March 18, 2019

We had another early morning – but at this point they are starting to blend together. We had to drive from the countryside, where the Elephant World Sanctuary was, back into the city – Ayutthaya.

We drove past so many rice fields – and we actually had a quick pit stop to see Mickey Mouse. Yes, you read that correctly.

And when I say Mickey Mouse – I actually mean a food stand where they were barbecuing rats. Yes, RATS. Yui informed us that sometimes they even grill snakes, but there were none on display when we walked up to the stand. I don’t think that anyone purchased any, but this is something that the Thai people eat. Yui told us not to worry – that these were “clean” rats because they were only out in the field and not eating street trash.

We took a few pictures, but quickly got back onto the bus. We made another stop along the way to get gas – and I have to be honest, these “truck stops” put American ones to shame. There are so many street vendors cooking anything that you could imagine – and all of it is cheap. We purchased these cute little dessert cupcakes and we received about 8 of them for around a dollar.

We drove on for another hour or so and arrived at a mall. The reason we stopped at the mall was because the food court is massive, it’s cheap, and there is a lot of variety. We each loaded 100 baht (roughly $3) onto a card – we both tried pad Thai, got drinks, and had ice cream. And we still got 30 baht back!

After lunch, we left to go to the Kings’ summer palace. The Bang Pa-In Palace was very cool, except it was extremely hot and humid. The sweat was pouring off of us. Lorraine and a few others rented a golf cart and she graciously loaned me her sun umbrella. I think I would have passed out from heat stroke if I didn’t have it.

This palace reminded me very much of some of the castles and palaces we visited last September in London and Edinburgh. The architecture had a mix of Asia and European influences scattered across the property. They had their own guard – I didn’t see the changing of the guard so I can’t say that it was similar to the castles in London. Very, very cool.

Yui took us through part of the property, but then we were allowed to explore the grounds on our own. There was a small memorial for one of the queens who had passed away when her ship had sank on the way to the palace. It was very sweet.

Then we headed to some of the ancient ruins of Wat Yai Chaimongkol – and this is when things got REALLY hot. Half of the group didn’t go on the full tour, but there was a small group of us that climbed this staircase to a temple. It was absolutely beautiful and had a great view of the rest of the property. Each of the sites that we visited did not truly give us a real perspective on how large this ancient city was. They were spread out and very vast. There were stupas sprinkled across the city.

Surprise, surprise – there was also another reclining Buddha! This one was not as large as the one that we saw in Bangkok, but still big. It’s said that if you make a wish and put a coin on its foot and it sticks, your wish will come true. I found the most secure looking spot on his foot and made a wish. It stuck!

After that, everyone split off. Andy was really hot and wanted to be in air conditioning- but I had seen a few things when I was quickly trying to catch up to the group so I went back to look at those. The Ubosatha Hall had another large golden Buddha, and there were quite a few people worshipping in this temple.

We went to one more temple after this – and I know what you’re thinking… Yes! We went to a lot of temples while we were in Thailand. Wat Mahathat this was one of the sites that I was most looking forward to. At this point, there were probably about 8 of us that decided that we would take the 45 minute tour across the grounds – and try to not die of heat exhaustion.

I was very grateful for a gift that I had received for Christmas, from my boss, Tasha – she had given me a fan that I will likely use for camping that you can wear around your neck and it can help “cool” you off. It was more like a hair dryer – just blowing out hot air. But it did at least move the air.

This area had been ransacked after the Burmese had taken the city. The Buddhas were all broken – there were two sections of broken parts that were near the entrance. Throughout the grounds you could see the galleries were the Buddhas used to be – and they were attempting to reconstruct them. (You can see in some of my other pictures the galleries where there are just rows and rows of Buddha statues, which can give you an idea of why there are so many broken parts).

One of the more famous scenes at this location is a tree that continued to grow – and wrapped up in its roots is a Buddha head – facing outward. It really is a beautiful, but sad sight. They estimate that this Buddha head was from the 1600s.

At a certain point out of desperation, I noticed that there were sprinklers on to water the grass. I attempted to get sprayed by these to try to cool off. I was only somewhat successful in this quest.

On the way out, I found a blue telephone booth. Similar to the red ones that you see in London!

When we booked this trip we didn’t say no to any of the optional tours – they were all reasonably priced. So we opted in to do a night tour of the city by tuk tuk.

We went to the sunset temple – we got there a little too early. (The sun was still pretty high). But it was beautiful. There were only 5 of us – including Yui.

After a few pictures Yui said the tuk tuk driver was willing to take us to another temple. (Yes, another one).

Wat Phu Khao Thong – was a monument dedicated to one of the things. We climbed to the top of the stairs – and it was a beautiful view. It really looked a little bit like heaven – the monument was white and the sky was a beautiful color. The king that the monument was dedicated to loved cock fighting. I’m not too keen on that idea, but I do love eating chicken. So I felt right at home at this temple – since I’m practically a pollo-tarian.

Our last temple was Wat Chaiwatthanatam – which is supposed to be the most beautiful when considering the architecture. I think we enjoyed this one the most because it was finally starting to cool off – and we had entered the golden hour. It was absolutely breathtaking, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

We hopped back in our tuk tuk and went to the night market. We picked up more sticky rice and then headed to the restaurant.

The waitress at the restaurant seemed to know Yui very well. She made sure we were well taken care of. We got to try a lot of traditional Thai food – but because I get weird about bones, legs, etc. I stuck to the soup, chicken dishes, and rice. I was still plenty full – and then they brought out the sticky rice for dessert along with fresh fruit. Yum!

We had a great night – and now tomorrow we are off to Pattaya.

Logistics:

Bang Pa-In Palace

Wat Yai Chaimongkol

Wat Mahathat

Sunset Temple (Wat Phra Ngarm)

Wat Phu Khao Thong

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Night market

Saithong River Restaurant

Tuk Tuk ride

Stayed at the Krungsi River Hotel

Tomorrow:

Drive to Pattaya

Gem Factory Store

Cabaret show – and seafood dinner