Hanging around the house all day beats going to work hands down but every now and then its nice to have a little excursion somewhere just to have a nose around. The Ancient City has always sounded a bit naff to me, a bit like lego land, but neither of us had been there so with low expectations we got in the car and drove for an hour to Samut Prakan.
I was expecting double pricing so I wasn't too upset when we got there and I had to pay 350 baht since the love of my life got in for 50 so it panned out as pretty reasonable value in the end. The cost of one bicycle was included in the admission fee so we got another from the huge choice of old nails they have for rent at 50 baht. As usual I , the cycling enthusiast, succeed in selecting something that was better being pushed than ridden whereas my dearest managed to grab something that worked a whole lot better without any fuss.
For the less active you can hire an electric golf buggy. The following link provides the price for admission etc:
The Ancient City | Ancient City
And then we were off to look at our first few replicas .
There are plenty of signs too tell you what you are supposed to be looking at but even if you forget to look at them its fun wandering around the ' ruins '
Having done the Khmer style buildings we wanted to go ' up ' Khao Phra Wihan ' but it was like an anthill, swarming with school children, who were finding out why the temple is such a political football these days so we opted for lunch instead. There are plenty of cheap places to eat scattered around the park and a typical dtam sang dish won't cost you more than 40 - 50 baht.
Refreshed, we continued our bicycle meandering too look at the rest of the park. Some of the structures seem a bit fanciful to be replicas of anything but nice enough to stroll around and admire the craftsmanship.
Then we came to a large lake around which were several Thai style houses. This is the ' floating market ' area, which has several souvenier shops and more eateries, notable selling ' gooay deeo rua '
Finaly , after 2-3 hours we started cycling back towards the entance although I was reduced to pushing my beast as it did not want to go. I had considered
' swapping ' it with someone elses back at the floating market but there were too many people around and my bottle went.
All in all we spent about 3 and a half hours in the park and had a very nice time. Will go again sometime if we have visiting friends. However, as with most places like this that are near the city, avoid the weekends unless you like huge crowds !