Filling in the Gaps at Ayutthaya (photo report)

[Bamboo Grove]

in around 1700 Ayutthaya was the most populous city in the world with around a million inhabitants.

I wonder if that means the city of Ayutthaya or the whole empire? For the former, the number seems to be quite big, for the latter too small.

[caller]

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…………………………..

Great report BB, but which way did you go and which way did you return?

[Big Boy]

Going, I went through Ratchaburi to Nakhon Pathom before turning North.

Coming back it was straight back to Bangkok, along the Don Mueng Expressway and the Rama II Road.

[STEVE G]

in around 1700 Ayutthaya was the most populous city in the world with around a million inhabitants.

I wonder if that means the city of Ayutthaya or the whole empire? For the former, the number seems to be quite big, for the latter too small.

It's an estimation for the population of the city but apparently records are scanty so no one really knows.
Europeans who were there estimated the population as 400,000 in 1600.

[caller]

Coming back it was straight back to Bangkok, along the Don Mueng Expressway and the Rama II Road.

Google always advises that, I would have gone along highway 9 instead.

[PeteC]

Why doesn't Google have any record/maps of Thai highway 9? Is there a different name?

[caller]

Why doesn't Google have any record/maps of Thai highway 9? Is there a different name?

It's shown on my maps?

[PeteC]

Why doesn't Google have any record/maps of Thai highway 9? Is there a different name?

It's shown on my maps?

Ok, it's showing up now. Must have been a glitch when searching before.

[Big Boy]

Coming back it was straight back to Bangkok, along the Don Mueng Expressway and the Rama II Road.

Google always advises that, I would have gone along highway 9 instead.

I've just looked to see where Highway 9 goes, and whilst it would have missed half of the Rama II debacle, I'd have been at a standstill for quite a way on that road as well.

The other problem is that the satnav doesn't even offer that road as an option. Yes, I could have dragged the route to go that way, but the satnav would have simply re-routed on the way, and the changes aren't subtle enough to notice until too late, which is why I travelled there via Ratchaburi/Nakhon Pathom - roads I know. At least it only skimmed the edge of Bangkok.

For my limited knowledge to avoid the roads around Bangkok I need place names to aim for/update manually as I go. With the Ratchaburi Nakhon Pathom route, I'm fine. I was tempted to take the Suphanburi route and go across country from there.

Definitely anything involving Rama II anywhere from Bangkok to Samut Sakhon needs to be avoided. I've been caught on that stretch (coming home) quite a few times in the last 8 months. It was always terrible road, but it has gone beyond terrible, especially at night - I'm convinced since great lumps of carriageway started dropping on the traffic, the high work is done at night, and the main carriageway is closed for the duration. Most of my travel is football related, and my journeys are after match - hitting the main drag after its been closed. I've also had a flight that got in after 10pm.

[caller]

I can't comment about night driving, and it's a while since I travelled onto that section of 9 from highway 1, or Ayutthaya, but it was always fine in taking me down to Rama2.

But during the day, Rama2 is fine. I go and up down that route all the time, 3 times in the last month and again, next week. and since Srettha made a song and dance about it, there has been a massive improvement.

On saying that, when I came back to HH last Thursday, it did take much longer to clear the route from the end of the raised tollway section as you head out of Bkk to beyond 9, when it started clearing. It added about 45 minutes onto my journey. I couldn't see any obvious reason for this, and the traffic only completely stopped a few times, and then started immediately again. It just seemed the sheer volume of traffic, which made the effect of those turning off to 9 a lot worse, and the other factor that I have noticed quite regularly on my recent trips, is the amount of large trucks and lorries now using the outside lane, in addition to the usual idiots. The police seem to have stopped enforcing this as it's now a factor on the Petch road as well.

[Big Boy]

Last Thursday was when I came back. I had to be back in Hua Hin by 1pm, so it must have been late morning that I encountered the problems. More than likely the problems seemed worse because I needed to pee so badly .

It was the Srettha song and dance, together with Google Maps insistence that there were no hold-ups that convinced me to take the supposedly faster route.

I'm actually wondering if, since the Srettha song and dance, Google Maps is being manipulated to make things look better. Statistics, no matter how they are captured seem to mean a lot to senior politicians.