Ayutthaya

Aside from the problems negotiating our way through the unbelievable morass of the Bangkok transportation systems, I should mention the difficulty I have had using the currency.  This is my problem, not theirs.  Actually(take a note crossword lovers) there really is only one unit, the baht..there are 30 baths to a dollar. It should be simple  but I have trouble when the time comes to pay up and a simple division problem becomes calculus. What makes it confusing is that the elaborateness of the different paper for the different denominations does not reflect value and there are coin and paper versions of the same denomination.  I deal with this problem in two ways:

1I tell myself  that the cost of whatever I'm buying is ridiculously low and this is really true most of  the time.. The other night  we had four courses and then dessert at a waterfront restaurant for 25 dollars. We had a similar meal in a less tony establishment the next night. The meal began with the waitress plunking a bottle of Deet  down along with the other condiments. Martha Stewart should try this 

when entertaining alfresco on Seal Island. "It's a good thing."

2. I hand them a 1000 baht and make them give me change (they hate this and mutter what I assume are 

Thai curse words  under their breath.

I suppose I should mention the reason we came to this town--the archeological ruins. This is the site of the earliest civilizations here and the ruins are extensive and beautiful even if you are totally ignorant of all Thai history as we are. (I can't even  remember if Anna marries the king.) 

Most of the sites are  on or surrounding a small island. We rented bikes (50 bahts or 1.70, I think)  and rode around the major ones before getting hopelessly lost and then miraculously found. At one point we found ourselves sharing a lane of traffic with elephants. Wonder if Lance Armstrong ever had to dodge lumps of elephant dung.