Train and bike to Ayutthaya
February 14, 2011 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News, Thailand
BANGKOK, 14 February 2011 – Spice Roads Cycle Tours is selling a nostalgic steam train excursion from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, 26 March, followed by a bicycle tour around Ayutthaya Historical Park, to mark the first rail service to Ayutthaya in 1894.
State Railway of Thailand is rolling out two 1950s Japanese-built Pacific steam locomotives for the historic trip that will attract hundreds of local railway buffs. SRT commissions the engines just four times a year for special event trips, some in co-operation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote train travel.
The charter train departs Bangkok’s main Hua Lampong train station at 0800 arriving in Ayutthaya at 1010 where Spice Road’s group splits with other excursionists and uses cycles rather than tour buses to tour Ayutthaya’s historical park that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1991.
From Ayutthaya the group cycles part of the way back to Bangkok stopping at Bang Pa-In summer palace using a rural road that skirts the Chao Phraya River. Overall, the trip involves 25 km of cycling on quiet country lanes.
The tour sells at Bt2,950 per person (25% discount for children 12-16 years old) and includes pick-up and drop-off at a Bangkok hotel or home, train ticket, lunch, mountain bike and helmet and a guided tour by bicycle of Ayutthaya. Space is limited to 16 people.
