Ayutthaya Part II: Night Market

After arriving in Ayutthaya and dropping our belongings in the hotel, it was time for dinner and some exploration of our new surroundings. We flooded out onto the streets and eventually found our way to a local night market. We browsed a typical selection of jewelry, clothing, and knick-knacks, and munched our way through a bunch of standard night-market food-on-sticks-style cuisine, including a kind of sausage made with rice that is apparently quite popular further north in Thailand.

This is what a Bangkok tuk-tuk looks like in broad daylight.

Before long, the vendors began to close up shop, and I suggested we head back to the hotel to see what we could catch on TV of the news from Beijing, since today was, after all, 08-08-08, the long-awaited date of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. We piled into a tuk-tuk that was far less modern and shiny than the one pictured above, and rumbled down the trash-strewn streets of Ayutthaya at what seemed to me to be far too fast a pace for comfort.

Inside the tuk-tuk. Left to right: Pantee and Yoon Joo put on brave smiles, Janice fiddles with her camera, Heny is obscured from view and Risa flashes the peace sign.

The general trend in Ayutthaya seems so far to be that things are several years older and several grades filthier than their Bangkok counterparts, and the tuk-tuk was no exception. I was thankful when we finally staggered out of the tuk-tuk's open back, coughing on the diesel fumes, and re-entered the hotel at last.

The view from the back of the tuk-tuk.
Good riddance!