Leaving Sihanoukville, we caught an early morning bus to the Thai border-town Koh Kong and passed through the smallest border control we've seen so far. On the Cambodian side there are countless women selling cigarettes for $4 a carton, Casinos and places that offer more dodgy stuff. On the Thai side there's just an ATM and what seemed to be a never-ending road towards Bangkok...
We got to Bangkok in the end, just in time for a very late dinner and some sleep. Tomorrow morning we're off to Ayutthaya, the former capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siam). Ayutthaya is just north of Bangkok and our plan is to stay there for one night and then catch a sleeper train to the border of Laos.
11.08.2011-12.08.2011
We rented bikes and began our tour of the temples and pagodas (and wats) of Ayutthaya.
Cycling in style from temple to temple
Although we must admit that we've seen quite a few temples by now, some of the ones here were pretty nice.
Some pretty impressive temples
After some hot cycling, we took a break mid-day to watch an elephant show. Elephants are really amazing animals, these ones were dancing and `singing' to music and ridden by what seemed to be 5 year old kids. When they were tired, they bullied the audience for cobs of corn, piling them up on their trunk, shuffling them around with their nose-fingers before eating the corn one by one. Must be pretty cool to have a trunk.
Interrupting our temple tours with an elephant show
There's plenty to see in Ayutthaya, including some pretty special temples...
Temple of the angry roosters?
One thing that's cool about the temples is when trees grow around them (as in Angkor). In Ayutthaya there's a tree that has completely surrounded the statue of a Buddha.
Buddha wrapped in time
After all the temples (and perhaps some dinner) we're off to Vientiene and Laos on the night train!
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