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Wow it's hot! You can feel the heat from outside by touching the bedroom window. Thank goodness for a/c, it's 33oC but 95% humidity and feels like a cup of tea.
We got a taxi from our hotel to Bangkok's central railaway station, a beautiful, huge, ornate and gold leaf covered building and acting as a refuge for hundreds from the immense heat- including some hot and bothered looking Buddhsit monks in their orange cloth. After some fruit and coke (nutritious) for breakfast we checked our bags into the railway cloackroom and went for a wander til our train for Ayutthaya arrived at 2.05pm. Typical tourists we ended up walking in the mid-day sun and I burnt my shoulders! We were happily walking down towards the river for some lunch when a Thai man (later to be called Jack) told us we couldn't go any further as Red shirt demonstrations were happening right around the corner. After him trying to convince us to take a 1,200 baht river cruise instead and learning that he was intending to spend his honeymoon in the UK next month in Manchester we decided it was probably best to head back to the safety of the train station.
We followed a small river back and it was literally black with sewage and huge methane bubbles rising to the surface. Toby noticed some fish, probably carp, were still managing to survive there and we even saw one guy setting up his fishing gear! Sadly also along the river was a shanty town of corrogated steel sheets on stilts over this steamy river. On one side of the river it looked like the houses were slowly sinking into the muddy sewage! It seems odd how there are so many beautiful gold leafed temples and signs heralding the King but then some people are literally living out of scrap metal and old rice sacks for doors in their city centre- doesn't quite balance out.
The train was at the platform and after a quick, delicious maple wafle (again nutritious and very Thai) we grabbed our bags and boarded our 3rd class carriage- I loved it!! The windows were wide open and were literally only horizontal shutters that slid up and down so you could have shade or breeze. It afforded us a great view of Thailand as we left Bangkok. We saw dozens of paddy fields all waiting for the rain still, a few temples and buddhas, and a lot more shanty towns (including a man in a pair of pants having a good old wash down there!). We saw loads of birdlife too including storks, egrets and spoonbills all rummaging around in the rice fields for food.
The journey only took us 2hrs and then we got a tuk tuk to our guesthouse for the evening 'Baan Eve Boutique Guesthouse' which we'd booked through the Tourism Thailand office back in Bangkok. It was a nice room with strange mural depicting a man with a snake that was wrapping itself around a lady thai and lotus flowers...hmm. It was a bit more expensive than we thought accommodation would be in Thailand at 800 Baht (approx 1 pound=44 Baht). The owners have two huge mastiff dogs, they look so hot and we got to watch them enjoying being hosed down to cool off, they drool a lot though as Toby's arm and t-shirt found out!
Still tired from flying and way too hot it was a cold Singha beer and planning for tomorrow. We couldn't seem to find any nearby restaurants and ended up with street food instead, a yummy noodle and pork ball soup and iced fruit drinks.
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