Ayutthaya by Kayak : 4

I made it!  Also, the barge I overtook has caught up.

The last day, woo, this has been hard.  And, a hard last day of course, 34km, and oh my god, the current actually seems to be against me?  Is it tidal maybe?  Certainly not implausible, I am only a few meters above sea level...  Well I just have to keep going.  The river is kind of industrial today, I see many warehouses or granaries, and there are massive barges and tugs to pull them.  I paddle alongside one tug, pulling four barges filled with sand.  I am actually slightly faster than it.  I'm still going at sunset once again, but I make it to my resort - I can rest tomorrow!  The resort is on the river of course, and a charming little place it is - a traditional Thai wooden house largely built up on poles, yes this means my room is pretty pokey, but there is lots of communal space so not a problem.  They also have a large wooden boat that you'll be able to sleep on once they've fixed it up!

My rather nice resort in Ayutthaya.

Do I do sightseeing in Ayutthaya?  Well obviously.  It is punishingly hot, sweat drips from me as I wander about, but I want to try to see most of the notable sights, of which there are many.  This really is a big place, built within the naturally defensible confluence of the Chao Phraya and Lopburi rivers, with a canal dug to the north to complete the defensive ring around the city.  It is a good hour to walk from one side to the other, and probably less than half the space is filled by the modern city, much of the rest is essentially an archaeological park.  I can believe this was one of the world's great cities back in its heyday.  Nowadays, of course, what mainly survive are the ruins of temples, and in terms of sheer physical mass it rivals Angkor Wat.  However, the lack of good building stone in these parts means the structures here were largely built of brick, with decoration added in the form of stucco that has largely gone.  What is left are the bare bones of chedis and massive brick walls, it is certainly impressive but not really as picturesque as the enigmatic stone faces, apsaras etc. at Angkor.

One of many temples - the praang can be seen to the right.

There sure are a lot of old temples though, and many of the chedis are impressively large, and interestingly rather different in style to what I have seen elsewhere.  In particular, I'm used to chedis being basically bell shaped, but here they tend to towering cylinders with domed tops, so let us say, shaped like, er, a cucumber.  I wonder if perhaps this type of chedi, known as a 'praang', was making some subtle statement about the 'power' of the great kings of Ayutthaya?  Speaking of whom, there is of course a massive palace complex, although pretty much none of it is intact.  I pass tourists taking in the sights on elephant-back, well why not, but of course what I need to do is see at least one temple from my boat, fortunately the very impressive Wat Chaiwattanaram is only a short paddle from my resort.  This is the way visitors would have first seen Ayutthaya back in the day, roads not being much of a thing in Thailand in those days.  I don't spend long on the river, and paddling back against the current is a little annoying, but it was worth it.  Wow I am tired though...

Well, this was a good trip, Ayutthaya is amazing, and I did in fact largely enjoy the kayaking, sunburn, blisters and all.  I guess for any future trip I probably should accept that trying to do much more than 20km in a day is not smart.  Also I need to get waterproof SPF50 sunblock in advance!  Or, maybe even some stylish lycra leggings, dear god. 

The same temple, as I travel past it in the traditional manner.

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 3

Embankment construction.

The service station hotel has pad Thai for breakfast, this is good.  I'm not loving the walk back to the river, but only 20km to paddle today, yay.  There is even some current!  Still lots of embankment construction, and in typical Thai style, an army of people are installing reinforcing bars for concrete, though there are plenty of big machines moving earth and rocks too.  I make good time to Singburi ('Lion Town'), and reach my rather nice hotel for 4pm.  Two vouchers for welcome cocktails you say?  It has a bar too, and there is yummy crab curry.

Another day, I am still broken, I buy some SPF 50 sunblock, better late than never I guess.  Well, I have to keep going, 27km today, not so bad.  The river still has a bit of current, and still new embankments are going up.  My legs are a mess of blisters and wounds, every time I leave the water there can be sharp sticks, and my skin tears like wet paper.  It won't kill me, I'm sure.  I make good pace at least, I think I am building muscle, and today I reach my resort before 5, and can actually get some rest.  Google thinks there are a couple of bars, 1 and 2 miles away respectively, well it's nice to walk after sitting in the boat all day.  The route is along the embankment, interesting, I can see that if the water ever got this high, it would be well above the surrounding land.  There are also many barking dogs, I remember one of the good points of kayaking, namely that the wretched creatures can't get to me on the water.  Of course the bars turn out not to exist, back to the resort with beer and food from a shop it is then.

Floating cabins.

Day number 7, only 18km, not really easy, but at least reasonable, but there is not much current and once more my pace is slow.  I see many houseboats at the riverside - well, not houses, I think most are the rooms at various resorts - good if a fishing holiday is your thing.  I keep going, to Aang Torng ('golden basin'), then have a km or so of walking to my hotel, then oops, one end of the road is blocked by a six foot gate.  I pull myself over it with no trouble whatsoever, I think I have indeed built muscles.  I am maybe trespassing on the property of the Thai tax office, but security guard seems relaxed about it.  The hotel room has subdued, multicoloured lighting, a very bouncy bed, and can be booked for a three hour stay, hmm.

Looking quite tanned here.

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 2

Large clumps of water hyacinth.

