Ayuthaya

 

Ayuthaya is an amazing city. There are dozens of ancient wats all very close to each other. One day we rented bicycles and rode around, visiting a handful of them. It was really pleasant and quaint despite an inordinate number of roundabouts, and all the cars drove on the wrong side of the street. My bike had a bell, but it seemed rather puny compared to the elephant rambling down the road. Every wat was different, but they all had one thing in common - tons of Buddha statues.

 

Phra Mongkhon Bohpit.

 

Reclining Buddha.

 

At one point, they resculpted Buddha's head for a more regal look.

Wat Phra Si Sampet

 

This wat was a royal temple where important ceremonies would take place. It was really big. This is a view of the outer wall.

 

It features 3 main stupas (big pointy things that ancinet Buddhists were so fond of).

 

Wat Lokayasutha was a monastery with a prang in the center and lots of these weird gray stones scattered around.

 

As was typical, tyhe outer wall was lined with statues of Buddha.

Wat Phra Ram

 

Prang.

 

 

Stupas.

 

Buddha statue. I know. At this point, you're wondering just how many Buddha statues are there in Thailand? I'm not sure, but they definitely outnumber Thai people.

Wat Rachaburna

 

This was one of our favorite wats. There were nice views from the center.

 

We got to climb stairs and go down inside the central prang.

 

View of a stupa through the window.

 

Once inside, we crept down a series of steps that led into a tiny pit to admire beautiful murals beneath the wat. It was creepy and kind of suffocating, but really fun to actually enter a wat which is not allowed anywhere else.

Wat Maha That

 

This wat used to be a monastery, and it was so large that it had a Machu Picchu kind of feel to it.

 

I was only after I had snapped like 6 photos of this tree that I saw the sign saying that you should stand lower than the Buddha head while talking photographs; otherwise, it is an insult. Whoops!

 

Food

 

I thought Thailand was going to be more vegetarian-based, but I was wrong. The food stalls catered to meat lovers, and I had to search for something vegetarian - but not pad thai.

 

The fruit shakes were cheap and abundant. We each had our favorite flavor.

 

Much of the time I had no idea what any of the stuff was. We bought things and tried them, and sometimes they were good, but mostly they were just interesting.

 

Most little local places served simple meals that were prepared in about 5 minutes. It comes with a clump of rice, a fork, and if you're lucky, a tiny napkin. Also, every meal comes with a surprise. It's something that you don't expect. Like you find some delicious dragonfruit in your breakfast bowl, or the fish your ordered still has eyes and a tongue.

Bangkok

 

Lotus blossoms are verywhere.

 

 

Thai's have an interesting method to cross the street. There often aren't cross walks or street signals. It's a mystery how everybody knows when to go. As a pedestrain, it's even more confusing. We would end up standing on the edge of a road, waiting for a break in traffic that never came, and realizing that we were never going to cross the street. Soon enough, a thai person would saunter up and just start walking across the street, barely even looking at the traffic. And, a weird thing would happen. The cars would actually stop. We quickly caught on, and started using this technique.

 

One of my favorite things about travelling to the tropics - cheap fruit! The eggs looking things are Thai fruit that taste a little like hard, bland grapes. They have a hard outer brown shell that is easily cracked open. You eat the fruit around a hard woody seed in the middle.

Amulet Market

 

Thai people are really religious/superstitious, and they love their amulets. An amulet is a tiny pendant with the image of Buddha. Almost everyone wears one, and the taxi drivers had amulets hanging on their dash - often along with tiny statues of Buddha and their favorite wats.

 

We stumbled into amulet markets at a couple points during our visit, and the shoppers were always very serious. They picked up the amulets and examined them with tiny magnifying glasses. What were they looking for?

 

I'm not sure how Buddha would have felt about all this idol worship.

 

Wat Pho

 

Wat Pho was a gorgeous wat near the canal. There are many buildings, gardens, and several temples with gold Buddha statues inside.

 

Each building had brighlty colored tile and gold that sparkled in the sun.

 

The compound was shaped like a square, and all along the outside walls are statues of Buddha. This, as we learned, is a common architectural theme in wats.

 

When entering a wat, this is my usual procedure: I remove my shoes, put them on the gigantic pile at the door and hope I remember where they are. Then, I walk quietly behind any worshippers, kneel on my knees before Buddha, and sit reverently for a few minutes. When nobody is looking, I quickly snap a couple photos. It's allowed, but it's still kind of rude. It's not like Thai people are tromping into Lutheran churches every Sunday taking our picture. Then again, if we erected a bunch of killer Martin Luther statues, maybe they would.

Wat Pho - Reclining Buddha

 

My jaw dropped when I stepped inside this building. It can barely contain the large Buddha statue within. He's over 46 meters long!

 

The feet were huge.

 

The bottom are made with mother of pearl and are stunning.

Canal

 

We took a tour of the canals, and apparantly the day we went (the first Wednesday of the month) is the one day that there aren't hordes of floating markets selling delicious meals. We did get the offer to buy stale bread to feed to the already fat catfish for 30 cents (I wondered why there were so many fish in this one spot!), but we declined. Then, a couple ladies came by with their canoes full of crap no one would ever want. Evenntually, the lady got one poor sap to buy a beer for himself and the boatman. Thank goodness the boats only go about 5 kph.

 

"There's a crocodile!" screamed Kerri. "Are there crocodiles in Thailand?" said Traci. Evidently no, but there are really big monitor lizards.

 

I don't know the name of this wat. We were dropped off at it and told we had 30 minutes, and once we saw stairs, that American thing kicked in, and we said, "We must climb the stairs." So, we powered on, and barely made the boat back in time.

 

It was a beautiful wat, whatever it was called.