Ayutthaya is an ancient city of Thailand, located 1 hour away from Bangkok by car. It is also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site. As it is a famous tourist attraction, getting there is a breeze.

From Bangkok, you just need to get to Victory Monument BTS Station. At the ground level of Century Mall, you will see a lot of minivans. Just pay and you can go. There’s no need for any advance reservation.

What we do in Ayutthaya

What else can we do in Ayutthaya? This place is full of ancient ruins of temples.

Temples

Basically, we just temple-hop for two days:

• Wat Mahathat
• Wat Chaiwatthanaram
• Wat Maheyong
• Wat Phra Si Sanphet

50 Baht entrance fee for each temple.

The above picture was taken in Wat Mahathat. The Buddha head fell off from a statue and nicely trapped by the Bodhi Tree.

Similar to all the ancient temples in Ayutthaya, most of the Buddha statues are headless. Because the heads were stolen and sold to private collectors for profit. Many of the heads can be found in European/Americans museums. When the Thai authority asked for their heritage back, they were rejected. (I researched all this on Google).

Eat

Next, what is going to Thailand without indulging to street food. The must-try in Ayutthaya are the famous Roti Sai Mai (Thai cotton candy wrap) and boat noodle.

Elephant camp

Then, there are also elephant camps in Ayutthaya, where you can feed the elephants or take a ride.

When I was a kid, elephant ride at Singapore Zoo and this very elephant camp was exciting (I came here when I was a kid).

Now, I just feel pity towards the elephants.

My mother said aren’t they the same as human? They need to work to be able to feed themselves.

Okay, she made me think from another perspective. The appetite of an elephant is gigantic! And the reason why camps are set up is a sort of conservative effort. And the camp needs money to sustain the food supply.

So, elephants have to work hard, too. Where to get the money? It’s none other than the tourists who are mostly city dwellers, and we never see elephants other than Dumbo.

I really hope the situation is as simple as it looks. I hope things won’t end up like the tiger temple, where the monks used the temple as facade to do illegal tiger cub trading. The cubs were frozen and sold as medicine in the black market.

Shame on them for using the religion.

Floating Market

Furthermore, there is a floating market in Ayutthaya too. But it’s not the authentic one like Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.

For the Ayutthaya floating market, you need to pay 200 Baht entrance fee. We didn’t go as we didn’t think it’s worth going.

Overall, we overestimated the duration needed for Ayutthaya. In fact, Ayutthaya can be made a day trip from Bangkok. Or if you are not in a rush, stay a night (2D1N) there is more than sufficient.

Similar to the tuk tuk in Bangkok central, the tuk tuk here in Ayutthaya likes to get the most from tourists. But I heard their business is bad.

That’s all I have to blog about Ayutthaya. Thanks for reading!

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