Michael Batson

I’ve been to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (or just Ayutthaya) before by road on a tour booked out of Bangkok’s less than salubrious Khao San Road, the backpacker mecca (or ghetto as some refer to it), the area that made a living out of the “little yellow bible”, Lonely Planet’s guide to Southeast Asia, the original budget guidebook. This time I went by train from Bangkok’s Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, the largest train station in Southeast Asia. Despite the shiny new facility, Thailand’s flagship piece of rail transport infrastructure, my train went from across the road at a side station, which was of an altogether different era and looking like it belonged, not to Thailand’s capital, but to a small town in the sticks.

Bangkok’s new masterpiece train station is also known by its former name Bang Sue Grand Station, which became the central rail hub for most long-distance trains in 2023 largely replacing the wonderful Hua Lamphong train station, an architectural masterpiece built in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style. While Hua Lamphong has history, character, and style, Krung Thep Aphiwat has absolutely none of any of these. Hua Lamphong was opened in 1916 having taken six years to build, and was inspired by Frankfurt’s Hauptbahnhof and Torino’s Porta Nuova railway stations. Even the new station’s name isn’t that sexy. Sathani Klang Krung Thep Aphiwat which translates in Thai as “Utmost prosperity of Bangkok central station”. It was officially opened in May 2021 but spent the first 16 months of life as a Covid vaccination centre. It looks less like a train station and more like an airport terminal. It has 26 platforms some 600m long, about 274,000 square metres of usable floor space, occupies 372 hectares, and cost 15 billion baht (USD400 million) taking eight years to build.

At 8am on a weekday morning Krung Thep Aphiwat is virtually deserted. There’s hardly anyone there. I think the underground train (MRT to Bang Sue metro station) I went to the station on had more people in it than this great shiny, glass, and stainless-steel structure. When I looked for trains to Ayutthaya, I had to go to the information desk staffed by two of the few people about to be told those trains depart from outside the terminal, across the road. The staff looked bored and sought solace in a maintenance crew cleaning windows as among the few souls about. There’s no underground pedestrian access to the other station I was headed to, so you walk across the road, climb down on to the grass verge and over the tracks to the old station; wooden, single level, and about 100 years old. When a train approaches, flags are shown by uniformed officials, whistles blown and you’re warned to get off the tracks. It’s Victorian, slightly quaint and not in keeping with the image of the new edifice across the road. Food is provided at stalls down one end of the platform. Most of the waiting passengers were Thai with a fair smattering of foreigners of various ages some with families. There are few seats on the platform with little shade and the sun is hot. Lunch was a chicken curry for 100 baht that I found barely edible.

Thailand’s rail network extends over 4,000kms across the country but is often overlooked by locals and visitors alike. Thai Railways (officially the State Railway of Thailand or SRT) was founded as the Royal State Railways of Siam (RSR) in 1890. Bangkok's first rail line was private linking Bangkok to Samut Prakan which opened in 1893. The national railway network was subsequently developed and first opened in 1896, linking Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima and then expanding to reach Chiang Mai, Nong Khai, Ubon Ratchathani, and Sungai Kolok on the border with Malaysia. The national railway was turned into a state-owned enterprise under the Transport Ministry in 1951, and is recorded as the worst financially performing of Thailand’s 55 state enterprises, returning a loss every year of its operation. That of course doesn’t take into consideration the non-quantifiable benefits of public transport like: less stress, cheaper costs, reduced traffic congestion, lower carbon footprint, improved physical well-being, better connection with the community and so on. Looking at traffic on Thai roads I’d add a key quantifiable benefit: improved passenger safety for, even if the Ayutthaya train derailed, it’s likely going so slowly injuries would be minimised.

Construction of the Bangkok-Ayutthaya railway (71 km or 44 mi), the first part of the Northern Line, was started in 1890 and inaugurated on 26 March 1897. According to recent figures for total passenger rail trips in Thailand totalled almost 44.5 million in the year to March 2025, the vast majority of which (42 million) were made within Bangkok and surroundings, while intercity train passenger trips were 2.2 million, barely five percent of the total. Train travel for Thais has declined over time probably as a result of increased individual vehicle ownership and improved bus services and to a point, low-priced air travel though that’s less of a consideration for domestic travel. In 1994, 88 million passengers were carried by the SRT. By 2014 this number had halved to 44 million. By 2016, just 30 million passengers took the train and in 2020, 26 million though Covid played a part in lower numbers of passengers.

Thai Railways sell tickets online but these weren’t available for Ayutthaya. Some tickets sold on their site are for minivan services and are not for trains at all. Tickets, especially for local services like Ayutthaya, are cheap - a second-class seat with fan is 90THB or less than 3USD. Purchase of other tickets such as for the night train to Nong Khai can be made online but you still need to go to the SRT office to collect the ticket, or you did when I made that particular journey a few years ago. Some online services were down when I tried to book. In any case for Ayutthaya, there are so many trains I just turned up, and in the end, it didn’t matter whether I’d booked or not.

