Day 4-Ayuthaya

Today we woke up very early for the Ayutthaya Ruins Day Trip. Ayutthaya is the old capital of Thailand, with ruins of temples dating back several centuries. The Burmese at one time occupied the city, and smashed up many of them. It was quite interesting seeing what was left. After a 6 AM pickup, we spent nearly 2 hours collecting our tour group (I was thrilled about this), and we arrived at the ruins by air conditioned minivan (AC is a term spoken loosely when describing this dumpy van) by 9. Our guide spoke about 2 words of English that Terri or I could discern: "Temple" and "Pagoda." That was it. And she WAS speaking English. So I'm told. Fortunately, an expat named Russ that lived here for 4 years taught us more about the history and culture of Thailand than we've learned the prior 4 days. We visited 3 different ruins sites, took a longtail boaride (as seen in James Bond--"Man with the Golden Gun"), and after much negotiations and bickering, communicated to our "pleasant" tour guide that we indeed did not want to go to the crappy gem shop in Bangkok that she was certainly paid to take us to at the end of the trip. The other poor, unsuspecting guests of the tour were apparently not advised of this trick, as guides and "touts" receive commisions for any business you do at a place they take you to. It's quite aggrivating to constantly be bothered and preyed upon, and I hope the rest of Thailand doesn't have this. Regardless, we were dropped at the monorail and escaped Gem Ripoff City.
The rest of the day was spent at Jim Thompson's House, a famoust US Expat who after WWII, developed a wildly successful silk business. His old mansion and grounds were nice, as was the obligatory guest-shop. After meandering around, we grabbed some Thai dinner and headed over to the Redlight District, Patong. Pretty greasy, ugly place. If I have one more tout grab my arm, saying "Buy Sex DVD," some Thai punk might regret his occupation... Anyway, I was glad to leave that place and head back here to the hostel. Off to pack for Cambodia, as we have an early flight.... Oh, by the way, dinner tonight was 2 appetizers, 2 drinks, and 2 entrees, for a total of 350 baht. Just short of $4 total, in a pretty decent place and yummy Thai fare. I can get used to this... Also, if you're ever in Patong and walk by a bar named "Screwboy,"I highly recommend you don't peak in the window. HUGE mistake. I wish I could erase that visual from memory.... Don't worry, no one appeared underage, but that doesn't make it any better.