Last weekend was our last long weekend before summer holidays and we “planned” (mentally, not quite physically yet) to take a trip to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital city for the weekend. We've been wanting to go up there (approx. 1.5 hrs north of Bangkok) for quite some time, and were excited that we were finally going to see some real Thai ruins.
To get our long weekend off to a good start the teachers and I decided to take our TAs out for a night on the town. The TAs were really excited, and we decided to meet for a few drinks at the Londoner where it was Buy One Get One Free night (that way our TAs wouldn’t need to pay for anything), then off somewhere to go dancing. My TA was particularly excited because I told her Ryan had decided to join us, and she really wanted to meet him. The night was really fun, and it was neat to see our TAs really enjoy themselves. Most of them work 2 jobs and don’t get to go out in Bangkok very often. After a few drinks we headed off to a club in Pat Pong (seedy area, but has some good dancing in “non-girly” clubs). On the way, Ryan and I were quite hungry – neither of us had eaten any dinner - so one of the teachers took us to an outdoor food market where Ryan and I enjoyed our first authentic Thai street food. It is a very popular choice among the locals, but I have been a little hesitant. Ryan eats in a local market everyday, but that is a more permanent structure so we believe it is safe. Oh well, James said this food would be ok, and he’s lived here for two years, so we figured we would be all right (plus we ate Khao Man Kai, chicken with rice, so you can’t really go wrong!) After a quick bite we ventured into the Pat Pong area, if you have heard of the Ping Pong shows than you already know enough, and if you haven’t I will spare you the details. Needless to say, this is one street in Bangkok that you can get anything. As such, I was a little skeptical about heading to a club in this part of town, but I figured if they are suggesting we bring out TAs here, it has to be a nice club. When we finally arrived, we found the rest of our party dancing the night away in an open-air club that had a really great band playing. My only complaint was that when the band was on break the DJ played a lot of the same music, so it was a little repetitive. Nevertheless, everyone had a great time and if I could ever find this place again, I would go back!
Since Ryan and I had “planned” to get away this weekend, but neither of us had actually done anything about it, we decided to book our trip on Thursday and not leave until Friday so that we could enjoy some much needed relaxing. We started searching for our perfect holiday, but we both knew what we wanted. We heard there was a trip you can take that allows you to take a boat back, but it was a little pricier than we had intended, so we were trying to find alternative travel methods. After a bit of searching we decided to go with the trip we originally planned, with a few minor changes. Instead of going for the weekend we booked a guided trip that would take one day - we would take a coach up, stopping at the Summer Palace and the highlights of Ayutthaya and then get dropped off at a pier and have lunch on our cruise back to Bangkok. It meant very little exploring on our own, but it also meant a stress free no planning trip, air conditioning, and we got our boat trip! We booked ourselves in on the Saturday, and not wanting to ruin our Friday off, we planned to take the train up to Canchantabury, where they have a famous bridge over the River Kwai and a number of museums from the Japanese occupation during WWII. It looked like it would be a great day trip, take the train up, rent bicycles to tour the town, and head back on a bus in the evening. (Hee hee, but we didn’t wake up in time on Friday morning, so I guess that trip will have to wait a bit! I guess we just didn’t get in enough relaxing on Thursday!)
Ok, enough of the story telling, I will get to what you all come here for: the pictures.
Saturday morning, with only a little protest, we woke up at the crack of dawn and made our way down to the pier to meet our tour group. In true Thai style, we were immediately ushered onto a bus without giving our names or reason for being there. Just before the bus pulled away, the guide came to ask if we were Mr. and Mrs. Ryan, and then informed us they had put us on the wrong bus! It was the same tour, but they put us on the Thai bus instead of the English one!! After a quick switch, and lots of giggles (Thai people always laugh when something is screwed up) we were on our way.
Our first stop was the Summer Palace.
Like most places in Thailand, the grounds here were emmaculate. Around every corner the shrubs were shaped into different groups of animals.
We didn't get a picture, but near one of the ponds was a series of tiny bushes that were made into little rabbits and squirrls. It is pretty amazing what the gardeners can do over here!
