Day trip: Ancient City

Now that the rainy season is over and the temperatures are heading down, the idea of going out and seeing some sights becomes appealing again. Normally, Bangkok folk spend the weekend sweating it out at home or cooling off at the local mall. We've done enough of that so I was ready to get out.

Last weekend we visited Ancient City. I'd never heard of it, and when Nuca described it it sounded like one of those Disney'ish "small world" kind of tourist sites. I wasn't too thrilled about it but rather than spend another hour debating where else to go we decided just to go. It's not too far away, about an hour drive, in Samut Prakan province. Samut Prakan is an industrial hell hole. There's really nothing nice to say about the place. When the oceans rise up from global warming in a few decades, Samut Prakan will disappear entirely, and that will not be a bad thing. Here's a Google Earth Placemark. Notice how the area looks like a map of Thailand. Cute.

As is normal for Thailand, the entrance fee at Ancient City depends on your ethnicity. Not being Thai, I was forced to pay 3 times the Thai price. I'd love to own a tourist site in Sydney, like the BridgeClimb, because I would charge (only) Thais and Indians 3 times, no make that 10 times, the local price. See how they like it...

Ok, so it was only 300 baht, big deal.

The place is huge, 320 acres. Good thing is you can bring your car and drive around. You can also rent a golf cart or bicycle for a small fee. They also have buses decked out like the old Bangkok street trams, which take you on a set path and provide a guide. We were starving so we sought out food immediately and found some noodles at the "floating market" area.

Click above for our pictures from Ancient City

My skepticism about the place pretty much vanished when it became apparent that a lot of the Ancient City are actual old Thai buildings and relics which have been rescued from destruction and rebuilt inside the park. Many of the workers actually live within the park and you can literally walk up and peek inside their homes, although I doubt they like that.

Several ancient Thai temple replicas have also been built, albeit at a smaller scale, but nevertheless, they were quite interesting to see. Least impressive was what was apparently Angkor Wat, which was the largest structure in the park, but also the least faithful reproduction. It may well not have been Angkor Wat, however, but it was definitely a similar Khmer style. Noticeably absent from all the 'temples' were actual monks.

The place is packed with trees and flowers and canals and wildlife, and it made a very relaxing and non-sweaty day out. Surprisingly, for a weekend, there were very few tourists. Between the odd busload coming and going, we pretty much felt like we had the place to ourselves. Of all the tourists we saw, there were maybe only half a dozen foreign tourists.

Unfortunately we ran out of time and only saw about 2/3 of the park before they closed at 5pm. We plan to head back someday and check out the rest, and next time drive bicycles around.