So laid back we are horizontal in Ayutthaya

Today we had another well deserved lay in. We are still recovering from our month volunteering at the safari, our bruises are going down though and our bites and scratches healing. We decided to visit the market this morning and have a leisurely walk. The market is quite large and is a fully functioning local market. It sells everything you could ever want, fresh foods, fish, meat, clothes, dried foods, household goods and second hand goods. We had a look around but the market was coming to a close as it was near lunch time.

We went to a street vendor and got an iced coffee which was gorgeous. They are usually nice but this one had a coffee machine so we got freshly ground coffee instead of Nescafe.

We decided to go to the same eatery as yesterday morning as it was so friendly and nice. They dont speak any English and both times we have gone it has been extremely busy with Thai people which is always a sign of amazing food in our books. It is on a smaller street opposite the bus station. We tried out our Thai and ordered rice with pork for Chelsea and pointed to a noodle dish for Liam. They were really nice. Chelsea had thinly sliced pork and sausage and rice and Liam had a noodle soup with pork balls and thinly sliced pork. In Thailand your meal always comes with several condiemnt options, hot (chilli), sweet (sugar), salty (soy sauce) and sour (fish sauce). Often you also get the choice of spring onions, pickled chilli, honey and crushed nuts also so you can adapt your meal to your specific tastes. We have different tastes with regards to Thai food. Liam will always go for noodles or noodle soup and Chelsea will always go for rice.

It is crazy how fast you can become accustomed to Thailand. We have been at the safari for a month and at first we were a little overwhelmed again by it but we are back into it now. Just walking down the street is an experience. You get approached by people offering you tuk-tuk rides and the street itself is an obstacle course. The paths are littered with tables and chairs, motorbikes, rubbish, electrical wiring, dogs, parked minivans, food vendors and bird cages. Houses, restaurants and cafes spill out into the paths so wherever you go you are forced to walk on the road. Every spare place on a house or cafe is filled with an advertisement and the traffic everywhere is always mad busy.

After our morning jaunt we came back to the room and picked up some things for our afternoon. We walked to the area where the ruins start and decided to go into Wat Ratburana which costs 50 baht each and is the closest to the town. This temple ruin is really good.

You can really imagine how it used to look as lots of it is still intact and you can walk down the steep stairs inside the main prang into a crypt where there are original wall paintings. As you get deeper it gets extremely hot and humid and when you come back up it is surprising how cool you feel.

From the top of the main prang the views of this complex are lovely and the outer walls and entrances of the main hall are intact so you can envisage what it would have looked like.

After we had explored the ruins we decided to sit in the park for the afternoon talking and reading our books. We took a blanket and sat under a big tree in the shade surrounded by the ruins. It was really lovely and hours past with us talking and reading. The park is gorgeous, there are rivers and lakes running through it with brick paths winding through ruins. Lots of the smaller temples are free to enter and there are ice cream vendors selling home made ice cream which are basically a freezer strapped to a push bike and he rings his bell whilst cycling around. Whilst we were sat today loads of people took our photos whilst they thought we hadn't noticed. A few people asked permission but most people slyly crept forward and pretended to snap the ruins. We are not sure why but it was mostly Asian people so maybe we made a nice natural snapshot reading in front of the ruins. It made us laugh anyway.

At around 4.30pm we decided to head back since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. Chelsea had tore her favourite pair of trousers at the safari and on the way back we saw a seamstress so decided to take the trousers to be fixed. We went back and grabbed the trousers but when we got back to the shop they had closed so we decided to go for a drink. We went to a bar and shared a cold beer and went for some tea.

We treated ourselves to a burger and chips tonight and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. It was homemade and we shared a few more beers before heading back. We have tried to book some accomodation in Myanmar but most places don't have a website or email so any that do are out of our price range. We have decided to wait until we have arrived in Yangon and enquire at our guest house about booking our next stop. We are hoping that calling a few days in advance will be sufficient as we are having no look on the Internet. We are a little nervous as we have read a lot about the influx of tourists making it hard to find accomodation but Chelsea spoke to two men tonight who have put our minds at rest as they have been to Myanmar in several occasions and have nothing but good things to say. They have told us that it will surpass every expectation we have so we are quite excited.

Tomorrow we are off to Bangkok to buy some clothes before leaving for Myanmar on the 26th.