Here is the view out of one side of a Pagoda we climbed up. That building on the left was built for visitors to stay in. Queen Elizabeth was the first guest to stay there.
It is tradition in the Buddhist faith that every man must spend some of his life in the monkhood, so before they are 20, most Thai men spend a minimun of three months at a temple learning about the Buddhist faith and living with the monks.
These guys are feeding the fish in the pond. We had to laugh because instead of breaking the bread into bite size fish pieces, they were just throwing the whole chunk in! What made is worse is watching the fish and turtles fighting over it to get the biggest piece! Picture a swarm of piranhas attacking and that is what it looked like! I think we spent more time watching the fish and turtles fight for food than we spent at any other sight on the grounds!
This is a 500 year old Bondi tree. The Bondi trees are sacred in Thailand as it is said this is the tree that Buddha sat under when he reached Nirvana. Every Wat has a Bondi tree, and they are found near many homes too - often as make-shift shrines, people placing incense, and other offerings (food, Fanta, etc).
After the Summer Palace, we returned to the bus where refreshments and air conditioning were waiting (it was about 40 degrees out!) Our next stop was Ayutthaya and we were excited to see the real thing. (If you remember our trip to the Ancient City, we saw replicas of the ruins we were about to visit).
Our first stop is perhaps the most famous ruins in Ayutthaya. They date back to the 1100s and were destroyed when Burma captured the city. The Burmese set fire to all the temples and many Buddha images were destroyed. We were told that the Buddha images were destroyed by the roof caving in after an earthquake and not from the Burmese, but it seemed rather strange that the head of each image was perfectly sliced.
The head on this Buddha was reconstructed, but the body is the original. You can also see here the line of Buddha's with no heads on the wall along side him.
I had to crouch down for this picture to make sure I wasn't above Buddha's head. In the Buddhist culture the head is the most revered part of the body, and it wouldn't be proper for me to be standing above the head of Buddha.
In fact, we walked by later and saw two men who were obviously not informed. They tried taking a picture with one of them standing up and he was quickly yelled at by a man working the grounds there.
It was really neat to be walking among these ruins. There were a number of people walking about, but it seemed like it had originally been built with peace and quiet in mind. You couldn't hear anyone else as you wandered around, it was very serene. Plus, Ryan and I had the added benefit of seeing the ruins as they once were from our trip to the Ancient City, so it was extra inspiring to be walking around these grounds and picturing how they once stood. We also enjoyed comparing these to the ruins we saw in Mexico, in awe of the similarities despite the vast distance between them. We did the clapping test, but did not hear any bird calls as we did in Chitchiniza (maybe it worked when it was in its original glory!)
Our next stop was to the only temple in Ayutthaya that was left untouched by the Burmese. They used it as a base camp, so it was preserved. Amazingly, this Buddha is 1500 years old!
I had to throw this picture in, because Ryan has decided to start a collection of the various Tuk-Tuks that we have seen. It seems that every city we go to has its own version of the three-wheeled taxis. He was trying all day to find his shot, and then as we stepped out of the temple with the 1500 year old Buddha, there it was: the perfect picture . . .
After a tour through the city, we drove out a ways until we came upon the largest stone Reclining Buddha, and the last stop on our trip. We are not sure if it is as big as the Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho, but it is pretty impressive either way.
If you look at the size of the person in the photo, it will give you a better idea of just how massive this image is!
Heading for the peir, Ryan and I were ready for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised to get on the boat for the ride home to find a nice spread featuring Thai and International cuisine. We were seated at a table with a woman on holiday with her Father. They were Australian, but she is an expat working in Hong Kong. Her Dad was visiting her in HK and they decided to pop down to Bangkok for some sightseeing.
For the next four hours, we enjoyed good food, tasty drinks, good conversation and some neat sights along the river. The buildings along the river ranged from exquisite temples, and mansions, to the standard Thai riverside homes built on stilts to protect them during the rainy season.
We arrived back home in Bangkok around 4:30, with enough time to enjoy our Saturday night and the rest of our long weekend. (Sorry for the poor grammar and spelling, I think I caught most of it, but I was chatting with Amie on MSN while I was writing this!)
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