We woke up to our first rainy morning. Luckily, the downpour didn’t last too long. The traffic in Ayutthaya is way less crazy than in Bangkok, so we decided to rent a moped this morning so we could get around quicker and get a little bit outside of the main city to the lesser-visited temples. We showed up at the rental place a little after opening, but the owner didn’t show up until a few minutes later because “everyone’s a little lazy this morning because of the rain.” I have to say, I appreciate the lifestyle.

The first temple we went to, we practically had to ourselves! It was very sleepy out in the burbs, with dogs and cats hanging out under the trees, a couple of local vendors setting up food stalls, and monks in their saffron robes walking around.

We spent the better part of the day going from temple to restaurant to temple. Ayutthaya has a rich history, so there was all sorts of stuff to see. Back when it was the capital, it was a major trading port, so there’s influence from all sorts of cultures, including an old Portuguese church from a mission that was established here.

By the end of the day, we’d had enough fun biking around that we decided to rent the scooter for another day, so I swung by the shop to tell the owner. While I was there, he gave us a bunch of recommendations for restaurants that are favorites with the locals. One was a stall at the night market, so we went back there and grabbed some green and Massaman curries, more stir-fried morning glory, and a couple of beers. We mentioned we were renting a bike from Wan in town, and the owner gave us some fresh pineapple on the house as an appetizer!

The next morning, we biked around to a few more wats and to the restaurants Wan had mentioned, including a basil stir-fry place that served frog and wild boar. Alas, because something was lost in translation, we ended up with good old-fashioned pork. Still tasty! We checked out a halal fried chicken and rice place he mentioned as well.

We had been deliberating on how to get from here to our next stop, Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand. We were going to try an overnight sleeper bus, but it was sold out, so we ended up booking a flight from Bangkok. The flight is only an hour, and there’s a cheap bus back to the airport from here, so this afternoon we packed our bags and headed out.

The traveling was pretty smooth, and we got into the city center of Chiang Mai just in time for dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hotel.