Ancient Capital Of Thailand (but apparently not the first!)
Laura writes
As we arrived at the service station I hopped out of the van and made my way to the “ladies”. Pushing open the shabby door I entered the small cubical. Your joking I thought – I can’t sit on that! So, hovering with elegance (not), I did the best I could. Deciding whether it would be cleaner or not to wash my hands, I stumbled upon the not so pretty site of myself in the mirror. I looked as tired as I felt.
I had been woken by the alarm clock at four thirty in the morning, an hour earlier than intended. We had made our way to breakfast for six and were ready and waiting for the seven o’clock pick up. Thirty minutes later we were still stood pondering over it’s wareabouts. After a brief phone call and a lengthy wait the ‘bus’ arrived. Much to our amusement the next pick up was held up by two very tired looking individuals, who stumbled onto the bus with apologies and weary looking faces. James and Isabel. It was from this point we spent many happy days with them and have great tales and adventures to share…some other time.
Ayuthaya is a truely amazing place, having our own guide was also a bonus. We visited many temples, wats and ruins and enjoyed a lengthy cruise down the river in our very first long tail boat trip. We waved at children playing on river banks and watched people having their daily wash in the merky waters.
We stopped at a quiet restaurant for lunch – here we tried our first Thai Omlette. Oh yes!
We are glad we went, however, we both felt by the end of the day after seeing one temple, one wat and one set of ruins, you have pretty much seen them all. It’s not true of course, they are all unique, but perhaps we are to younge to fully appreciate the architecture for more than a few hours.
Rupert writes
What we did learn was that this city was not the first capital of Thailand, although I first thought that. It’s actually the second (I think that’s right). They get around don’t they?! Bangkok is the fourth!
End
Here are some moments and images we captured…
After the Burmese invaded Thailand they destroyed many of the Thai’s Buddhist images (they have a different idea of what Buddha looked like). This head was hacked of a large stone image and the tree has grown around it.
A man at work around the ruins of Ayuthaya
One of the many large and seemingly pointless structures within the ruins. What exactly did this do? Looks like it’s ready to topple over.
There must have been thousands of Buddha images, many with heads missing. This was one of the few remaining in tact
One of the largest reclining Baddha images. What’s the orange material hiding, naughty bits?
That looks suspicously Catholic. A strange thing to see in a Buddhist monopolied country.
Noars Ark.
We got many waves from locals during our tour down the river.
A trip to the shops?
This………………………………………………………………………………………….was pulling these!
You’ve been framed!…. terrible Rupert…
Holding up the wall. Looked like it needed it. Shouldn’t lean to much, ay Rupert?
The largest Buddah image in the world
And the building that housed it. Yes, it’s really that big.
We could have taken an elephant ride around some of the ruins, but it was overpriced and a little to commercial looking – not the authentic elephant ride experience we’re looking for.
We had to take this across a river to get to a wat on an island. It was swaying about and mad-fun to ride. It was manned by a chap who must sit there all day pulling and pushing the lever, waiting for people to get on and off. It cost nothing to ride but you could donate.
A monk, reading the mornings news. They do normal things too.
Taking it easy.
Tags: Bangkok, Thailand, Thailand, Tour, Travel
Monkey
Hi Guys,
We are trying to keep up to date with your movements, its all exciting and exhausting to watch, hope you get enough breaks to catch your breath. I will have to appologise for not writting sooner to be honest there hasn’t been anything to tell you from this end of the world, although this weekend we went to bournemouth with Yeti, Zoe, Jo & Nick. It was great fun did the Slinky thing, got rather drunk Saturday night or actually it was just me & Zoe with disaproving looks from are better halves. Went to Monkey World which was amazing, its a rescue center for Ape’s & Monkeys. There was a baby Orangutan called Kai one of the first to be born in captivaty.
Take care big hugs xxx
Hey Sally (and Andy)!
Thanks for posting, nice to hear from you – even if you think not much has happened it’s always nice to hear from friends. Today Laura had the missing-everyone-syndrome: “I’ve got no friends!” she said. Not here, I said, but I there waiting for us back at home. We hope 😉
You’ve seen more monkeys than us then! Monkey World sounds awesome. We nearly went to a monkey rescue centre on Koh Tao but the roads are pot-holed dirt tracks that only hired 4×4 verhicles can tackle so we gave it a miss. Actually we’ve been really lazy with doing stuff, unless it’s easy to arrange or on our front door step then we’re relucant!
Keep the parties warm.
P.S – when are you going to Australia?
Ha Ha, That looks like the temple in Mortal Combat 🙂 No paralel dimensions or bicycle kicking lun koe’s though 🙂 Fancy covering Budda’s Bits.. harumph
Yea didn’t see any of that mate. Shame!
Nice to hear from you; check your email!
Rupert.