It’s not altogether clear which train is going to Ayutthaya, and when it arrives it’s a free-for-all for the seats of which there aren’t enough. I stood for the two-hour trip, the seating in any case being hard wooden benches and don’t look very comfortable. The train conductors, resplendent in their uniforms, are like from a bygone age and move about through the carriages seamlessly adapting to the rolling motion of the train. The older more senior conductor seemed to perform some vaudeville act almost serenading the passengers with good spirit. The train rattled along at a steady 40-50kph on the journey. On the way we stopped at several stations including the older international airport, Don Mueang, now recommissioned as Bangkok’s newer airport, Suvarnabhumi, quickly exceeded its capacity and even extending that with new terminals, hasn’t been enough to cope with the country’s 35 million-plus visitors, most travelling by air.

Ayutthaya’s train station is about the same size as the one we left Bangkok from, and is situated a couple of blocks from the Pasak River, which bisects the town. Walking from the train station to the river; the nearest crossing is by boat costing 10 baht. As usual I hadn’t booked accommodation (that never usually goes well) so wandered about looking for a hotel of which there aren’t a lot in town. Strange for a tourist centre then, but the reason for that became apparent later: that while Ayutthaya gets lots of visitors, most don’t stay there rather travelling from Bangkok for the day and back again in the evening and spend little money in the town itself as the cost of their trips are all pre-paid in Bangkok (even the entrance fee to the temples), so little money changes hands locally save for snacks and maybe souvenirs.

Ayutthaya or Ayuthaya, (or even Ayodhaya), no matter how you spell it, its pronounced ah-you-tah-ya.) was the former royal capital of Siam from the mid-1400s until the late 1700s. You wouldn’t know it to visit it, but the city was once an island bisected by a myriad of canals. Located not far north of modern Bangkok, Ayutthaya at its height had a population of almost one million, at a time when London’s was barely half that. The old city itself was founded in 1351 on an island about 4kms wide, formed by the confluence of the Chaophraya, Lopburi and Pasak Rivers. A wall once encircled the entire island, though only a few bits of it can be seen today. The city was once known as the “Venice of the East” by visitors familiar with Italy and who included: mercenaries, seafarers, traders, and travellers including Dutch, French, and Portuguese who began arriving in the mid-seventeenth century (Chinese visitors came much earlier). The Kingdom of Ayutthaya had endured for 417 years through five dynasties and 34 kings, until the Burmese realised grandiose ambitions to obliterate the capital of their rival in 1767.

A couple of blocks from the river I turned right on Naresaum Soi 1 and wandered past the Sikram Thai Restaurant, which on first impression I thought was a guesthouse, and then ‘Tour With Thai’ where I later rented a motorbike and who are a good source of local information, to find Tony’s Place. Tony, the owner, has decamped to the US where his children are students. A portrait of him reminds guests of the origins of the name of the establishment. A formal and former front desk is located at the back of the restaurant, which seemingly has been neglected due to falling patronage since Covid, but also the lack of demand is from all those day visitors, who stay in Bangkok and don’t need or want to sleep in Ayutthaya. Tony’s has a kind of laid-back old-school hotel feel done in dark wood with an open plan restaurant and reception area (you pay for the rooms at the food counter). My room had an elevated bed and a great bathroom on split levels for under 1000 baht. There were a few people staying there but everything seemed quiet. I ate at Tony’s a couple of times and had dinner and lunch at Sikram – a family run restaurant where someone had been to catering school. Sikram (it means “Blue” the owner told me) has an al fresco dining area or you can sit inside. They have wi-fi, which is fine except that it falls prey to backpackers who sit there for hours charging their various devices, eating little, and taking up space. Even getting a seat is problematic as they like to spread themselves out. The owners must get annoyed as these customers don’t spend much money and prevent others, who want to eat and drink, from getting comfortable.

When I ordered coffee at Tony’s, the staff member, a Thai woman with a great smile asked where I’d come from. I said that I’d been in Bangkok but had come from Cambodia. She thought a moment and replied, presumably never have been there, that Cambodia was a “big, rich country”. The Cambodians who have never been across the border would likely say the same thing about Thailand. At the front of Tony’s is a massage shop. At 6pm Mai, in her work polo shirt complete with her budgie, was heading home of her motorbike. When she got on her motorbike, she didn’t put a helmet on; rather she put the bird on her head and rode off down the street.

