A lot of bricks

The objective of our road trip was to attend the ghost festival in Dan Sai; about which, more later. Dan Sai is a zillion kilometres away in the north of Thailand, so we decided we should make the trip over two days. She who must be obeyed was in charge of navigation and accommodation arrangements. I feared that her lack of skills in the former would lead to an inability to find the latter; but I let her get one with it and she decreed that we would be staying in Ayutthaya overnight.

The cats were not enthusiastic about our departure , and endeavoured to keep us at home by using the “sitting next to the luggage and looking mournful” strategy, which almost worked.

But we were on the road reasonably early (for me), and were rolling into Ayutthaya around lunchtime. Took us about an hour to find our guest house, during which time she who must be obeyed had a spirited conversation with the owner while we drove round in circles looking for landmarks which did not exist.

She who must be obeyed had decreed that this was going to be a backpacker type holiday, which apparently meant minimal luggage and staying in cheap accommodation. I had visions of concrete slabs for beds in a rank dormitory with one creaking fan to cool a horde of sweaty young tourists with bad body odour and good intentions. But in fact we were staying in a rather cute guest house at 500 baht a night. There was hot water, or there would have been if the heater wasn’t broken. There was aircon, or at least there would have been if the aircon was not having an asthma attack. But the room was OK and I was quite happy. Not so my backpacking wife. She doesn’t mind cold water or hot air, or minimal facilities; but she demands cleanliness and a lack of smells. According to her the floor was sticky and the room had an unpleasant whiff. I could detect neither but suggested we could move somewhere else if she wished. She pondered the consequences of a new booking, and another hour of going round in circles whilst yelling down the phone, and decided we would stay in the sticky floor, smelly room. Later in the day she confided that maybe she was not a backpacking kind of person after all.

A late lunch, and with only a couple of hours left of daylight, we decided to go and take some photos. It’s not hard to find something to point a camera at in Ayutthaya. Every road seems to have a collection of ruins waiting to be photographed, and none of them have been created by the red shirts. There is the old city which is a UNESCO world heritage site. But world heritage sites are so yesterday, and anyway I couldn’t find it. So we stumbled on Wat Maha Tat and a couple of other places instead, and spent a pleasant hour or so before sunset, photographing among the ruins.

All photos with the Panasonic GF1 and 20mm F1.7 lens. I shot in RAW, plus JPEG with “Dynamic Black and White” treatment. Generally I preferred the B&W, brings out the patterns in the brickwork.

As we walked around we discussed Ayutthaya. Clearly it is steeped in history, and the more learned could no doubt spend months among the ruins. Me? I just enjoyed pointing a camera at it for a brief time. I asked she who must by obeyed for her opinion. “This city has got a hell of a lot of bricks”. The basis for an advertising slogan, I think. Needs some work.

Both Trip Adviser and Thai web pages recommended a restaurant called Chainam, so we went there for dinner. The place was dirty, even I could spot it; it was deserted, and the food was crap. A bit of a disaster, but my enterprising companion was to more than make up for it the following evening; about which, more later.

Comments 🔗

2010-06-14 | genuinej says

Queries! “WE decided” ? Did either of you spot a ghost? Were ghoulies or goolies brought into play during this road trip? Who took care of the cats? Backpacking at your age? Surely not.

2010-06-15 | Spike says

She proposed the trip. I agreed. I decided I did not want to drive all the way there in one day.

Yes, there were many ghosts, some of whom had goolies. The horror will be revealed in a future post.

The condo maid fed the cats.

Surely not indeed!

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