Ayuthaya Travel Forum

I know the tour buses to Ayuthaya from Bangkok take you there via Bang Pa-In Summer Palace. I would probably take train to Ayuthaya and hire a tuktuk to see around. However, I think the above palace is not in the Ayuthaya town itself…
(1) How to go to this palace? Is it worth the trip?
(2) How far it is from Ayuthaya town? How to go there from Ayuthaya and how muh time it takes for a return trip to palace from Ayuthaya?
(3) How much will it cost by the mode of transport you suggest.

Thanks!!

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"Bang Pa-In Summer Palace.
I think the above palace is not in the Ayuthaya town itself…
Is it worth the trip? "
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Bang Pa-In Summer Palace is certainly worth the effort to see, especially if you are already in Ayuthaya.
The Summer Palace is outside Ayuthaya city, but in the same vicinity.

The Palace is a tourist attraction -- no royals actually live there any more -- but it is a very attractive glimpse of Thai history from 100+ years ago.
The grounds are lovely and peaceful, with lakes, footpaths, trees and gardens.

There are tourists -- a surprising number of them Thais -- but it was far from crowded on the day I visited.

The area is huge, and the sun is hot, so walking around could be a chore.
For that reason I spent extra money to rent a golf cart, and that made the entire visit very comfortable.
Even the breeze from riding in the golf cart was welcome.
You might be able to haggle on the golf cart price, because there is double pricing (foreigners pay more than Thais).

At the entrance be prepared: double pricing there, too.
That's a common fact of life in Thailand.
But you cannot pay and then just walk in.
Oh, no, the entrance is cleverly arranged to you must follow a long and winding route through every nook and corner of the souvenir shop.
And the same on exit.
Not life threatening, just boring.

Once inside the palace grounds, you are free to walk around from building to building at your own pace.
The grounds are really pretty, like a movie set from some exotic and ancient location.
Well, it really is an exotic and ancient location.

You can go into most of the buildings and spend as much time as you like looking around.
There are modest displays and some descriptive signs in English.
It is amazing to see up close how the royals lived in the times when Siam was still an absolute monarchy.

Right next to the Summer Palace is an ancient Wat, that served the Palace.
It is still a functioning Wat, with monks living there.
The Wat is unusual in that it has a sanctuary hall with the architecture of an Anglican church outside, but the accouterments of Buddhist worship inside.

You are also free to wander around the Wat.
It is especially fascinating because it is a modest, up-country Wat, not one of the glitzy, tourist magnets of Bangkok.
Monks live, study and pray there, and you get a glimpse of their simple life, up close.
You may see them reading or washing their robes or sweeping the footpaths.
As we wandered, one of the older monks came by and offered to explain the workings of the ancient sun-dial clock.
He spoke reasonably good English, and he demonstrated as he explained.
Time is important to monks because they are not allowed to eat any food after noon.
So the sun-dial clock is in a prominent place, in the middle of the Wat.

If you do go over to that Wat, and you meet any monks, please remember that females are never, ever, allowed to touch any monk.
It is a serious offense for the monk to allow that to happen.
Females should stay a respectful distance.

Also note that monks do not smile.
I don't know if it is one of their 200+ rules or not, but they just don't.
They may be friendly, in a quiet, restrained way, but don't expect any smiles.

Getting from the Summer Palace to the Wat is a gentle adventure in itself.
The two locations are separated by a small canal.
In ancient times there would have been ferry boats to cross over, but the process was converted to "high-tech" about 50 years ago.
Now, suspended on cables over the water, is a small platform -- like a horizontal elavator.
Those wishing to cross over, climb up a few stairs, clamber onto the platform, and swing and sway gently as the platform glides on the cables across the water, propelled by an electric motor.
Sure, they could build a foot bridge, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Now, about getting there and away from Ayuthaya City, I can't answer, because I went up on the river ferry directly from Bangkok, and it was an entire day, going up the Chaopraya River, and then returning.
A long day, but memorable.

I highly recommend going to see the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace in Ayuthaya.
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Wow Peter!!
What an extensive coverage of Summar Palace trip for our information.
Very well-explained, very informative.
No amount of words are enough to thank you for that.
Still, Thank you very much :-)

Wish, somebody could explain how to go to Summar Palace from Ayuthaya and time & money spent :-)

Did you ever think about the possibility to hire a taxi driver ?
We, me and my wife, went to Ayuthaya last january hiring a taxi driver, he charged us (both) 2000 bht for all day. He picked us up at the hotel at 7:00 and we depart to Ayuthaia. Durind this, we stoped at Bang Pa In Palace and it was a worth visit. I have some pictures in my Ayuthaia page that you can see.
The Bang Pa In is very large, but in my opinion its not necessary to hire a golf car to visit it, you can do it by your self easily.
Near the palace there is another smaller palace, just cross the river on a cable car, you dont need to pay for this.
After this we went to Ayuthaia and we could visit more than 12 temples returning to the hotel in the bigining of the night.
No stress, many temples in an aircon taxi.Easy easy !!
If you wants you can contact me and I will give you informations about how to do this, beside, we hired a guide that charged us only 500bht all day.
You can see all in my Bangkok and Ayuthayas page.