The Longest (Shortest) Trip: Bangkok to Ayutthaya

After taking a quick flight from Krabi to Bangkok with Air Asia, we left the airport quite confident. How hard could it be to get from Bangkok (Thailand's capital) to Ayutthaya (Thailand's ancient capital)? They're only 41.5 miles apart. Easssssy.

Well, wrong-o. At least for backpackers!

After asking many people around the airport where the bus was that was supposed to run from the airport to the Hualamphong train station, we decided we should take an airport shuttle bus to a (potential) bus center on the premises.

Bingo! We found the bus center but the bus we needed didn't exist. Instead, we needed to take 2 buses to get to the train station. No worries! We boarded the first and got off at the stop we were told to in the middle of town. We looked like odd balls out for sure. After about 10 minutes, a bus came along that wasn't the one we were supposed to board; or we didn't think so. But the bus attendant told us to jump on board. She obviously knew where we needed to go. After a quick confirmation of the train station, we boarded and were off again. Bus #3.

Thirty minutes later we jumped off at another random stop but this one was much busier. We asked a police officer, a local, and a taxi driver where the train station was. The first two pointed across the street - it would have been impossible to cross the street. So we took option #3: the taxi driver. He was incredibly nice, but very quickly we thought we were going the wrong way. Options #1 and #2 pointed in the opposite direction of the way we were going. Nevertheless, in 10 minutes time we arrived at the station; our backup bailout plan didn't have to be used!

What a station! No matter where you are in the world (besides a few), all train stations seem to look the same. We bought our tickets to Ayutthaya and waited to leave. For the first hour, the train was very crowded! Some people had to stand and we passed by shanty after shanty. There is much poverty in Bangkok. In our 2.5 hour trip (the train was delayed for a bit), I counted 4 monks in our train car!

The sunset was gorgeous...probably from all the pollution though...

After jumping off the cart at the Ayutthaya train station, we were approached by a tuk tuk driver who said he could take us to our hotel. After some bargaining, we left the station; however, he took us to his friend's guesthouse on the way to our hotel. After some confusion in us telling them that we already had reservations somewhere else, we made it to our hotel.

Travel time from airport to hotel: 6 hours.

Actual time: 1 hour.

Modes of transportation:

• 3 buses
• 1 taxi
• 1 train
• 1 tuk tuk

Cost: $6.50 each. SCORE!

I love travel days! :)