Continued from Thailand – Laos: Day 10 – Part 4 – Wat Nakhon Kosa & Wat Phra Si Ratana Maha That. For pre-travel, please refer here.
Photograph memories at Lopburi Railway Station before boarding the train to Ayutthaya.
Pictured with oil tanker wagons that are rarely seen even in Malaysia.
In my opinion, this Lopburi town is enough to be visited in just one day. Not worth it to stay overnight here as almost all places can be visited in less than 8 hours including sunflower plantations. The important thing is to come early in the morning starting at 4.20 am from Bangkok.
Why leave for Ayutthaya by train at 12.20 noon? There is indeed a train schedule from afternoon to evening, but the tour schedule in Lopburi is sufficient until 12.00 noon. After all, we had to find a hotel in Ayutthaya anyway.
What if we miss the daily train to Ayutthaya? It doesn’t matter, you can find a minibus or taxi that can take you there in just 1 hour with a distance of 66km. To save money, there may be cheaper public buses here.
The Lopburi mascot is known as The Monkey City.
The train will arrive in another 10 minutes. We headed to the Left Luggage Office to pick up a backpack. Ok, a little description of this storage office:
- Available at any train station throughout Thailand with the “Left Luggage Office” signboard.
- The storage cost for a day is THB10 (RM1.50) per bag.
- After paying, you will be given a numbered card. DON’T DROP IT.
- This storage room guard is at his desk at all times.
- CCTV is also available here.
- Very safe but it is best to use a bike lock (as in the picture below that we brought to Thailand and weighs less than 100gm only). Tie the backpack to the iron rod of the floor closet on the side using a bicycle lock. Although the thief can cut the back strap of the bag, this lock will make him spend more time until the guards there are aware of his actions. Buy at Mr DIY for less than MYR10.
- It is best to tie a luggage tag on the outside of the backpack and insert a business card on the inside of the bag. This is intended as identification in case the numbered card is lost. The luggage tag will have your own name as proof of the owner of the bag while the business card acts as a second proof if the luggage tag is snatched and removed by anyone.
- After taking the backpack, first, check the contents inside. Worried if it suddenly becomes an ‘instant drug donkey’ when drugs are tucked between the backpack. Luggage bags are no exception because they are able to open the padlock.
- Overall, DON’T WORRY, STORING YOUR BAGS HERE IS VERY SAFE. Pray and apply the Law of Attraction by imagining your bag staying safe before stepping out and leaving the bag here.
Bicycle Lock, make sure it is a wire type and not a very heavy iron chain.
The condition of Tatie’s backpack was getting heavier and tighter. Let people say what they want even though we are both loyal fans of this type of backpack. Importantly one hand can hold the child and the other hand can hold the other items. In contrast to the luggage bag where one hand holds the handle, the other hand holds the plastic bag and the other hand holds the child. Huh, how can there be three hands ???? 😀
This is the condition of my backpack after we entered the 8th city in Thailand.
The train was supposed to arrive at 12.20 pm but has not yet arrived. It was already 12.40 and Aqif slept here for a while. Children can lie here. Importantly, parents do not have a luxury mentality, children’s clothing covers 90% of the bottom to protect from the surface of the seat that is not clean and the head is covered with pillows. This method is the same for those lying on the airport floor because the plane was delayed for hours.
There is also a train platform in the middle. While waiting for the train from the north, Aqif and I relaxed for a while here while Tatie took an eye off our bags.
The main mascot of Lopburi. But this time it’s gold.
An attempt to find the experience of sitting next to a Buddhist monk. Who knows, maybe he feels like chatting with me. It is also fun if there is an interfaith discussion in a relaxed and calm atmosphere. But this attempt failed and he remained silent.
Exactly at 12.50 noon, the train from the north arrived. Now I know why it’s late. Apparently, it’s a commuter and transporting all the school students and others, like a public bus. We had to be crowded with school students here.
For the first 20 minutes, we all had to stand. Imagine having to be crammed with a big, thick backpack amid a crowd of people. This time I don’t care, my kiasu temperament is starting to manifest. In our heart, we apologize to the train passengers, we had to force ourselves and the backpack to go inside because the train has already started to move and the door will also be closed.
We got an idea. Due to the limited space around us, Tatie lifted Aqif and placed him on top of the backpack.
This is life as a traveler. Wherever we could, we tried to tuck ourselves inside. Aqif, who could no longer hold his eyes, was more interested in sitting on the floor than on her lap while Tatie held his head which would be bent due to sleeping in a sitting position. Great experience for Aqif when he grows up and looking at this picture!
Some people teach children to be a person who is good at saving money, not wasting food, diligent, disciplined and others. We have an addition, which is to make the child of a strong man and not spoiled or too soft.
We arrived at Ayutthaya train station around 2.00 pm. At that time, our minds were completely focused on finding a hotel to spend the night and I did not have time to take pictures.
Leaving Aqif and Tatie and our backpacks at the train station plus Aqif who was ready to go back to sleep, I walked alone behind the station area to find the hotel. I have searched almost 6 hotels, none of which have vacancies and some are expensive. Suddenly at the end of a jetty near the river, there are two hotels with an available rooms.
