So i was in Bangkok for 24 hours and had no idea what to do. i spoke wit my hotel concierge and he caleld a taxi for me. the taxi proceeded to tell me about ayutthaya and its amazing history. He agreed to drive me around all day for the low sum of $20. In the states you cant go ten blocks without it costing you that much. It turns out the hotel i was staying in was an hour and a half away from ayutthaya. Of course we didnt have a guide to tell us the whole history and were left to do the exploring on our own. But we managed to get what i feel is an abundant amount of information about the sights through the signs that are everywhere or by listening on on other tour guides descriptions of the buildings and places.. its really quite amazing what you can learn in one afternoon about a people and its culture/history. To top this off our taxi driver talked us into going to ride an elephant. something my girlfriend at the time was reluctant to do. This excursion afforded us some more picture taking opportunities of places we had seen earlier that day. I did get a little worried however when our elephant decided to walk down a stepp bank to get a taste of water and not more than five feet in front of him in the water was a 7 foot crocodile. it just looked at us im sure hoping either one of us would fall into the water ;) the 30 dollars i spent on this trip was well worth it and i would defintiely suggest going it alone, this allows you rest breaks as you want them and you can spend as much time as you wish at each site exploring.