Touring Temples & Sleeper Train

Day 4 – Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai – Saturday March 5th 2011

Our room was comfortable but the air conditioning was noisy and kept us awake for most of the night.

In the morning we arranged for our tuk-tuk driver to take us on a tour of all the local temples. Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol was huge, and still in use by monks. Our driver would sleep outside while we went in the temples.

Wat Yai Chai Mongkol - Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol – Ayutthaya

After the long hot day touring temples, I wanted nothing more than to chill out and have a shower and a beer.

Our itinerary had other plans. We had to catch our next train to Lop Buri (Monkey Town). The train was 2nd class this time, with comfortable airline style seats and fans on the ceiling.

We arrived as the sun was setting and I realised quite fast that I didn’t like this place. The monkeys were violent and savage, grabbing things and attacking people. Luckily we only had a few hours to kill.

After a slow drink at a small cafe Frank went to explore whilst the rest of us went to take cover on the railway platform. Little did we know that Frank had almost got mugged by some dodgy locals after accidentally getting lost down some back streets.

Waiting for our third train, the famous sleeper train, I was not looking forward to a ten hour overnight journey. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The security was excellent, with guards on every door checking tickets and passports when people arrived. We were then lead to our top bunks which were surprisingly spacious.

I had an expensive Chang beer, which seemed to help me fall in love with the sleeper train even more. In fact, I wouldn’t mind just paying to do a few trips on the sleeper train. I couldn’t wait to get to sleep, and nearly nodded off with my beer still in my hand.

The toilets were an experience, but I was soon tucked up and asleep. I slept right through till morning. It was a million times more comfortable than any economy class flight!

Tilt Shift

Everyone seems to do this, so I thought I would try it out on a couple of images. Basically selectively blurring parts of an image. When used on photos taken slightly from above, it makes them look like models.

Blurry Zephyr Tilt Shift
Blurry Zephyr Tilt Shift
Toy Town - Sydney Tilt Shift
Toy Town - Sydney Tilt Shift

Not great examples but does make some boring images not so bland.