A Day in Ayutthaya

To take a break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, we asked our guide to take us out to Ayutthaya for a day.  In Ayutthaya is the ruins from the ancient Ayutthaya city, Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, and of course several temples.

Our first stop was the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace (Summer Palace) which was renovated and expanded by Rama V.  Rama V traveled the world and when he saw something he liked he would try to do it back in Thailand.  The Summer Palace is a great example of that as it seemed like a meld of Thai, Chinese, and European culture.

One of the statues on London Bridge, designed after the original.

Notice the Thai and European architecture 

A Thai pavilion

Withun Thatsana Tower

Wehat Chamrun Royal Hall which is Chinese influenced.

No pictures were allowed inside so this was as far as I could go.  The most interesting thing we saw in this building was the camel bone carving.

We ventured over to Wat Yai Chai Mongkal which was a monastary built in 1357 by the first ruler of Ayutthaya.

If you could hold a coin to the bottom of Buddha's foot and it stuck then you would have good fortune.

The rest of the Buddha that Derek tried to get his coin to stick on.

We climbed the stairs of this chedi but there was not much to see.

Buddhas everywhere!

Our guide suggested we stop for lunch at a local market on the side of the highway.  We knew right away that the food was going to be amazing because we were the only non-Thai's there, of course that meant we got lots of stares, too.  Nat led us over to a small restaurant that served fresh shrimp.  By fresh, I mean it was swimming in the tank and then put directly on the grill.  By far the freshest shrimp we have ever had.  We enjoyed our shrimp with some excellent shrimp fried rice and a snakehead fish.

Some of the market vendors.  Nat insisted we try a few different things like snake fruit.

Shrimp before they were put on the grill with a bowl over the top to prevent them from hopping off. 

Delicious grilled shrimp.  Peel, dip in thai chili sauce, and eat!  

The snakehead fish on the grill.

These may look familiar as we often use them when they are dried in floral arrangements.  Apparently, they can also be eaten.  Nat bought some and taught us how to eat the seeds.  Tasted a bit like a raw peanut.

Ayutthaya was once a Siamese kingdom in the valley of the Chao Praya River that began in 1351.  During the Burmese-Siamese War in 1765, the Burmese burned the kingdom and left the city of Ayutthaya in ruins.  They burned most of it to the ground but a few of the ruins remained like the ruins we visited next.

Many of the Buddha's are missing their heads as they were stolen or destroyed after the Burmese burned the city

The story is that when some burglars tried to steal this Buddha head, it was too heavy so they dropped it by this tree.  Over time, the tree grew around the head.

Our final stop of the day was a temple that once served as the headquarters for the Burmese army during the Burmese-Siamese War and was one of the only places not burned to the ground.  Within one of the temples was this ancient Buddha that was close to 1000 years old.  They do not know how it got there as they found it out in the woods.  They believe someone from India wandered over and carved this statue.

Before we left, the monk wanted to bless Janet.  He muttered some words, dipped his sticks in water and threw it at her and Nat.  Nat says that he was praying for her good health.

 After an exhausting day in Ayutthaya, we headed back to Bangkok to do some shopping.  We finished up our trip by visiting Chatuchak weekend market to pick up some souvenirs and gifts.  It was a fabulous trip and I know it will not be our last time to Bangkok!