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We flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok on the smallest plane I have ever seen. It must have seated around 40 people. The propellers did not help my fear of flying, and I squeezed Mike's hand until it was blue most of the way.
We had planned to go straight from Bangkok to Ayutthaya when we arrived, but after finding out it was going to be far more complicated than one train we decided to stay for a couple of nights then move north. We stayed just off of Khao San Road. (After walking around for about half an hour with our bags looking for a guesthouse as the taxi had dropped us at the wrong road...) Khao San is purely for tourists and has a really artificial feel. It's a lot like Camden, but pretty surreal in South East Asia and compared to our last destination! We got some pretty average food and then called it a night.
The next day we went to see the Grand Palace which is massive, and the tackiest but most fascinating building I've seen so far. The walls are covered in glass coloured mosaic which sparkles - incredibly over the top but pretty cool as well. We also went to Wat Pho which houses Thailand's second biggest reclining Buddha which was impressive but heaving with tourists.
The next day we went to Ayutthaya as a day tour as we figured it would be easier. The tour took us to the main temples, but unfortunately not to the island of Ayutthaya. We saw some more statues of Buddha, including a temple surrounded by rows of Buddhas which was good, and another reclining Buddha. We also went to some temple ruins. Some were really different to Siam Reap which was good, but not nearly as impressive. The day tour was definitely worth it, but by the end of the day we were templed/Buddha'd out!
We then made our way back to Bangkok to get ready for the night bus to Chaing Mai. After a couple of disappointing days in Bangkok due to how aggressive/unfriendly the locals/tourist had been, being surrounded by old Western men with young Thai women and how artificial/busy it was we weren't sad to leave, and were looking forward to a change in Chaing Mai!
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