The next day I went wandering on foot. Walking is always a good way to see a place for you usually notice much more walking than by any other mode of transport, but then it’s hot. Along U Thong Road near the river a few blocks down is Chantharakasem (also spelt Chandrakasem and sometimes shortened to Chankasem or Chan Kasem) National Museum, a collection of buildings within a walled compound occupying an entire city block. Chantharakasem is one of two large national museums in Ayutthaya: the other being the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum in the Pratu Chai Sub-district on the other side of the heritage park from the Chantharakasem complex. Chao Sam Phraya showcases relics and treasures found in the nearby temple and palace ruins of Ayutthaya; whereas the collection at Chantharakasem - Buddhist art, pottery, ancient weapons, lacquered cabinets and original furnishings – is almost secondary to the buildings they’re held housed in.

What is now Chantharakasem National Museum was once Chantharakasem Palace. The palace was built in 1577 as the crown prince’s palace during the reign of King Maha Thammaraja who was Ayutthaya’s vassal ruler (1569-84) and then sovereign king (1584-90). The Ayutthaya Kingdom was plagued by infighting, intrigue, murder, coup and counter-coup, adultery, and warfare. Ayutthaya attacked Vientiane, was itself attacked by Cambodia (Khmer Empire) and fought with Burma in a conflict lasting three centuries, and which eventually saw the destruction of Ayutthaya. The savagery of warfare was compounded by the introduction of early modern weaponry thanks to the Portuguese through their maritime trade. As well as the conventional weaponry of the time, there were muskets and artillery mounted on elephants (Ayutthaya allegedly possessed 50,000 elephants), a sort of early version of a tank. Single elephant combat was a thing and cost Queen Sri Suriyothai her life in 1548 during the first Burmese invasion. Eventually, in April 1767, after a 14-month siege, the city of Ayutthaya fell to the armies of King Bayinnaung, and thousands of Siamese were deported to Burma as slaves.

Chantharakasem Palace, like the other Ayutthaya palaces, was razed to the ground and left abandoned until it was repaired during reign of King Mongkut of the Rattanakosin dynasty (Rama IV, ruled 1851-1868). He ordered the repair of the throne hall (Phra Thinang Piman Rattaya) and the pavilion in tetrahedron style to be his residence for when he travelled to Ayutthaya. He had an office built on the west wall. Today, the palace grounds are surrounded by a high brick wall with an entrance gate on each side. Inside the main entrance and doubling as a ticket office (the one near the gate was closed) there’s King Mongkut’s former residence with his living quarters (pretty Spartan), a throne hall, and personal items as well as artifacts discovered during excavations and restoration of ancient temples in Ayutthaya.

The rest of the museum collection is exhibited in three buildings. The Chaturamuk pavilion, a Thai-style wooden building with a tiled roof, its gables adorned with wood carvings. Next to the Chaturamuk pavilion is the Phiman Rataya pavilion. This building exhibits a large number of objects found during excavations and restorations of temples in Ayutthaya including; Buddha images, votive tablets, and wood carvings. Among the items are a number of very old Dvaravati and Khmer sandstone images of the Buddha. Also on display are personal items that belonged to King Mongkut including furniture and wood carvings. The Maha Thai building houses five exhibitions, divided over several rooms. A brick building which was originally used as horse stables and now contains offices and set back in the grounds was also once the observation tower. The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday from 9am until 4pm (closed Monday, Tuesday and public holidays). The entrance fee is 20 THB for locals, 100 THB for foreigners and is free for local students, elderly Thais, monks, and hermits.

The museum isn’t the town’s main attraction which is the historic park of temples (officially the Historic City of Ayutthaya), a UNESCO World Heritage site (listed 1991). A few years ago, the site was plagued by unlicensed vendors which caused an eyesore and who largely resisted attempts by authorities to move them. There are now vendors at the entrance to some of the temples (if you’re not on a package deal from Bangkok you pay an entrance fee at each site) but most of the unlicensed ones have gone, or so I was told. I rented a motorbike that had seen much better days, and journeyed about largely hoping, and failing, to avoid the crowds. It reminded me of my intense dislike of sites (and sights) of mass tourism, though Ayutthaya is less intense than say Angkor and far better maintained. At Wat Mahatha, where the image of the Buddha is imbedded in a tree, tourists line up to take photos of the image, of themselves with the image and of themselves with others with the image. Other sites like neighbouring Wat Ratchaburana are far less busy, which is good as it’s far more impressive in any case. Then there are other activities that raise issues, like elephant riding by visitors criticised by purists for having large animals in fragile historical environments and ethical considerations of animal welfare, not without cause. Watching these beasts lumbering along the road shoulders with vehicles swerving around them and carrying mainly Japanese tourists (so it seemed) they looked less magnificent and sadly rather more like pitiful.

Having arrived by train it was more convenient to return to Bangkok by minibus. The good folk at Tour With Thai said these left from around the corner just after the hour each hour or when full. I turned up, paid the fare, which was about the same as the train, and ten minutes later we were off on the motorways of Thailand at speed, frequently changing lanes, and as close as you can get to the vehicle in front. After about 90 minutes our vehicle stopped outside the entrance to Mo Chit BTS Skytrain station, on the Sukhumvit Line, so I got home by train after all.