Bangkok, Kanchanaburi & Ayutthaya, 4 Nights

Into the city from Suvarnabhumi and an afternoon to settle. Towards evening, the Chao Phraya express boat up to the old city and a walk along the riverbank to see Wat Arun lit across the water — the first look at the skyline the next morning will fill in. Dinner in the old quarter near the Phra Athit road, where the riverside restaurants stay quiet on a weeknight.

The Grand Palace early, before the heat and the groups: the Emerald Buddha in its chapel, the murals of the Ramakien along the cloisters, the throne halls. Then Wat Pho next door for the 46-metre reclining Buddha and the massage school, and the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun to climb the central prang. Lunch by the river. The afternoon is free; in the evening the Chinatown food street at Yaowarat, where dinner is eaten standing up and is the best in the city.

An early start west, about 120 km to Kanchanaburi and 50 km beyond it to Erawan National Park, arriving as it opens. The falls climb through seven tiers on a 1.5 km trail through the forest, each tier a pool of pale green water; most people swim at the third and fourth, and the fit go to the seventh. Lunch at the park and back to the town for the Thailand–Burma Railway Centre, the war cemetery across the road with its 6,982 graves, and the bridge itself at the end of the afternoon. Night on the river.

The morning train from Kanchanaburi over the bridge and along the surviving line to Tham Krasae, where the track runs on the Wang Pho wooden viaduct pinned to the cliff above the river — the stretch the prisoners built by hand in 1943. The vehicle meets the train and turns north-east across the plain to Ayutthaya, about three hours with lunch, arriving mid-afternoon. As the heat drops, Wat Chaiwatthanaram on the river bank at sunset, the Khmer-style prangs lit from behind. Night inside the old city.

Out before the coaches from Bangkok arrive: Wat Mahathat for the Buddha head held in the roots of a bodhi tree, the three chedis of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, the royal palace ground, and Wat Ratchaburana's crypt. The city was the Siamese capital from 1351 until the Burmese sacked it in 1767, and UNESCO inscribed what is left in 1991. A late breakfast, and the drive to Suvarnabhumi, about an hour and a half, for the flight home.