Kingsman on Tour: Asian Adventure (Part III)

As I take the bus back to Siem Reap I will endeavour to finish off the stories of Thailand. We take up the story as we catch the early(-ish) morning train to Ayuttya, the old capital of Thailand. It was quite different to Bangkok, much more open and with a lot less traffic! Ayuttya's attractions are mainly many many temples, see the photos below.

That evening we took the night train north to Chiang Mai. We rode second class enjoying comfy seats, dinner and breakfast, blankets and some of the politest and most helpful staff I have met and despite travelling half the length of Thailand it only rushed us the equivalent of about £10!!

We arrived in a rainy Chiang Mai and headed to the Green Tulip guesthouse who kindly let us check in early and take advantage of their shower facilities and wifi. A wander to get some lunch as well as our bearings and people started to crash out, despite the comforts of the train, energy was low. Susie and I took refuge in a juice bar, while Fred and Louisa enjoyed a massage and Max and Wis took a nap at the guest house. Much later and suitably refreshed we headed out for dinner at a vegetarian place (yummy but slow service) and then mounted an assault on the marvellous night market in the rain. There were some magnificent wares on sale and flexing our bartering skills we were able to negotiate some deals (whether these were bargains is hard to tell but we were satisfied).

Throughout this day there had been much discussion over where to go next; various plans had been proposed which basically boiled down to whether to go to Laos or have more time to spend in Cambodia and Vietnam. At time these debates became a tad heated, probably because everyone was a little tired but we kept focussed on ensuring everyone was satisfied with the arrangement and was not dragged somewhere they didn't want to be but also didn't miss out on their priorities. The eventual conclusion was that the group would briefly split: Fred and Susie would head north to the old capital of Laos, Luang Prabang, while the rest of us would go south to Siem Reap in Cambodia, max and Wis to spend longer at the world renowned temples of Angkor Wat and Louisa and I so we could go on to Phnom Penh to see the legacy of Pol Pot and the Khymer Rouge.

Chiang Mai is a common destination for backpackers (thus it's provision of juice bars and vegetarian restaurants) but other than the markets, it was a little thin on the ground for things "to do". It's main purpose seems to be as a hub from which treks and tours are organised, sadly due to our hectic schedule of countries we were unable to fit such an outing in, nor had we particularrly planned to. We had one more day in Chiang Mai first however so we took the opportunity to visit a nearby temple, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, on a hill a little wayout of town. We shared a taxi (a.k.a. a songthaews) with a lovely Spanish couple and were soon deposited on a cloudy hillside, to climb the steps up to the temple. While the views over Chiang Mai were not present it did make for some fun photography nonetheless...