On our second day in Ayathuya we rented bikes and cycled off to visit some of the many wats in the area. This was the seat of power for a while back in the day, and as such has lots of old crumbly ruins. We had a good poke around a few and I did a bit of tomb raiding — we’ll, I went down some steps and had a look in a tomb that previously had lots of statues in it. ( a bit like in Egypt where robbers nicked most of it).

Then we cycled around the wat area, and found a nice marketplace, which sold everything you can think of! In fact the day before, we had stumbled across another market which sold lots of raw food, some which smelled terrible, and of course the rats were lurking about — someone said they are tolerated because they clean up all the waste…

We shared Pad Thai (shrimps etc) and other stuff at the market, and headed off to the National museum, where the aforementioned statues etc. now live.

We had a good chat with a local tour form (tour with Thai) and realised that we might have trouble heading to the islands anytime soon, as storms are making for soggy beach goers. We had half planned to head up to Chang mai anyway, an she helped us plan a route through Laos to Vientienne, where we can get a 60 day Thai visa (ours only lasts 30 days, so we have to leave and come back if we want to stay longer).

Unfortunately, the sleeper train is full for the next few days, so we dedided I stay another night, and happened across the Baan Lotus guesthouse. It’s in the Lonely Planet guide as a top recommendation, and it’s lovely, and at 350b for a double fan room – it was cheap enough for us.

Baan Lotus is a traditional Thai building made if teak, standing in pillars next to a fish pond. There are two little house things in the water for guests to lounge in. The lovely lady owner told me that she was born in the house over 70 years ago — I wonder how many of those years she has spent looking after awkward tourists — she seems to have it all worked out though — our best place yet, I even slept well 🙂

Sad to leave this place this morning, but we have to move on if we want to make it to Chang Mai any time soon!