En route to the old capital of Siam
These people seem to have a thing for converting parking garages. Our first hotel choice in Ayuthaya was fully booked and we were directed to ‘Sunrise place’, a few blocks away. Remembering the parking garage converted into a furniture store in Kanchanaburi, this was a parking garage converted into a hotel. The reception area and restaurant took up the ground floor of the garage, with the rooms off to the side.
The place is not too bad, but by no means impressive, bringing into question the altruistic nature of the owner of ‘Baan Lotus’, which was our first choice.
There’s the possibility of taking a fast (I suppose) tourist bus from Kanchanaburi to Ayuthaya, a ruin infested former capital of Siam and world heritage site, for which tickets set you back 350B (7 euro). Alternatively, you can take a local bus to Suphanburri, where you have to switch to another local bus to Ayuthaya. Less than 100B in total, but it did take us 4.5 hours. My guess is that the fast bus, assuming it takes the shortest route and doesn’t stop on the way takes 2.5 to 3 hours.
And then there’s Thai transliteration into Latin script. I’ve now seen the former capital spelled Ayuthaya, Ayuttaya, Ayutthaya and Ayudaya. For several years now, there’s an official, singular, way of converting Thai to Latin script. Use it!