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.