With our spare day in Auyuttha, we decided to hire bicycles and have a wonder around the town. It's very small, with nice parks and is easy to get around by bicycle.While cycling around Ayuthaya, we were quite surprised by the large proportion of "pimped up" tuk-tuks there were here. The first time we'd seen such a thing!
There were many well kept public parks (collectively know as the Ayutthaya Historical Park) containing temples and ruins, as well as well maintained lakes and bridges. We pootled around a bit, taking breaks in the summer heat. Around the university, we were very lucky to see an elephant bush.
The elephants in the city centre became a source of disappointment and instigated a major change in our plans. The next morning, we had planned to go to www.ElephantStay.com (a not-for-profit organisation) to spend three days with an elephant - at considerable cost to ourselves. While in the city, we found an area where there was an elephant taxi point, and decided to get information - this was linked to the Elephant Stay. The elephants being used as taxis weren't so much the problem (though they seemed to be mistreated with hooks by their mahouts), but it was the elephants on short chains in the city centre being made to perform for passers-by. Cathy and I decided we didn't want to endorse this treatment, emailed to cancel our elephant stay - we never got a reply!Another disappointment was in trying to find out information about booking a day tour of Khao Sok National Park - it seems that it is going to be too challenging to arrange - tour agencies keep on selling us activities and transport arrangements that aren't part of our requirements!!
