Woke up to the busy sounds of the street outside, still both slightly shattered from the past month in Myanmar. Took our time getting ready to leave, knowing that we couldn’t check in to our hostel in Ayutthaya until the afternoon so there was no rush to leave Bangkok. Used the hostel wifi to order a few bits and pieces for Jayne to pick up when she is back in the UK (Jayne accused me of having a ‘massive spending spree’) whilst she tried to purchase a website domain for our blog. Went for a shower in the communal bathroom and I clearly won the hostel shower lottery. In my cubical, someone had left some Aussie hair care products – my hair was in heaven!! Although it then decided to punish me for mistreating it so badly over the past few months by going incredibly curly and unruly! Packed up our bags – it feels very weird to be back to two big backpacks after 10 weeks of just having one. The nice man in the hostel reception let me print and scan my ‘voting by proxy’ form so I could email to my electoral officer to vote in the EU referendum whilst Jayne continued sorting out website/blog stuff. Left the hotel and made our way down the familiar streets to the BTS sky train. Forgot how quickly the ticket barriers close and am now sporting a lovely bruise on my leg! Got the train to Victory Monument and tried to find the mini bus to take us to Ayutthaya. Slightly difficult since neither of us could pronounce it properly and the first bus conductor looked at us blankly before he shouted at a lady to come help. Clearly not the first tourists to be totally useless, she pointed us in the right direction and four bus conductors later, we were in the right place!!! Bought a ticket for us (for 60 baht each – about £1.20) and another seat to stow our bags so we didn’t have to sit with them on our laps. Jayne, fortunately, got to sit in the air conditioned mini bus but since I had the door seat I had to wait until the bus was full and everyone onboard before I could get in! Wasn’t all bad as I got to people watch, which I love. Took about 20 minutes for the mini bus to sell all fourteen seats and once I got in, the driver started packing bags and boxes of stuff all around us… Really glad we splurged on the extra seat now as we could barely move as it was! Headed down the motorway towards Ayutthaya – a very dull journey – Jayne passed the time playing angry birds and I read my book. Arriving in Ayutthaya, we walked to our hostel and checked in. Think we might be the only guests but we have a huge room with a fridge, dining table, TV, air con and use of a washing machine for £10 a night! After 8 months of travelling, the washing machine is a luxury that I just can’t wait to use and abuse. Headed down the road for a late lunch, grabbing a bowl of pork noodles in a street cafe – the broth smelt incredible from the street (which is what lured us in) and it tasted amazing.
A quick stop off at the ‘7-eleven’ to grab some water and Milo ice cream before heading back to the hostel for the afternoon. 
We were very boring and spent the afternoon taking it easy – reading books and playing games before heading out to the night market. Full of amazing food (deep fried crickets, chicken legs or mealworms anyone?!?) and weird fruit drink concoctions, we were overwhelmed with the choice for dinner. 
Decided to have a food crawl progressive dinner, we started with some fried pork which we ate in the park next to some of the ruins and the lake.
We then had some Pad Thai Noodles before finishing off our meal with a raisin waffle and some Milo chocolate. Back at the hotel to watch some ‘Friends’ episodes before falling asleep.
Thursday 9th June 2016
Trans Travels 