A Day In Ayutthaya Bikes. Mild sun burn. Laughing locals. Parks. Heat. Posing for tourist photos. Snake. Thats what our day condensed of if you don’t want to read too much… Otherwise, Today was our day in Ayutthaya. We made it into the old part and it has completely changed our opinion of the area. Once you start to reach the older part the built up town starts to disperse and leaves behind a maze of ancient temples, posh houses, tourist spots, parks and the occasional group of shanty houses. We rented bikes (the best decision ever) and set off into the heat and manic traffic to brave roundabouts and junctions with no lights. It sounds mad but actually once you are in it, the traffic takes on a different form. The Thai’s are funny drivers. From the outside it’s manic lane changing, beeping, speeding and an excuse to ignore any and all road signs. Once you are on the inside all cars are perfectly content to sit behind you, then give a little wave as they pass. They also seem to understand that you are a naive foreigner and give you a wide birth. All junctions are actually quite civilised because everyone expects to be cut up otherwise everyone moves in the same way quite smoothly. It was only like this for a couple of minutes and then changed as we entered the old part into quieter roads. Can’t explain how much of a relief that was! A day tripping around some of the wats was actually really nice, and we saw our first elephants. Sadly they were being ridden by tourists in the little boxes and being led up and down. This was a little unsettling and we both really do not condone this kind of elephant ride. If you want to see them go and find an elephant sanctuary and do it that way. We intend to try to find one ourselves without the aid of a western company that will take a sizeable cut of the fee. The temples are breathtaking. Large and numerous they dominate this area completely. The only problem is they all follow a very similar style so seeing all of them is very unnecessary. It does give you a chance however to pass by all the parks and lakes which are nice even though they are struggling with the dryness at the moment. They are all filled with birds all constantly singing. Many of whom sound like old mobile phone ringtones. The other biggest event from today was being giggled at by all the locals as we passed on the bikes. I guess it’s funny seeing an oversized person on an undersized bike. At one point whilst riding around Pippa suddenly shouted “A snake! I’ve just run over a snake!” It wriggled itself across the road in front of her before she had time to notice it and she ran over the very end of it. It seemed alright and just slunk on it’s way. Later we passed a giant lizard of some kind. Luckily Pippa didn’t run that over too. So now we wait. We have an hour and a half till our train. We are sitting in the courtyard of our ‘boutique hostel’ surrounded by the sound of bird song, chattering locals and dogs humping (apparently all the dogs here are in season). Oh, and of course Mosquitos! Chang Mai here we come!!