Train to Kanchanaburi

Exciting day today as Margs and Dave have arrived. They got to our hotel in Bangkok this morning so were able to watch the end of the Superbowl. Not sure that they appreciated it really.
Margs wanted to catch the train to Kanchanaburi and that is definitely the romantic way to get there. We thought that they might be tired and jetlagged, but the train it was.
Stopped out of blue as the train line was only single track and we had to wait for the train in the other direction so Darren nipped off and found us a couple of beers for the wait.
Just arrived at the station and it is very pretty with topiary dinosaurs and herons.

One night in Bangkok

Caught a very speedy bus this morning and arrived in Bangkok. We are here for one night only for two reasons.
The first is that we want to stay in a room with a good telly as Darren is keen to try to watch the Superbowl live. We think we are about 12 hours ahead of New Orleans time so it should start about 6am tomorrow morning, if we have the right channel.
The hotels are much cheaper and better in Thailand than they are in Sri Lanka, so for less than the price we paid there for a room with no hot water, no television, funny shaped sheets that didn't fit the bed and a noisy tin roof, we have a beautiful, boutique stylish room. Daz did also promise me a swimming pool, but I am giving it a miss as it is almost in the car park.
I am very jealous of the hotel swimming pool round the corner as it has a glass wall and is on about the sixth floor so you can look down on the six lane road and the skytrain as you swim. (See second photo)
The second reason we are here is to meet Margs and Dave tomorrow who will be spending the next three weeks wandering around with us.

Boat trip round Ayutthaya island

Ayutthaya town is on an island and is the meeting place of three rivers.
We caught a boat around most of it and included in the price was three stops at different historical sites. Unfortunately, due to lack of advance preparation and guide book, (we were not expecting stops) I cannot say what they were. However, a good time was had and it was very interesting.
The first stop was to see a large statue at a Chinese temple. It is almost Chinese New Year and it was very busy. We couldn't find the statue for ages as there were lots of buildings that it could have been hidden in and we were almost ready to give up, but then we found loads of pairs of shoes outside one building and there it was.
The same thing almost happened at the second temple as we didn't know what we were looking for.
I lost Daz for ages and he had found a reclining Buddha but I missed it completely. Good row of sitting Bhuddas.
The third place was a large temple that was a bit similar to Anghor Wat in Cambodia. It was in quite poor condition with some sort of repair work is being carried out, but very slowly I think.

Wat Mahathat

Fairly early start this morning to Wat Mahathat to see the Buddha in the tree. The Buddha has been there for hundreds of years and the tree roots have gradually grown around him. I don't think he looks too happy and may well be either strangled or crushed in the future.
The Wat was once very large and grand, but was completely ransacked by the Burmese.

Lotus flowers

Went to the night market near our hotel tonight as we love the food they sell at them. I started with roasted sweetcorn while Darren had something chickeny.
I then got distracted by a little old man sitting on the floor selling lotus flowers. I have seen loads of people selling them outside the temples to give as offerings. Unfortunately, I don't believe in all of that but I did buy some nice little white flowers in Sri Lanka and leave them at a temple.
This time there was no temple nearby that was still open so I have bought some for our hotel room. That might be a really bad thing to do, but I do love them. In the photo it looks like one flower with green petals, but each one is a separate flower, they just haven't opened yet.
I will try to take them with us on our journey to see how long they survive.
Also sat in a bar to have a simultaneous drink with Darren's friend Becky who was leaving Serif today and would have been having her last lunchtime do.

Ayutthaya Historical Park

Bad, bad map reading day today. They say a bad workman blames his tools, but I don't care. My map was rubbish and it wasn't my fault we kept going round in circles.
However, the sights were fantastic and very peaceful. We set off early to avoid the crowds and the heat of the afternoon.
The ruins are spread across a large area and we went to about half a dozen different ones. We ended up walking about 16 kilometres. Probably two or three k more than was necessary.
Most of them had notices explaining a bit about the temple, but we have no idea what was happening with the one with all of the cockerels.
In the year 1700 Ayutthaya was the biggest city in the world with over 1,000,000 inhabitants. It was a massive trading centre, but in 1767 most of it was destroyed by an army from Burma who melted down the gold statues and took it back to Burma.
There is loads more to see so we are going to continue tomorrow.