Now in Ayuthaya

Yesterday was a story in transport interrupted by elephants. We got to the elephant sanctuary outside Lampang by air con bus early in the morning. It was very interesting, especially the elephant hospital where we met a young lady from Massachusetts who had just spent the weekend collecting semen for the artificial insemination programme (what's grey and comes in pints?).

Getting into Lamphong was another matter. We flagged down a regular local, extremely crowded bus that was stuck in the tradffic following a cycle race and somehow managed to get all our gear on. (We were travelling light until shopaholics Katja and Kate broke loose). An even more crowded song thaew got us from the bus station to the train station where we (eventually) caught the night train south to Ayuthaya. This train appeared to be running a not entirely successful experiment in the use of square wheels. At any event, it was shaking and rocking enough to have lemur_catta come down from her upper bunk having decided that she wanted to spend her last moments on earth with me (how touching). The only good thing was that the train was two hours late thus sparing us an 0430 arrival.

Once we recover we will get all cultured and go visit some ruins but right now beer seems like a better idea.