The owner of the homestay comes to watch me inflate the kayak, he says he might buy one, and why not.  Apparently I am not the first guest with one here.  He also gives me some water, which is nice, though I still don't want the noodles he went to buy for me last night, in a bit of a misunderstanding - I was in fact capable of walking to a restaurant.  Anyway, a shorter day today, only 27km, but still hard work.  My suntan lotion is not working, my ankles are badly burnt, and I have blisters on my hands from the relentless paddling, but still I keep going.  It's pretty at least, there are hills to either side, and many birds, a small one hovers over the water and then dives to catch a fish, most cool.  There are many guys fishing with nets too.  My destination today is another resort in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrive they tell me to go away, won't listen to my Thai, and can't even read the name of the resort, in Thai, on my phone.  Well, I work it out... There's nothing here of course, so I walk 5km to Uthaithani, it's worth it for beer and tasty fish curry.

Now this is getting ridiculous.

Ugh, last night I was thinking about when I needed to start, and misread my plan, it's not 28km today but 33km - 28 was the date.   There's no current at all, such hard work to keep moving, and I'm still not going fast enough.  There's really a lot of water hyacinth floating on the river, I worry the way will be blocked.  Well, I keep going, but this is so hard, it's breaking my brain, I forget my hat twice when I stop to rest and have to go back for it.  I paddle as the sun sets, into dusk and then darkness.  At least, I'm into Chai Nat now, a proper city so there's plenty of light, enough to avoid the water hyacinths, and also thumping music from an evening Zumba session - popular in Thailand - spurs me on.  I reach my hotel at 7:30, a nice riverside place, where the staff marvel at my insanity.  I then find a bar, on the river of course, although I'm too tired to drink much.

That damn dam.

The hotel staff watch me put up the kayak, and off I go, 35km today, oh dear, and there are other problems too.  Such as, 5km into the day, water hyacinth does indeed completely block the river.  Well, I had to get out at this point anyway, more or less, there is a dam coming up soon, the only one of the trip at least.  But, now I have a km or so to walk, boat in the bag it is then.  Turns out the blockage is less than 100m, the plants are pushed up against a floating bamboo barrier, I guess this stops them reaching the dam.  Well, I reach it, then on the other side is some kind of secure area?  OK, it looks like I can reach the river on the other side, so I cross  the dam, and then walk through a temple / golf course, a path leads down, but... there's a tributary before the place I thought I could get to the water.  I can't even get to tributary, between me and the water there is head high grass, argh.  OK, back over the dam, I walk through the security checkpoint, it seems unmanned, a bit further and there are stairs down to the water, yay.  But, it's 3 hours since I set off, and only 6km done, well, no choice but to keep slogging on.  The river is different now, much narrower, but sadly still has no current, though at least there is no water hyacinth!  A lot of the banks seem strangely high, embankments tower many meters above the river, separated from it by sandbanks, and indeed I pass beach play areas.  New embankments are under construction, maybe they are planning a new dam?  Ah, but this day is so long, I am broken.  I paddle into the dark again, and leave the water at 7:30.  It's a mile walk to my hotel, delightfully situated in a motorway service station, I buy beer on the way as I'm not confident anywhere will sell me alcohol there.  Well, it does have a shop at least, where I buy a 'tasty' microwaved burger...

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 1

Setting out from Nakhon Sawan.

Another Thailand adventure!  I wanted a change from cycling, so it is time to break out the inflatable kayak.  The plan is to paddle from Nakhon Sawan to Ayutthaya, which was the dominant city state in the region until the Burmese razed it to the ground in 1767, by all accounts a very interesting place.  So, a long train ride from Chiang Mai, a familiar hotel, then the next morning I'm pumping up the boat alongside the Chao Phraya river, which is considered to have its source here, at the confluence of four tributaries.  From here it flows south to Bangkok, I am not going quite that far though...

I have a long day ahead, some 35km, and this is hard work.  The river is mostly very broad, but it sometimes narrows and there's quite a current, this is good.  Sadly the kayak is not healthy, it's slowly deflating, I have to stop to pump it up every two hours or so.  Well, I make it to my planned stop just before sunset, leave the kayak and check into the nearby homestay, but then I get confused when owner shows me a better way to river, now I can't find the boat, oops.  I end up putting it in its bag in the dark...  As is often the way with kayaking, the homestay is near the river but not anything else, I have to walk a mile to find food...

I took quite a few photos like this.

The owner of the homestay comes to watch me inflate the kayak, he says he might buy one, and why not.  Apparently I am not the first guest with one here.  He also gives me some water, which is nice, though I still don't want the noodles he went to buy for me last night, in a bit of a misunderstanding - I was in fact capable of walking to a restaurant.  Anyway, a shorter day today, only 27km, but still hard work.  My suntan lotion is not working, my ankles are badly burnt, and I have blisters on my hands from the relentless paddling, but still I keep going.  It's pretty at least, there are hills to either side, and many birds, a small one hovers over the water and then dives to catch a fish, most cool.  There are many guys fishing with nets too.  My destination today is another resort in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrive they tell me to go away, won't listen to my Thai, and can't even read the name of the resort, in Thai, on my phone.  Well, I work it out... There's nothing here of course, so I walk 5km to Uthaithani, it's worth it for beer and tasty fish curry.

Selfies in the kayak are not easily done.