Part 6
Ice Cream Wednesday:
We caught a Grab for a cheeky ice-cream this afternoon. It was a late lunch to Swensen’s Ice-Cream Parlour in Amporn Shopping centre. When we’d finished it was the usual thing, delicious to start with, but sickly by the time we’d got to the end. It didn’t help that my wife chose Durian flavor, so it was like eating ice-cream whilst being sat in the gas works.
We had the same Grab driver who took us the river cruise, and he was trying to convince my wife to go to the Floating Market. I know a lot more Thai than I let on, and he was telling her he could get us both in for 200฿ (suggesting 100฿ each – my research had already identified 200฿ for foreigners and free for Thais). Fortunately, she knows my feelings about paying to go shopping/dual pricing. I guess he’d have got a good kick back if he’d taken us. I heard him say his kick back for taking us to the river cruise was 200฿ (25%).
When we’d finished at the shopping centre, rather than call a Grab, we jumped on a local tuk tuk. Ayutthaya tuk tuks are the smallest tuk tuks I’ve seen, and certainly not made for a 6’ 5” Farang, with a backside the size of Wembley Stadium. It was agony on the short journey back to the hotel. It was definitely a case of does my bum look big in this? No, it looked bloody huge with my fat arse trying to fit on to a 6” wooden bench.
A strange thing happened going up the ramp to the hotel lobby in the tuk tuk. It was as if somebody had poked me in the left ear with an iron bar. I was in a lot of pain for about an hour. In the end, I took a couple of paracetamols, and had an hour shut eye. About 4 hours on, the pain hasn’t returned yet (a few of days on, and still no recurrence).
Wednesday evening:
On the way home from the trip to Wat Niwet Thammaprawat, we passed a riverside restaurant literally a stone’s throw from last night’s restaurant at our hotel. There are a lot of funny road diversions around our hotel, and they generally take us (and most other traffic) away from this quaint riverside eatery. It is only traffic from the direction Bang Pa-In that would even know of its existence. The diversions, although actually very sensible for Ayutthaya, must be killing this nice little eatery.
Hotel security tried to turn us back, fearing for our safety walking a few yards along a road with no pavements. However, we were determined and took our lives in our own hands on this road where 98% of traffic has been diverted away. I think there and back, we saw 3 cars.
- 1.jpg (94.52 KiB) Viewed 3266 times
The setting was every bit as good as last night, right on the river, and the menu was better i.e. I’m a fussy eater, and there was a lot more I would eat than was on the previous night’s menu. Better still, the food wasn’t covered in flowers – in my opinion, there’s nothing worse than having your food served decorated with flowers. An early start, and a long drive tomorrow morning, so I resisted the temptation of a beer.
- 2.jpg (88.66 KiB) Viewed 3266 times
We were still able to watch the many boats going past.
- 3.jpg (75.08 KiB) Viewed 3266 times
- 4.jpg (73.75 KiB) Viewed 3266 times
Then the craziest maneuver I’ve seen on this narrow stretch of river. There were 4 fully laden barges being towed downriver, when a single unladen barge came along and overtook the 4. There was no room i.e. these things drift left and right whilst being towed. The guy towing the single barge was either on a mega wind-up with the driver towing the 4, or the driver of the 4 would have been screaming at the other guy for being so stupid. A great spectacle to watch though.
- 5.jpg (70.46 KiB) Viewed 3266 times
An early night tonight. We have to be back to Hua Hin by 1pm, so early breakfast, and straight on the road.
The Final Day:
A major observation this morning. The weed is flowing in the opposite direction this morning. The river must be tidal, and it also explains why the majority of barges go one way during the day, and the opposite way overnight. They are travelling with the flow.
The journey home was the journey from Hell. I’d been monitoring Google Maps for a few days, trying to decide if it was safe to take the supposedly faster route through Bangkok. The consensus was yes – what a BIG mistake!
First problem, my satnav steered me away from the elevated toll road – ouch, memories of my return from Buriram a couple of years ago. I’m under the elevated road, but actually moving quite well. Then I saw red roads ahead (stationary traffic) on the satnav. As I approached the red road, there was an exit to the elevated toll road – I took it, and hoped it would be the right way. Yes, traffic was flowing quite freely upstairs, but the satnav thought I was still down below – I was receiving satnav instruction for the lower route, not the elevated highway. No problem I thought, just follow the signs for Dao Khanong. Everything was going great, then the next thing I knew, the Dao Khanong sign post took me back down to the lower road. No problem, there was another toll booth down there; so, I paid AGAIN and I was back upstairs once more. Traffic was quite slow this time, but we were moving.
We eventually took the Samut Sakhon road, and then it literally was a complete standstill. 7 lanes of traffic at one point, parked. To make things worse the extra coffee and fruit juice at breakfast was taking its toll. I was jumping, screaming, wriggling, even crying, but I still needed to pee. My wife wasn’t much better, but she didn’t have to control 2 tons of truck through traffic as heavy as it gets. Such a relief when I eventually got to a service station, which seemed to take forever.
PM Srettha has promised an end to these crazy road works, which have been going on for decades by next year. We will have to wait and see if his promise can be fulfilled. Believe me, needing to pee so desperately whilst driving in extreme traffic is very unsafe.
The rest of the journey was uneventful, but if anybody tells you those road works from Samut Sakhon to Bangkok aren’t a problem, please believe me, they are lying. Oh, how I wished I’d gone home the same way as I’d travelled to Ayutthaya. It might have taken 30 minutes longer on paper, but I’d have been moving, and able to take comfort breaks as I wanted.
To be continued…………………………..
