Ayutahha

Ayuttaha!! woke up pad thai breakfast took a tuk tuk to the train station. Hoped on a train heading north, thought we had missed the early train but there were no lines so we whizzed straight through. The 10 minute tuk tuk to the train station cost us 40 Baht each, the 1 1/2 hour train ride cost us 15 Baht each... go figure. It was a train for locals mainly, so Ainhoa and I felt like the only tourists, an excellent feeling. Vendors walked up and down the aisles screaming prices a third of what they were on the tourist train we took in Kanchanaburi! I slept most of the way so missed a lot of the scenery but it was probably a good idea in the end, we had a lot of walking ahead of us.  When we got to the station us and the other tourists unloaded, most of whom immediately got into tuk tuks. Ainhoa and I, however, opted to walk. "it lies in a bend in the Chao Phraya River, where it meets the Pa Sek and Lopburi rivers - to completely surround their capital with water, early residents dug a curving canal along the northers perimeter, linking the Chao Phraya to the Lopburi.  Ayuttaha was built at the converging of two rivers, and in order to fortify the city, waterways were dug to connect the rivers, making Ayuttaha an island. "Ayuttaha was named by King Ramatibodi after a mythical kingdon of the gods portrayed in the pages of the Ramayana. The city was completed in 1350 and was a powerhouse of Southeast Asia." It was the center of trade, the arts and technology until 1688 when it went into internal conflict and then was completely destroyed by the Burmese in 1767. So this was to be a historical adventure!! We visited Wat Mahathat first which is the one with the Buddha head in the overgrown tree, then walked across the street to Wat Ratchaburana which had the giant structure in the middle which we climbed up and then it felt as if someone had poured water on my head b/c my body could not take the heat. We walked along the edge of the Phraram Park and then stopped for lunch at a local market. Not before seeing elephants! Also Ainhoa can not ride a bicycle so we walked everywhere... we were super hungry but could not find a cheap restaurant just tons of shops selling sweets. They looked amazing, but not what we wanted to eat as our main meal for the day... The stalls were all exactly the same as well. You'd think with so much competition for one type of dessert they would diversify so people like Ainhoa and I can find real food. Lunch was yummy but over priced. It's amazing how when you get used to a currency howyou can suddenly be outraged by paying more than the average. You haggle and haggle over 10 Baht and then realize that it's only about 25 cents. I guess every penny counts. Just funny how it is still cheaper than anything else I could ever buy in London or America. Long story short we felt slightly cheated so Ainhoa stole water off the table...! We left and went to Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit which was a modern looking Wat with a giant Buddha in it (go figure). The modern look isbecause it is a reconstruction of the original structure which was destroyed by a fire in the 2nd fall of Ayutthaya. It was raining but in Asian style were still made to take our shoes off. We walked through the rain to the temple, not sure how much more clean bare feet from the rain aer than shoes. But whatever, not my place to say. There were people doing the shaking number game. You have sticks with numbers written on them in a can and you are supposed to ask the Buddha a question then pray then shake your can and whichever stick falls out first, the number on that stick will give you answers to your problem. Ainhoa and I did this, however, unable to interpret the numbers we received the whole thing was a bit pointless for us. Next we went to Wat Phra Si Sanphet.  This wat is part of the grand palace compound and was used first as a residential palace but then turned into the royal chapel and all 'novice inhabitants' were kicked out. The temple complex is centered around 3 large chedis. They were beautiful. Chedis are used to hold the remains of a body that has been cremated, so the bones and ashes. These particular structures were extraordinarily large and in their day were painted with bright colors. Now even though the paint has faded and much of the carvings have been weathered, they were still impressive. Perhaps it was the light from the time of day or the wonderful overgrown feel of the trees, but this was my favorite temple of the day. It was very peaceful there and the shade from the trees allowed us to cool down a bit. We didn't want to catch the last train back because we knew it would be over crowded so took a tuk tuk to the train station. Once there, we realized train schedules are a bit of a joke here. The times posted on the walls were nothing like when the trains actually came. We bought a ticket for the next train which was going to be in 2 hours. We decided not to waste the time but instead head to one more temple just outside the old city walls. We crossed the river into what looks like the modern city of Ayutthaya and walked for a lot longer than we expected. None of the tourist maps we had were to scale... none of them! The temple that looked around the corner took us 35 minutes to get to. Once there, the temple was technically closed, but the gate was left open and there were plenty of people wandering around so we walked in. This complex was centered around a huge square pyramid structure. We climbed to the top and were able to see views of all of Ayuttaha. The sun was close to setting so it was pretty beautiful, we couldn't stick around for sunset though, and anyways there were too many clouds to have made it spectacular so we started on our long walk back to the station. We made it in plenty of time to stop at 7/11 and get a slurpy! The track for the train was crowded and most people were sitting on the actual rails waiting for the train to come. We had fallen into exactly what we were trying to avoid, every tourist was now heading back to Bangkok as were all the locals who obviously traveled for work every day. We had to stand for most of the journey back home. Also the fan in our section was not exactly working so we stood like sardines as the train vendors still tried to walk between us still screaming with their giant baskets. They would pass and push you from the aisle on to the families sitting. Once home, guess what we did? Did you guess massage? because then you'd be right. We got a foot massage and then sat in a bar watching Arsenal getting the butts handed to them by Manchester United much to the joy/dismay of the mostly English audience.