We are currently in Ayutthaya which is an hour north of Bangkok and was at one time the capital of Thailand until it was attacked and ravaged by the Burmese. We arreived yesterday morning after catching the train from Bangkok Hualamphong Station. That was an experience as we had a job getting an honest taxi driver, but after our first four days in Bangkok where we were scammed loads I know exactley how deal with them - insist on the meter or walk away. One guy wanted 150baht to take us but our metered cab cost 50baht!

Ayutthaya is really nice. To get from the station we had to cross the river on this tiny water taxi and we were the only backpackers around. It was really nice surrounded by ordinary Thais going about their business. It's really chilled out here, a few nice bars that have live acoustic guitar playing in the night and a really friendly atmosphere. Last night we sat out front of our guesthouse with a Canadian couple who are on their way home from a five month trip around Europe. They were really nice and much nicer than the Americans we've encountered. Our a guesthouse is a proper guesthouse - family home with rooms to rent. Its really clean and safe. The only way in at night is if you stay there and have a front door key. The women who run it are really friendly and the other guests very sociable.

Ayutthaya is famous for its huge collection of ancient temples and palaces and we visited two of them today. We hired bikes this morning as it's such a large area it would take forever to walk around. The temples we saw were massive and we climbed one central tower and the view was great. We took lots of photos for everyone to see! The visit gave us a really good insight into Khmer architecture and a taster for when we visit the temples of Angkor in Cambodia.

Yesterday we also booked our train tickets to the north, to Chiang Mai. We are leaving Ayutthaya on the 16th on the 1921 overnight train which will arrive at 0720 the morning of the 17th. We got two berths in an air conditioned sleeper car for 25 quid! the train here from Bangkok only cost a pound in third class for a journey equivialent in length to the swansea to swindon trip. Once we get to Chiang Mai we will email again to let you know about our accomodation and what we will have been doing.

We hope everyone is ok back home and we promise to sort the photos out this week, its just hard to find computers that aren't too slow to upload them!