The taxi journey into the City reminds us of the mental traffic, noise and sheer size of the place. We've settled quickly into Citadines 8 on Soi 8, Sukhumvit once again, though we are on a lower floor and the room isn't quite of the size we had last year. We had a quick tea at Via Vai (http://viavaibkk.com/) of pizza for the lads and chicken in pepper sauce for us.
Day 2 - Ayutthaya and the Winter Palace
Our 1 hour journey took nearer 2 hours with the traffic being heavier than usual due to the Buddhist holidays, no alcohol for these 2 days apparently. Nui informs us this is the "Raining Season Holiday" where young Thai men become monks, if they start today them must stay until the raining season ends (3-4 months) or suffer great misfortune. Like being stuck in Bangkok traffic every day!
Here's a few shots of the Winter Palace, King Rama 4 built it to show the Western Kings and Queens that he could have a Palace he never really used as well. It's very western in style for the most part, though there's a strange Chinese Temple built by the Thai Chinese as a way of thanking him.
From here we headed for lunch in a riverside restaurant, courtesy of Nui (though we paid for drinks). The fried chicken, boiled rice, sweet and sour, cashew nuts in sauce were all lovely. The chicken and tofu soup was interesting and the plate of fresh fruit refreshing.
We spent the rest of the day touring the various sites that make up Ayutthaya, the now abandoned former capital city. Take a look below to see some of the amazing things we got to see.