As a husband, I need to ask Tatie’s opinion as well. So, I turned back to the train station and we hauled all the stuff. We walked to the hotel near the river earlier. Tatie, on the other hand, was stalking a hotel that was a bit dilapidated and did not agree because it was a bit gloomy inside, the aura around it was also less pleasant and the price was a little expensive.
And we agreed to stay at another hotel facing the street, just a little tired from having to climb the stairs to the 3rd floor. When we checked in, we all slept because we were tired. Imagine, in just one day we have been to three cities namely Bangkok, Lopburi and now in Ayutthaya.
About 6 pm, we got up and prepared to go to the city of Ayutthaya to find a place to have dinner. I stopped a car-shaped tuktuk with three tires. I told her where we wanted to go and the driver knew. A fare of THB100 (I forgot) is charged for a journey of 7.3km.
GPS location for Ayutthaya Night Market: 14.365925,100.57435
This is Ayutthaya Night Market. As I suggested to previous readers, it is good to find a night market after 6.00 pm in Thailand. Most restaurants are closed whether halal or not.
What we are excited about here is how many Muslim stall traders are. And to date, this is the city that holds the record for the highest number of Muslim traders for a night market based on our experience visiting cities in Thailand.
All pizza and western food, everything is there!
If I’m not mistaken, this is fried chicken and fish balls.
Let’s go to this stall and why do I highly recommend for readers to order food there?
All the foods that were originally eaten a lot by the Thai people are not halal in other cities but can be found here and halal. Until now, if I think of Ayutthaya every time, I can imagine the snail mussel dishes fried with omelet and bean sprouts. I don’t know what the name is but it’s delicious!
The price is cheap, no more than THB50.
On the right side of the picture to the end is an area where Muslim stalls gather. More than 10 stalls are available there.
This is also a stall that sells bread such as prata and capati but mixed with sweets. I chat with a man who is also a trader at this stall who is fluent in Malay. I was shocked because there were so many Muslim traders. He and his wife are students at a university here and are both from southern Thailand.
Although he is fluent in Malay, not all Muslim traders here know. Only he is the one who knows compared to all that is here.
In this central part, there are also many halal stalls.
This stall sells sweetened drinking water such as shakes, ice cream, smoothies and others.
The food sold at this stall is delicious as well. The rice is like chicken rice which is quite sticky and is eaten with selectable ingredients and then boiled. Similar to Yong Tau Foo but eaten with rice. For the reader’s knowledge, glutinous rice in Thailand is called sticky rice. Chicken rice is a semi-sticky type.
Many more pictures of the stall that I took, just look at the pictures below:
This is what we bought. Satay (a favorite food of Malaysians), but shaped like a fish ball.
The mussel snail I told you about earlier…
…. as well as tom yam.
After eating, we also enjoyed the view of the river by the night market.
You can also sit and eat by the river. But I guess, most likely the table location here is only reserved for customers who order food from the stall traders closest to the river.
A hut by the river is also a jetty for boating or canoeing.
In front of the night market, there is actually a fence in the shape of a high wall of an old palace. The palace has been converted into a local museum.
Because we arrived here at night, the palace was closed. For readers, I recommend coming here if there is extra time. Many artifacts collected from the excavation process in the historical area of Ayutthaya are exhibited here. It was a loss for us due to time constraints.
And from here, we took a different tuktuk to return to the hotel.
Before stepping back to the hotel, we first bought snacks if still hungry at night.
Arriving in front of the hotel, I was intrigued to see the mini jetty on the banks of the river.
From here, you can see the long bridge that connects the hotel area and the train station with the city of Ayutthaya. Information for readers, our area is separated from the city only because of this river.
There are still more tourists waiting for the boat to arrive at the jetty. Not sure if the boat is still operating or not. Tomorrow, we will try a boat ride during the day.
This is our room, the room for world leaders because of the number “1”. Located on the 3rd floor. Our neighbor is a couple from the US who lives in the next room. They cycle all over Southeast Asia.
At midnight around 11.27 pm, while I was leaning on the side of the bed and looking at my mobile phone, suddenly the door of the room in front of me opened by itself. Family safety is my priority. After all, I was the head of the household and also the head of our traveling group. The door is on the inside using a latch-type lock and I’m sure has latched it as deep as 1 inch plugged into the socket.
“Tanggg ..”, the latch was opened and the sound was very clear although not loud. And inadvertently, the door opened a little by itself about half afoot.
It is impossible for anyone out there to open this door since the latch is located on the inside. Luckily I had a little spiritual knowledge and the problem of Siamese ghosts was successfully dealt with without further interruption in the middle of the night. We were on the top floor and there were no occupants on the roof. And the roof can be climbed with stairs. I’ll show you in the next blog post.
The night we slept soundly because the tiredness of the whole day still had not subsided. Tomorrow I will take you guys up to the roof of the hotel to enjoy the panoramic view of Ayutthaya and the morning market here.
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