Ayutthaya, Thailand

I got up, showered, dressed, and packed. I then had some coffee while researching places to stay in Ayutthaya on my iPhone. When I was finished drinking my morning “cup of joe”, the owner of the guesthouse drove me to the bus station and told me which bus I needed to take; I then thanked him for his kind hospitality and waited until it was time for the bus to depart. The bus finally left at 11:20 and drove north to Suphanburi. I tried resting, but the seats were terribly uncomfortable, so I stayed awake during the journey, thinking about my life and playing a game of “pin the blame on where it all went wrong”. The bus passed through mostly farmland and some scattered towns along the way; when it finally reached Suphanburi, we drove by the Museum of the Descendants of the Dragon (founded in 1996 to mark the twentieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand), which had a very large (about two-story height) and colorful dragon sculpture outside. We then stopped at the bus terminal in Suphanburi, I hurried to the restroom (I drank a lot of coffee and tea in the morning), and then I found my next transportation vehicle which would take me all the way to Ayutthaya – a minivan. I paid my fare and soon we were off, heading east to Ayutthaya. In roughly ninety minutes we then arrived in Ayutthaya, in the central part of the city near the market. I got out of the minivan and asked directions to the railway station; I then asked directions again from a local woman when I came to an end in the road and was soon walking off in the wrong direction; luckily I asked another tourist for directions a little later on and was pointed in the correct direction – where I had come from. I then followed the river south until it came to a bridge; I crossed the bridge, on to the other side, and walked north until I came to the railway station; I then walked to the guesthouse I had booked with this morning, which was about a hundred meters due west from the railway station. I checked in to my room, drank a bottle of water, and was given a tourist map of the city, which I used to plot my plan of attack fo the following two days I would be in the city. Since it was past 16:00 and everything of interest was either closed or closing, I decided to walk to the “floating market” located a short distance east from the guesthouse. I walked past a stupa located in the median of the highway and then turned north and headed to the “floating market”. I passed by an abused elephant eating weeds by the side of a building and then entered the market which was built around a pond with an island in the middle – which had a stage and seats for shows; the market stalls surrounded the pond and the only thing floating were docked boats; the market was also in the process of closing down for the day; overall it was obviously a tourist trap and not a floating market at all (real floating markets have all the merchants on boats selling their goods (mostly fruits, vegetables, and fish – not candies and souvenir trash like this place) and the customers travel by boat to and from each vendor). After visiting that dismal sight, I walked north past two temples (Wat Samanakottaram and Wat Khudeedao) before turning west down one of the roads; I then passed through many packs of dogs (three dogs were hanging out on the ruins of Wat Khudeedao) and also by a herd of about fifteen water buffalo being marched along the side of a monastery through mud by their herdsman. I then came to the railroad and crossed over to the other side; I then walked to a nearby restaurant where I dined on fried beef with garlic, stir-fried minced pork with glass noodles, a mixed-fruit shake, and beer. Then I bought some more beer at the 7-11 nearby, before going back to the guesthouse. At the guesthouse, I typed some more journal entries, updated the website, drank more beer, and eventually fell asleep to the sound of rain falling.