - this one is in the center of the historical park so an easy stop
Wat Phra Si Samphet - this was a royal temple. The 3 stupas of this temple are often used as the principal image for depicting Ayutthaya.
Wat Phu Khao Thong - also known as Temple of the Golden Mount and was a victory monument of sorts built by the Burmese. You can see that its architecture looks vastly different from the other wats.
Wat Chaiwathanaram - I read that you could climb the main stupa here and get some nice views, but it was blocked off when we went. It was still cool to check out though and had a different feel than the other temples we visited. This one isn't officially part of the UNESCO historical park.
I had originally also wanted to visit Wat Lokayasutha (large reclining Buddha) and Wat Yai Chi Mongkhon (temple with long line of Buddha statues in saffron robes), both of which are outside the historical park, but we got a bit templed out and ran out of time.
Getting to Ayutthaya
You have a couple options for getting to Ayutthaya in a range of prices and timing; check out wikitravel for more details. Travelfish also had lots of good information about getting to and around Ayutthaya. One thing to call out is that it seems like the buses to Ayutthaya no longer run, so your options for getting there are by train, minibus, taxi or with a tour.
We were staying in the Sukhumvit area so we took the BTS to the Mo Chit station in order to take the minibus to Ayutthaya. At Mo Chit BTS station, we should have gone out at Exit 1 so that we could catch Bus 77 to the Northern Bus Terminal. We saw a sign for a free shuttle at Exit 2 and ended up going there instead, but we never figured out or saw the free shuttle. We ended up taking a taxi to get to the bus terminal, which may have been better since we probably wouldn't have known where to go in the bus terminal otherwise. The taxi from the BTS station to the Northern Bus Terminal cost about 50-60baht.
The taxi dropped us off at Terminal 3 of the Northern Bus Terminal I think? (We forgot to take a better picture).
Upon entering the bus terminal, we saw a row of ticket windows for the minibuses. We didn't see any signs for Ayutthaya though.
We must have looked really lost because one of the ladies in the windows called out to us and asked if we were going to Ayutthaya. We said yes, and she said to pay her 140baht for both of us and then hand wrote us a ticket. After waiting 5-10mins, a guy came in, checked our "ticket" and then had us follow him outside to a minibus. There were a couple other passengers who all seemed to be Thai so we got in and just hoped that we were headed to the right destination!
From online resources, we were expecting to see a row of minibuses at the terminal and that it'd be pretty obvious. We also thought that it would cost 100-120baht. So ultimately, I don't know if we ended up in the right place or if there was another location to catch the minibuses. The whole terminal kind of seemed shambles though so even though we think that lady made a little bit extra on us, it worked out for us without being too terribly confusing.
The ride to Ayutthaya took us about an hour and a half. This included several stops along the way where passengers would get off and our driver would try to pick up more passengers. I guess there's still a lot of demand for this route, just not enough for the big buses to run. In Ayutthaya, it drops you off near the end of Naresuan Alley, which is pretty close to the historical park and the temples. We ended up having to backtrack a bit to get to the market (near Soi 2) to find bicycle rentals though.
40baht bike rental for the day - don't forget to ask for a lock!)
The traffic in Ayutthaya isn't anywhere close to what you'll see in Bangkok, but it was still fairly crowded with motorbikes and cars and people. The main stretch from the rental shop to the park can get busy during peak hours but it's not too bad once you're in the park. Try to avoid the traffic circles on the way if you can, those and turning right were a bit scary but the rest is pretty doable and quite pretty, especially when you're in the park.
When you're done with your temple exploration, you'll need to make your way back to the "terminal" on Naresuan Alley in Ayutthaya. Perk of ending the day in a tuk tuk is that your driver can drop you off exactly where you need to go.
We got into the minibus and we waited until it was completely full before taking off. We paid 120baht for the both of us for the return trip. The ride took about an hour, which was quite good considering that we hit quite a bit of traffic along the way. We were dropped off at the Mo Chit BTS station (as opposed to the bus terminal) which was super convenient after a long day of sightseeing!
Whew! That was a lot!
tl;dr Ayutthaya is similar but different to Angkor Wat and worth checking out if you have the time in Bangkok.
