FINALLY. After 4 days of being in the city, we are now going to the ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Ayutthaya, for a day tour today!
I bought our day tour package, Ancient Ayutthaya Tour by AK, from Klook at a cost of SGD$ 114.10 for 2 people, and this day tour package includes pick-up and drop-off at Paragon Mall, along with full-day transportation and a guide. So, why not right? Save us the trouble of having to find our own way there as Ayutthaya is situated about an hour's drive from Bangkok.
We met up with our English speaking tour guide at Paragon Mall before we boarded our minibus and left for Ayutthaya.
Our first stop was Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, to see the famous reclining Buddha and the Chedi (the Buddhist Stupa), which can be spotted from a distance away. After our tour guide gave us a talk about the history of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, we had an hour to roam the area freely to explore before heading to our next location.
Next stop, Ayutthaya Floating Market, because... Lunchtime! We had about 2hours to spend here, which includes our lunch hour. Maybe because it was a weekday, the floating market was fairly quiet and without a huge crowd, so that made shopping a lot easier. Plus, we managed to take the boat ride around the entire market.
This was my first time visiting a floating market, so probably Ayutthaya Floating Market on a weekday probably was not an ideal choice as it was really quiet, hence I did not get to see the hustle and bustle of a floating market, and it feels a little touristy. In any case, we still enjoyed walking around the floating market, buying and trying local food, hunting for souvenirs, feeding fishes, and taking photos.
We had our lunch at the large pavilion in the centre of the market, where the individual store's kitchens were on boats and customers sit and eat on decks next to the boats. It's like our hawker centres, but on decks above water, whereby we are able to choose what to eat from which stall.
After lunch, we managed to catch the traditional dance show at the centre floating stage, which was about the history of Ayutthaya and it's local ways of life. Before we head back to our meeting point to meet up with our tour guide, we went across the streets to see some animals, namely the elephants. It is really so sad to see the elephants enclosed in such a small area. They deserve to be and should be in their natural habitat.
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| Mama Elephant and it's Baby Elephant. |
Up next was Wat Phra Si Sanphet, the most important temple of Ayutthaya. The Wat Phra Si Sanphet was situated in the old Roya Palace, which was destroyed by the Burmese. Hence, we were only able to see and explore the ruins left behind.
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| Ruins of the old Royal Palace at Ayutthaya. |
However, there were 3 Chedis that remains intact, and according to our tour guide, even though the 3 Chedis were built by 2 different Kings, they were all built for a similar purpose.
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| The 3 Chedis. |
Situated next to the Wat Phra Si Sanphet is yet another temple, the Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit, a modern temple that houses one of Thailand's largest Buddha image, the bronze gilded sitting Buddha statue.
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| Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit. |
Our 2nd last stop was at the Wat Mahathat, the Temple of Great Relic, is where the iconic Buddha head entwined in the roots of a tree is located at. After which, our last location before heading back to Bangkok was the Wat Chaiwattanaram, the royal temple where religious ceremonies were performed.
The day tour at Ayutthaya ended at about 4pm and the hour journey back to Bangkok begins. Due to the peak hour traffic, the journey took slightly longer and we were dropped off at the Paragon Mall at about 5:20pm, where we headed straight for the Talad Neon Night Market.
Because we were early (we reached about 6pm), Talad Neon Night Market was almost empty with barely any visitors, and a few stalls fully set up and ready to be patronised, while others were still in the midst of setting up their stalls. So, we decided to grab our dinner first since most stalls are still not fully set-up.
Dinner was meh. Nothing too fantastic. After having our dinner, there were more people streaming in and since it was dinner peak hour, most people headed for the food section, which worked perfectly for us because that meant that we have a fairly empty shopping section to ourselves (and some other shoppers of course).
We came across a stall that customises keychains at an affordable rate, so I went ahead to make one each for my closer group of friends. Plus, there was quite a huge variety of designs available to choose from and they were all so cute! I was even managed to find certain characters closely resembling some of our friends. So... Souvenir? Checked!
Talad Neon Night Market was not as big as we thought it would be, so we did not spend a lot of time there. Instead, we decided to head back to Terminal 21 to do more shopping at the One Piece merchandise shop, where we coincidentally met my friend and ended up catching up over coffee till late before we head back to rest for the day.
Thinking back, I realised I spent more at the One Piece merchandise shop as compared to any night market elsewhere. HAHAHA!
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