'Ancient Ayutthaya'

Another Wat...
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30th Oct

Shouldn't have watch the footy as twas a 6.15am start for the tour to Ayutthaya, with Olivia scaring the crap out of me, waking me and saying that i only had 20 mins...till brekky and not, as i thought, till the bus arrives. Still, the driver arrived early, so we sent him to pick the other tourists whilst we had some weird breakfast. The steamy weather here is overwhelming, and although not much hotter than the islands, its still distinctly more uncomfortable in a city surrounding.

'An ancient capital preserved as a testimony to the survival of Thailand from invasion...'

Imperial family tomb; father buried with 2 sons on both sides.
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First stop was an hour at a glistening white temple (Wat Phu Khao Thong) where our English speaking guide disappeared for most of time, and we couldnt really gather the significance of it apart from that it leaned to one side and was medium height...Our hair raising driver, as with all thai drivers, decided to pray on approach to this temple, eyes closed and steering with his forearms as we hurtled towards the deserted setting...also concerned by the wild chickens there and catching avian flu; slightly over paranoid methinks.

Gargantuan reclining buddha with blanket
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Next stop was a stunning ruin site, housing an impressive grave complex for King Rama III and his two sons who were later buried beside him. These completely symmetrical graves remain an awesome sight even after all this time with numerous Burmese attempts to take over this ancient capital and gain thailand. Yet another temple with a giant buddha, in which i partook in coin dropping into 50 consecutive metal pots which is supposed to bring good luck :)

Then on to another huge reclining buddha which was the oldest in Thailand though i was more distracted by the surprisingly seedy souvenirs here - it is a religous sight after all, and a monkey souvenir with moving parts that mimic masturbation is not, i think, appropriate however hilarious it is.

The stunning Bang Pa-In palace
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Nice lunch included in the tour and the group finally got a chance to introduce each other to everyone. A well traveled group of people including this Hungarian (1st eva) called Gita who works in Singapore so that she could take weekend trips to South Asian destinations. Good Idea; and she just been to Kanchanaburi, which was helpful as i was heading there soon and got a good heads up on what to do there.

Went to visit a national site of pilgrimage with the main attraction being this huge ancient Bodhi tree with a image of a buddha's head ingraved in to a large root! this was also set within some amazing red brick ruins.. Decidedly more modern was the Grand Royal Palace (Bang Pa-In palace) which is used for royal events and sometimes as a residence. Beautiful mixture of traditional, colonial, chinese and neo-classical architecture set in some well maintained and peaceful gardens.