- Getting ready to hit the road!
- Some thoughts on Hong Kong…
- A day in Danang and Hue, Vietnam
- Saigon River and Saigon, Vietnam
- Siem Reap and Temples, Cambodia
- The Floating Village — Kompong Phluk, Cambodia
- Phnom Penh and the road to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Day 2 in Bangkok — Ayutthaya, Thailand
- Singapore
- Langkawi Island, Malaysia
- Phuket, Thailand — or sort of…
- New Delhi, India
- Agra and the Taj Mahal
- The road to — and Jaipur, India
- India — a few closing thoughts.
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Oman (The Sultanate of)
- Luxor, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, Egypt
- Petra, Jordan
- Sharm el Sheik and St. Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt
- Cairo and Giza, Egypt
- Egypt — Some final thoughts…
- Zooming around Israel
- Bodrum, Kusadasi, and Ephesus, Turkey
- Corfu, Greece
- Dubrovnik and Zadar, Croatia
- Venice, Italy — the last hurrah!
Well, we decided to brave the grueling traffic around Bangkok to go visit Ayutthaya, the second capital of Siam. Although much of it is in ruins today, at one point (around 1700) it was the largest city in the world, with over 1 million residents. It was one of the great international trading centers with merchants from across Asia, Arabia, and Europe all regularly stopping there. After around 400 years, this all came crashing down when Ayutthaya was invaded by the Burmese, and the city was nearly completely burned to the ground.
On the way to Ayutthaya, we stopped by the Bang Pa palace, which was the summer palace of King Rama V. Given his travels to Europe, a number of the buildings in the palace complex are an eclectic mix of both Thai and European architecture. The grounds are absolutely beautiful. Because the buildings were quite separated, we actually drove around in golf carts. The golf carts didn’t have horns to warn people – rather they had a little microchip driven sound generator (the kind you would find in greeting cards that play music when you open them). You can imagine how surreal it was the first time I pushed the button – only to get a litany of Christmas carols! Also, the dress code was a little different here than for most other temples. Here, the women had to wear sarongs – even if they were wearing pants. Men, on the other hand, were allowed to wear shorts. Nobody said it was fair.
Another stop was the Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal. This is an amazing place and the people there (under the Prakochaban Foundation) are doing excellent work trying to care for sick, abused, and injured elephants. The Royak Kraal is where the king used to keep all captured elephants. Obviously, with the demise of Ayutthaya, that went away, but the domestication and use of elephants for work continued. One of the big areas they were used was in logging, where the elephants would haul out felled trees. When Thailand banned commercial logging in the late 1980s, a lot of elephants and their drivers (mahouts) were put out of work. As a result, they ended up begging on streets and life was poor. The Foundation now provides a permanent home for the elephants and work for the mahouts. We all rode the elephants around the temple ruins. I was amazed at how flexible and well-trained the elephants are. One of the women we are traveling with dropped her point-and-shoot camera. The elephant reached down, picked up the camera and handed it to the driver. The best, though, was when one elephant took the tip money from the rider and handed it to the mahout. Amazing!
After lunch, we visited the ruins at the Ayutthaya Historical Park that is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Within the park is the Wat Mahathat that was the spiritual center of early Ayutthaya. There are several partial images of Buddha still around the grounds – including one that is embedded in the roots of an overgrown banyan tree. What struck me was that all the structures were made of red brick – something I don’t think we had seen up to this point. Also in the Historic Park is the Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was the Royal Monastery from 1350 to 1448. What is interesting here is that when the Burmese invaded, they left the monastery standing, but stripped all the gold leaf off the towers. From the Historic Park, we went to the Wat Chi Wattanaram, a set of ruins that seems out of place in this area since is like ancient Khmer architecture (e.g., Angkor Wat). Unfortunately, you couldn’t wander around the site, but it was quite dramatic. Our last stop was at the Wiharn Pra Mongkol Bophit a chapel (versus temple – not entirely sure why) that houses a large seated Buddha. This area was only restored in 1956 and it is very beautiful.
Having said that, by this time everyone was melting in the heat and the ice cream stands were doing a brisk business. It was clearly time to depart! Onto Singapore!
Wat Chai Wattanaram — an amazing complex!
The Phra Mongkol Bophit
This entry was posted in Cruising, Thailand, Travel
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
