Cycling along Ayutthaya Historical Park

More Adventure travel tales in Thailand: Khao San Road, Bangkok Ko Pha Ngan River Kwai Hill tribe trekking Sukhothai Other Asian Tales: Lake Baikal, Siberia Great Wall of China Sapa Angkor Wat Temples Kuching, Malaysia Tana Toraja, Indonesia

Ayutthaya historical park is located north of Bangkok. It consists of the ruins of the former capital of Thailand, founded in 1350 and destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767. It consists of a lot of stupas and remnants of temples. The city, which was rebuilt a few kilometres east of the ruins, has a railway station and is therefore worth a visit on your way from Bangkok to Chang Mai.

We are taking the route north from Kanchanaburi, which requires a bus ride in two parts to Ayutthaya, from where we will take the night train to Chang Mai. Since we arrive before noon, we have the complete afternoon for visiting the Historical Park.

After lunch, we rent a few bikes and cycle through the heavy traffic to the ruins. There, we see a lot of old stupas, some in decay, some reasonably intact. And a lot of Buddha’s for which we could say the same. We take a lot of pictures, including the most photographed Buddha head in the world, the one strangled by the roots of a tree.

The temple complex is quite large, and we wander through the many ruins. We also visit a new temple, just outside the historical park. It is nice to see the contrast with the ruins, and it makes our picture complete. A threatening thunder cloud forces us to go back, we could have stayed here forever.

We end the day in Ayutthaya in a floating restaurant, before we bring the bikes back, and step on the night train to Chang Mai. We should have stayed a bit longer though, and although Ayutthaya can be visited on a day tour from Bangkok, we would advise to just go there by train, and stay at least for one night in an Ayutthaya hotel.

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