Wed 19th - Thurs 20th December - Ayutthaya

So the night sleeper train to Bangkok. This was the first time I've taken a sleeper train. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable it was. Two seats facing each other convert into bunk beds, with curtains. The guard makes your bed with new clean sheets when you ask. The bed was pretty comfortable, the only problem is the noise of the train and the constant stopping and starting. I didn't really get much sleep but I was comfortable in the bed. I would recommend the lower bunk, which you have to pay a little extra for. It has a little extra space with two shelves, where I put my rucksack. An MP3 player is also a good idea to drown out the noise.

Having left Chaiya at 18:45 I arrived in Bangkok at around 6:30. From what I could see Bangkok didn't look too bad. I didn't hang around though, I got the 7am train to Ayutthaya, which took about 1.5 hours.

The main area of interest in Ayutthaya are on an island which is surrounded by the meeting of 3 rivers. The train station is on the mainland about 50m from the ferry. When I reached the ferry I decided to stop and have a coffee. While sitting in a riverside cafe I noticed that directly next door was an attractive looking guest house called Baan Are Gong. They had some rooms free so I decided to stay there, instead of following the Lonely Planet.

The Guest house is built on stilts beside the river just at the ferry crossing point. The upstairs part looks very old with some nice wooden floors and beams. The owner later told me that this part of the house was over a 100 years old. The woman who ran the place spoke a fair bit of English and we had an interesting conversation later that night. She had recently moved back from Singapore, with her son and husband, where she worked for Seagate Hard Disks, in their factory. The guest house was their family home and the meaning of the name is something like Family Guest House. She was of Chinese decent, her father having escaped China when he was young. He was never allowed to return.

I asked her about the various shrines in the building. There are two Chinese ones and a Thia style one, with offerings of incense sticks, food, flowers and strangely a bottle of cherry coke. She explained that she was a Buddhist and that one of the shrines was something to do with Fung Shue and the others were meant to bring good luck. When I asked her about what it meant to be a Buddhist in Thailand she said that it mainly involved having a good heart and being nice to other people. She didn't do any meditation or visit a Wat very often. Meditation, she said, is generally just for Monks although she did say that her house keeper did some. The female equivalent of a monk wears white robes instead of the usual saffron of the men. She also mentioned you had to be careful these days as there were many fake monks looking for alms. She said if you wanted to give it was best to give directly to the temple.

Ayutthaya island is a bit of a Wat graveyard. There are numerous ancient Wats, Chedis and stuppas, in a poor state of repair. There are also some newer Wats with giant golden Buddhas. It was very hot maybe 37c so walking round was a bit of an exhausting experience, especial after the train journey.

I'm not sure how much more Wat visiting I plan to do. There will also be plenty in Chaing Mai and Laos. The newer ones are all very similar and I feel a little awkward walking round someones place of worship, as a tourist with a camera. Asking myself the question of why I was there, I suppose the answer was just to see it and get the pictures. While the giant golden Buddhas are impressive I didn't get any spiritual feeling from being there.

I'm not sure where all this fits in with the Buddhism I learned about in Glasgow. There appears to me to be some form of worship of these golden Buddha statues and the ornate golden temples contrast dramatically with the state of most peoples houses. The impression I get is that of the Christian worship of Jesus and the virgin Mary, at least from the lay people. Of course, what do I know.

It was very hot last night and I didn't get much sleep. I've booked myself on the night sleeper to Chaing Mai, 12hrs 856 baht. Hot again today so I'm trying to keep cool in Cafes and this Internet joint until my train leaves at 19:00. Hence the length of this post.