Thailand Day 3 - Ayutthaya

Our alarm was set early and we awoke easily with anticipation of what the day had in store. A tour of Ayutthaya region, visiting Buddha's temples and the Unesco heritage site of the ruins of the once mighty city of Ayutthaya. The tour bus picked us up from our hotel and after rendezvous with a couple other vans we were on our way out of Bangkok. Our first stop was at Wat Phu Khao Thong, an impressive and huge white, slightly wonkey chedi. It was very warm by our arrival time at 9:30 but we still climbed the stairs to the top level. We realized early on it was going to be very hard to understand our tour guide, but his energy and enthusiasm was going to be amusing all day.

Our second stop was at a recreation of the sleeping/reclining buddha. This huge concrete buddha was built in the fifties and has weathered colorfully. The contrast from the pristine protected reclining Buddha we had seen before was worth a pause.

We made a third stop at Wat Mahathat. These grounds were also built during the height of the Ayutthaya kingdom and have been weathered, and worn down for centuries since they were abandoned. Unfortunately over the decades many people have taken away many of the buddha images, or parts of them, most often the Buddha's head. One of the more interesting part of these grounds feature an image of Buddha's head completely entangled in tree roots.

By this point it was nearing noon and our tour took us to a small restaurant where we were fed a buffet style of vegetables, an egg dish, a chicken dish served over rice and/or noodles. This restaurant was conveniently close to the next temple we would visit which was just outside the entrance to the famous city ruins of Ayutthaya. Wat Phra Si Sanphet was the temple of the royal family of Ayutthaya and features a huge 16 meter tall bronze Buddha. The Buddha was originally constructed with a gold plating but that was stolen after the razing of the city. The Burmese burned the city of Ayutthaya in 1767, the city which had been the capital of the kingdom of Siam from 1350. This was a spectacular place featuring three Chedis each holding the remains of a king (a father and two sons). A Unesco world heritage site, visiting Ayutthaya was worth every moment in the scorching heat and humidity.

Like the former capital of Siam our day trip had to come to an end. We returned to Bangkok via bus and freshened up at the hotel. We then headed around the corner for some famous beef noodle soup at Khrua Nai Soi. The soup was delicious and perfectly timed to avoid some heavy rain that passed through the area. After eating we hopped in a cab and headed for the market known as Asiatique the Riverfront. We spent a couple hours browsing through shops and enjoying the view and boardwalk along the river before again hailing a cab to get back to our hotel.

We capped off the night with a couple of massages, much needed after the many miles we have walked the previous few days. Why can't more places have massages for less than 10 dollars!