Ayuttaya

Walking up the staircase wasnt exactly hard, it just took more concentration than your average staircase. To start with, these stairs were definitely not to code, they were much to skinny and steep. Also, they were very uneven, the bricks having been worn down so that there were concave dips between the mortar, and lastly, it was hard not to be distracted by the fact that we were climbing ruins that were built before Jesus was born. We were in the ancient city of Ayuttaya.

Steve, Jennifer, and I started the day by taking the ferry to the train-station. Unfortunately, we got kind of a late start and had to wait an hour for the train, since someones digestive problems were slowing the group down, and we missed the first one.
The train ride took 2 hours to get to Ayuttaya. The bus would have been quicker, but that cost over 100 baht per person, and the train was 15 baht per person. It was not an air conditioned train, but luckily we were able to open the windows and it was rather nice. During the ride people selling food and drinks would wander up and down the cars with their products.
When we got to Ayuttaya and exited the train station we saw bunches of tuktuks, and minibuses calling out prices for people. Assuming that this was not the best deal we could find we just started walking the the direction that all the tuktuks were heading. We stopped by a fancy hotel that I would never be able to afford to pick up a tourist map, and then crossed the bridge into the city.
When we were in the city we were approached by a tuktuk driver who offered us a 4 hour tour for 800 baht. He promised us no shopping stops (like bangkok tuktuk tours like to do) and had a book of customer testimonials. He brought out his little book and showed us a entry dated 1999 that showed that he still charged the same rate back then. We talked him down to 700 baht and hopped in.

We first asked him to take us to a restaurant for some food. Either he has a deal with that restaurant, or hes just never eaten there before. The food was bland and overpriced. The resturant had a chance to redeem itself, for it served mangosteen liquors. Mangosteen juice is both mine and steves favorite fruit juice so we both ordered one.
Utterly disappointing. It just tasted like grain alcohol. I didnt take more than a sip.

Well, after that it was time to go to our first ruin, which did not disappoint.
The ruins had hundreds of Buddha images, the most popular being the Reclining Buddha. This one is about 1/4 the size of the one i saw at Wat Pho. We spent about 15 minutes at this ruin, but it was an active temple so it was in decent shape and kind of busy so we went to our next stop: Wat Mahathat.

The temples of Ayuttaya were reduced to ruin when the Burmese invaded. Despite the disrepair that the temples and Buddha images are in, they are still sacred and the Buddhas are shown the greatest respect. (even the headless ones)

I really am finding it hard to describe the epic and ethereal feeling that being at these ruins had. Many times there was no one else in our direct vicinity, making us feel like we were the lone people experiencing the ruins.


Ayutthaya is also an area known for its elephants, so our driver took us to see some elephants. The cost to ride the elephant was a bit steep, but we had enough fun petting and feeding them.


The next site that we went to had some very tall chedis and prangs. A prang is a tall structure with a stairs and a small area for prayer at the top. A chedi is mostly just a spire. Needless to say I prefer prangs because you can climb up them. These ruins were actually the remains of an ancient palace, and the prangs provided wonderful vantage points to look at the former groundplans (not to mention places to sit that were most definitely not mother approved).


We spent a while hiking through these ruins, as they were quite atmospheric and beautiful.



There was an definite air of peacefulness to the area. Part of that was being outside of Bangkok, and part of it was just these hand man monoliths that stand after years, wars, and weather.


We went to another ruin that was a small working monastery. For some reason there were many statues of rooters. I tried asking the monks, but none of them spoke English. We didnt spend much time at this ruin as there wasnt all that much to see. We next went to another reclining Buddha. This one was almost as big as the one in Wat Pho.

While we were here a lady keep encouraging us to pray to Buddha and tried to sell us incense and flowers as offerings. When we declined she brought out a selection of Buddhist amulets that bring the owner luck. Remembering that our professor, Parker, had asked us to see if we could bring something Buddist back for him we inquired as to the price. She started with an asking price of 200 baht, but we were able to bargain her down to 80. Buying an amulet in front of a Buddha image is, im sure, considered even more auspicious and lucky.

We again hoped into the tuktuk and our driver surely saved the best for last. He took us to a temple, that was modeled on Angkor Wat in cambodia. The ruins seemed to have avoided much harm throughout their existence. We got there at just before sunset, so the light was hitting it at the most perfect angle.

We could see and hear hundreds of birds coming to nest in the homes that they had made in the ruins.



Jennifer and I climbed up the river side of a Prang to admire the river veiw,

While we were up there a dog started to climb the steep steps up towards us. (Stray dogs are everywhere in Thailand, especially the temples, but temple climbing dogs were new to me). As he climbed he seemed to stop every now and then to admire the view.

Upon making it to the top he sat on a ledge next to Jennifer.

We were worried about his ability to climb down, but he seemed to be a veteran of the stairs as he nimbly hopped down them when he was done. The dog walked towards the river and steve followed him. The dog looked back, and up at one point and steve went to catch this dogs eye veiw of what he looked at:


As the sun dipped behind the temple, it was time for us to return to the trainstation.
At the train station we went to grab some Pad Thai from a vendor across the street. At the stand we meet Dwight Worker, a professor of history at University of Indiana Bloomington, who explained to us that he was biking from Bangkok to Saigon. You just never know the interesting people you meet in Thailand.
The day was exhausting, but definitely amazing