Sunday, 3 January 2016
26 December 2015. Day flight to Heathrow
The flight to Heathrow lasts a bit over 13 hours, from 11 am Thai time to 5.30 pm London time. Sleep does not come easily and the time passed somewhat slowly - not helped by the lamentable choice of films provided by BA. Fortunately I had some better choice of my own with me and watched a couple of those, when not looking at Mount Everest from the window.
25 December 2015. Travel around Bangkok
I went to a few of the districts served by the MTR to see some places less on the tourist map. First was the end of the line - Bang Sue. Frankly, where you get disgorged by the MTR is not the most interesting place. There is the regular railway station - or stations and then a giant building site for an elevated something - I never found out whether it is to be another road or a skytrain.
So having wandered around the stations - there are two because there is a junction just beyond and trains for the two different lines go to the two different stations - for no obvious reason. However, they had some interesting rolling stock that had come a long way!
So I got back on the MTR and went two stops to the park. This was pleasant enough but not exceptional.
So on again, this time to the stop for the Cultural Centre. Finding the centre from the stop with its name was not the easiest and, not surprisingly, I was the only visitor. The centre is large but the space given over to visitors is really just one room.
The exhibits are mainly in the Thai language and includes the country's history.
A lot of the room is given over to the central importance of rice to the people of Thailand.
It included a film on the King's role in supporting the farming industry.
This had all taken several hours and it was pretty hot, so at this point I decided to pack in my travels and go back to the hotel for a Christmas drink and meal. I also wanted to pack as I had an earlyish start for my return home.
So having wandered around the stations - there are two because there is a junction just beyond and trains for the two different lines go to the two different stations - for no obvious reason. However, they had some interesting rolling stock that had come a long way!
So I got back on the MTR and went two stops to the park. This was pleasant enough but not exceptional.
So on again, this time to the stop for the Cultural Centre. Finding the centre from the stop with its name was not the easiest and, not surprisingly, I was the only visitor. The centre is large but the space given over to visitors is really just one room.
The exhibits are mainly in the Thai language and includes the country's history.
A lot of the room is given over to the central importance of rice to the people of Thailand.
It included a film on the King's role in supporting the farming industry.
This had all taken several hours and it was pretty hot, so at this point I decided to pack in my travels and go back to the hotel for a Christmas drink and meal. I also wanted to pack as I had an earlyish start for my return home.
Thursday, 24 December 2015
24 December 2015 Day trip to Ayuttaya
I had wanted to go to the old capital of Thailand on my last trip and took the opportunity today. I did not know what to expect but it certainly sounded interesting. In 1700, the largest city in the world with one million inhabitants, it was a huge trading centre for items from China, India, Japan, Europe and the Arab world. However, the Burmese invaded in 1767 and almost destroyed the city, prompting the Thais to move their capital to Bangkok.
The train cost 40p for the 76 kilometres. At that price, it would be churlish to complain that we left half an hour late. Not before some people had the chance of a visit to the on-platform barber! I was also taken with the at-platform servicing of the brakes.
The journey itself was slow to start with and we seemed to be following the route of a major civil engineering project. Then, after about an hour, we were in more open countryside and we gathered speed.
Arriving in Ayuttaya, you have to rather follow your instincts across the tracks and out of the station. The road leads to a short ferry crossing to the UNESCO site which is an island. The archeological park is about a fifteen minute walk down an uninspiring road.
Towards the end of the road, came the first Wats - relatively small and not a portent of the Wats in store.
Then I found myself back with the Seam Reap experience. Ayuttaya is a large city of the remains of temples and palaces. They look amazing and the colour of the brick is particularly appealing.
Weirdly, however, the week of my visit was the time of the Ayutthaya World Heritage Festival which seemed a bit like a country fair scattered amongst some of the temples. It also included, rather unfortunately, the Thai Cock Fighting festival that was housed at the tourist centre.
There were also elephant rides but they seemed to be a normal rather than festival activity. I managed to get some pictures of the bullhook carried by the mahout - a very nasty implement and it is a great shame that tourists are so unimaginative and unquestioning to perpetuate the abuse of elephants for their air-brained pleasure.
I carried on to see a few more sites, before walking back through the centre of the park to my starting point Wat Mahathat
Then it was the ferry back, only to turn up at the station to find the train had a one hour delay - still at 40p...
To kill timer, I wandered down the road from the station, confirming my view that the modern Ayutthaya is no great shakes and certainly not somewhere to hang out for long once the archeology is ticked off.
The train cost 40p for the 76 kilometres. At that price, it would be churlish to complain that we left half an hour late. Not before some people had the chance of a visit to the on-platform barber! I was also taken with the at-platform servicing of the brakes.
The journey itself was slow to start with and we seemed to be following the route of a major civil engineering project. Then, after about an hour, we were in more open countryside and we gathered speed.
Arriving in Ayuttaya, you have to rather follow your instincts across the tracks and out of the station. The road leads to a short ferry crossing to the UNESCO site which is an island. The archeological park is about a fifteen minute walk down an uninspiring road.
Towards the end of the road, came the first Wats - relatively small and not a portent of the Wats in store.
Then I found myself back with the Seam Reap experience. Ayuttaya is a large city of the remains of temples and palaces. They look amazing and the colour of the brick is particularly appealing.
Weirdly, however, the week of my visit was the time of the Ayutthaya World Heritage Festival which seemed a bit like a country fair scattered amongst some of the temples. It also included, rather unfortunately, the Thai Cock Fighting festival that was housed at the tourist centre.
There were also elephant rides but they seemed to be a normal rather than festival activity. I managed to get some pictures of the bullhook carried by the mahout - a very nasty implement and it is a great shame that tourists are so unimaginative and unquestioning to perpetuate the abuse of elephants for their air-brained pleasure.
I carried on to see a few more sites, before walking back through the centre of the park to my starting point Wat Mahathat
Then it was the ferry back, only to turn up at the station to find the train had a one hour delay - still at 40p...
To kill timer, I wandered down the road from the station, confirming my view that the modern Ayutthaya is no great shakes and certainly not somewhere to hang out for long once the archeology is ticked off.
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