We made it though the night in more or less one piece, woken up by the screaming kid next door in the bungalow next to ours.  I think we both had the same thought at that point, as in is it worth it getting up, going outside, knocking on the door just to get ones hands around the neck of said kid.

We decided that we probably shouldn’t.

Giving up on sleep, probably later than we should have we finally crawled out of bed (have I mentioned that the mattress felt like a rock?) stuffed all our gear back in our bag and went next door for breakfast.

Then we were on a tuk-tuk headed back into town for the mini van.  We were thirty minutes early, but it ended up being just as well since while we were the first ones there people soon came piling in, the rest all locals, to the extent they had to call for a second mini van just to fit everyone in.

So the first leg was in relative comfort.  We had to purchase an extra seat for our bags but since no one else had any they fit under the rear seat and we had the entire front row to ourselves.  The mini van ran on time with only one little delay at one of the checkpoints with two people taken off the mini van before we were allowed to go further.  The other checkpoints passed without incident with barely a glance thrown at us.

Our arrival in Kanchanaburi was nicely timed and we were able to slip onto the local bus to Suphanburi which left within 15 minutes.  The 1.5 hours was more like 3 hours but it was interesting watching the interaction between the locals and the bus was slow enough that we certainly got plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.

Once again, even though the journey was slightly extended we pulled into the bus station, located our next local bus and only had 20 minutes to wait until it left.  These guys were a little more accurate with their times since they said it would take about 2 hours to reach Ayutthaya and it did.  This journey was kind of interesting since the local were all bringing their produce onto the bus and battering food amongst themselves.

We arrived in one town and had a brief moment wondering if this was where we were supposed to get off the bus but since Ayutthaya was meant to be the last stop and there were still people on the bus we decided to stay on.  We also figured the lady would come down and either shoo us off the bus if we were supposed to get off or demand more money at least since we paid to get to Ayutthaya not further!

This town was also the first evidence we’d had of the flooding we’d heard was happening since streets were flooded and in sections they’d erected temporary bridges to get to there homes and others were paddling through the water in boats or just plain wading.

We finally made it to Ayutthaya about 6pm and for once found our accommodation within about 15 minutes (sometimes the map really is right!).  We checked into our chosen guest house, the room is comfortable, not bug infested, with hot water and air-conditioning. 

I’m not sure if I think it is luxury because it is or because of the last room but it certainly is nice!