Moradok Thai Guesthouse in Auytthaya

On Sunday, we took a train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Oour hosts very kindly picked us up from the station and drove us to our accommodation for the next few days, Moradok Thai Guesthouse.



This turned out to be by far the most wonderful place that we stayed in Thailand so far and I can't speak highly enough of the awesome hospitality shown to us by our hosts. That evening, they laid on a barbecue for us (which they wouldn't accept any money towards). The barbecue was great, too, and the format was very new to me. I didn't know that you could barbecue soup.



We hung out with the other guests, getting very drunk on Chiang Beer and making friends with lots of awesome people, before our hosts took us out to a bar down the road where we watched a very good local band.



The next day was pretty much a write off due to a massive hangover so we postponed looking at the sights and gladly extended our stay by another night.

The day after, we finally headed into the city to look at the ruins. Ayutthaya had been the capital of Siam until, a little over 200 years ago, it was sacked by an invading Burmese army. It was after this that Bangkok was founded but, until that point, Ayutthaya had been the Thai capital and one of the world's largest and most magnificent cities. Keen to explore the ruins, we hired bikes from our hosts and headed off.

First stop was Wat Mahathat, the ruin of a massive temple.



As we explored the temple, we came found numerous headless Buddha images. We presume that Burmese soldiers hacked the heads off the statues when they destroyed the city. Here is an example:



I wonder where the head went... ah, here it is:



While exploring the ruins of this temple and others, we took many pictures of the ruins. Here are a few more:







While biking around the town, I realised that the bike I'd been given was fairly rubbish. We passed some people who had a much better mode of transport:

We enjoyed our time in Ayhutthaya greatly. The city and the ruins were pretty cool but the best thing was the guesthouse at which we stayed. Our hosts were the most friendly and awesome that we have stayed with anywhere in Thailand (or, to be honest, anywhere, period). They took great care of their guests as well. When one of our guests developed an eye infection and needed to go to hospital, one of our hosts gave him a lift there and stayed with him all day to make sure he was ok. Stuff like that really makes a difference.

The atmosphere of the place, created by our hosts, was great, too, and we made some great friends during our stay. Overall, top marks. If you ever go to Thailand, take a trip to Ayutthaya and stay at Moradok Thai Guesthouse.