Ayutthaya

Siam - present day Thailand - has had three capitals during its history. Prior to the current Bangkok era, the capital was located about 50 miles to the north in Ayutthaya. The city itself is an island with the Chao Phraya river on its west and south sides, the Pa Sak on the east, and the Klong Muan on the north. I recently had a chance to spend the day in Ayutthaya with my friend Jay who went through the Thai course with me back in Monterey. The day itself turned into a huge misadventure but I had a good time regardless. Since we only had one day to see the sites, we rented a couple of scooters and also used some local transportation, because elephants! There is a local elephant sanctuary and these rides are one of the revenue generating ventures to support the feeding and caring for the pachyderms. Our particular elephants have even been trained to extort tourists for tips!  

Pictured above, a cheapskate

                                     

Following the elephants, we went to see a nearby wat, or Buddhist temple, called Wat Prah Mongkhon Bophit, which houses a Buddha statue over 30 feet high and 40 feet wide, that originally built in 1538. Though badly damaged by fire after a lightning strike in the early 18th century, and again when Ayutthaya was sacked by Burma in 1767. the Buddha was restored through various restorations between 1921 and 1957.

The Queen had this Buddha gold plated in the 1996

Adjacent to the wat were the ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, parts of which predate the nearby Buddha by a few hundred years. 

Of the temple's three main chedis (the central pillars), at least two were built to house the ashes of a king

More ruins

Should I do it?

Yeah, I did it

This is the remains of a 600 year old Buddha wrapped in the orange robes of a monk

Following this wat, we visited a reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddhas are supposed to represent the Buddha right before he attained nirvana.

Our next stop was Wat Chaiwatthanaram, the sight I always picture when I think of Ayutthaya. Built in 1630 by King Prasat Thong, this temple was constructed to celebrate his coronation and incorporated Khmer architecture to commemorate a recent military victory over the Khmer empire in present day Cambodia.

This giant complex had a 115 foot central pillar surrounded by eight chedi-shaped chaples, connected by a surrounding walkway featuring 120 Buddha statues of varying sizes. Destroyed by the Burmese in 1767, the site was abandoned and looted of bricks, Buddha heads, and carved reliefs over the centuries. Restoration of the wat began in 1987 and was finally opened to the public in 1992.

A partially intact carved relief

Remains of looted Buddhas

Wrapped in robes and guano

The view from the central spire 

                                                                                                                                                              After Wat Chaiwatthanaram it was time to see the head of the sandstone Buddha, something I had seen in photos many times before. From the photographs I had seen, I had always pictured the head as being much larger than it actually is. I have to admit that since it didn't match what I imagined I was a little underwhelmed. I guess there's no accounting for taste in some people!

This is me looking underwhelmed, though it might just be the blood loss (stay tuned for more about that, coming up next)

It looks bigger when it's zoomed in on, maybe that is how all the photos I saw were taken

 So I mentioned earlier that this trip was a bit of a misadventure. Around the sandstone Buddha, I managed to get a nice cut in my left shin. After bleeding on my sock for a little while I found a pharmacy and proceeded to preform a little street surgery. Jay decided he needed to photograph it for posterity.

I hope you're not squeamish

The are around the wound turned some amazing colors in the coming days and weeks, too.

I'm really glad iodine cleans without burning

Jay finished taking these picture before I was done wrapping my leg so he slipped my phone into the pocket on my shirt. When I was all patched up we hopped on to our scooters to head over to another temple - Wat Phanan Choeng - which I have no pictures of. As we were riding along I hit a small bump and my phone, which I had forgotten to take out of my shirt pocket and put in a more secure location, flew out and hit the road behind me; the phone, battery, and rear case went in three different directions. I immediately pulled over and while there were no vehicles in front of us, it seemed like the entire city was driving behind us. I approached the phone watching cars and scooters going all around it, and right when I thought the phone might actually make it, a van drove right over the it. *CRUNCH*

This is the actual last picture on the phone's memory card

And this is the actual first picture of my phone after I got home that night

After I collected the remains of my phone, Jay and I continued on towards the wat and passed a few street stalls with inflated plastic bags containing water. Wondering what exactly they were we pulled over and discovered each bag had anywhere from 3 - 5 small fish in them. It turns out that one of the ways Buddhists can make merit (aka earn some good karma points) is to buy these fish and release them. The final wat on our Tour d'Ayutthaya just happened to be right up against the river, a great place to reverse my luck, so Jay bought me a bag of fish - I picked out the one with the most fish in it - and when I when I went to release them, they were immediately eaten by much larger river fish. Apparently, so many people come to release fish at this spot that the river fish have learned it's a great location to grab a free meal. At least I can take some solace in the fact that it wasn't a fluke. Jay released two bags of fish (they were being sold three bags for 100 baht) and they were devoured as well. In the not too distant future I should be able to post a video of freeing the fish, I just need to get the video from Jay's phone since mine was a little smashed at the time.