Today we are taking a day trip to Ayutthaya which is a historic city in Thailand. Yes, it involved another early morning but not as early as the Train/Floating Market. This was a bus trip to Ayutthaya which included 3 historic stops and then we were taken by bus about half way back to board a 2.5 hour boat ride back to Bangkok. Thank goodness this trip ended up where it left from – which was right next to our hotel!
The tour had Chinese, American, Australians, Spaniards and us 2 Canadians on it. It was quite an interesting bunch of people! It was also VERY different from the tour we took on Friday as this tour guide was used to doing this tour – she does it 3 days a week and is used to managing a bus load of people. She always had us under control and no one was ever missing. We also did not have to do a strange numbering system that the tour guide on our Friday trip to the train/market had us do just to keep track of us. While this was advertised as an English tour, she did make the Chinese attendees feel comfortable by speaking a bit of Mandarin. That type of customer service I like to see!
So we drove about 2 hours to the historic city of Ayutthaya which is actually where our tour guide was from. It was founded in 1350 and was the second capital of the Siam (Thailand) Kingdom. It was once one of the world’s largest areas of global diplomacy and commerce as it was strategically located on an island (which still exists today) surrounded by three rivers connecting the city to the sea. It is also located above the tidal zone for the Gulf of Siam, thus preventing attack of the city by the sea. The location also helped to protect the city from seasonal flooding. The city burned to the ground in 1767 by the Burmese army and abandoned. The city was never rebuilt in the same location and remains known today as several archaeological sites, which we visited 2 of them.
First we visted Wat Mahathat, “the temple of the Great Relic” was one of the most important temples in the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Located on the historical island the large monastery features a huge central prang, a very large principal viharn and ubosot and a great number of subsidiary chedis and viharns. The upper part of its once massive central prang has collapsed. Today only the base remains.
Then we took a very short ride to Wat Phra Si Sanphet, also known as the “Temple of the Holy, Splendid Omniscient” was the holiest temple in Ayutthaya during the Ayutthaya period and until the city was destroyed by the Burmese. It was the grandest and most beautiful temple in the capital and it served as a model for Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok. This is also where the Buddha’s head is entwined in tree roots and as it is fairly low down, there is a security guard sitting there with a whistle (and there is a sign in Thai and English) indicating that if you want to take a picture you must kneel down so that your head is lower that Buddha’s. If you stand near the mat, the whistle is blown at you! They did have a bench next to the mat where you could sit if you could not get down on the mat, however for the experience I was able to get down – getting up was another story!
Then we were driven to Vihara Phra Mongkhon Bophit and Wat Lokayasutharam which are located behind the Ancient Palace. Vihara Phra Mongkhon Bophit is a covered building housing a large bronze seated Buddha image of 12.45 meters high, which was originally enshrined outside the Grand Palace to the east. It is believed to date back to the 15th century. It was hard to get to from where we stopped so I do not have a picture of it. Instead we visited Wat Lokayasutharam, which is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The image of the reclining Buddha represents the entry of Buddha into Nirvana and the end of all reincarnations. The posture of the image is referred to as sihasaiyas, the posture of a sleeping or reclining lion. The figure is 15 m high and 46 m long, and it is one of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand.
Next we were driven to our Boat Cruise down the Chao Phraya River. This included an American/Thai lunch buffet. After I managed to get onto the boat – not hard entering but the dining room was downstairs so there I remained for the whole ride which was pretty close to water level – Andrew helped himself to the buffet and the chef came out with our tour guide and spoke to me about my gluten free lunch. I said I just needed something simple like shrimp fried rice, no soya sauce and look what I got! Yikes! I hate eating when I am hot, I did not have my “to go” containers with me so I had to leave food behind which I do not like doing. Andrew and I could have shared my lunch between the two of us! My perch in the bottom of the boat did provide a great vantage point for taking pictures along the riverbank though – what a study on what happens and who lives on the riverbank! Such waves of different houses and buildings – from marshes to haphazard houses to nice condos to cobbled together houses again to a Temple – it was a fascinating experience! Our tour guide explained that some of the “houses” that we saw the owners have had that land through their families for years. Unfortunately the river is taking away their land through erosion and they are trying their best to keep their houses however it sounds like what is happening in Vancouver – groups of house holders will sell out to a developer so that is why you see the river houses and then a nice condo and then back to a bunch of river houses. Along the way we also passed the Temple of Dawn and the Grand Palace (which we had also seen the night of the Tuk Tuk adventure) and finally ended up at the dock at the mall where I could take a picture of our boat!
We then walked the short distance back to the hotel and enjoyed drinks and dinner in the 27th floor lounge. We got really great seats at the window that night and as we sat there the noise went up higher and higher and we realized there was some action going on across the way at the ICONSIAM mall. As my new phone has such a great telephoto lens we soon realized that it was a Thai “Mulay” Kickboxing event! The men were on the stage first performing a dance and then a boxing type ring had been set up also and there were “fights” into the night. Unfortunately our bedroom also faced this direction so neither of us got a lot of sleep on this Sunday night! That was okay though as not much was planned for Monday…. really! 🙂
