The next item on our list of things to accomplish while we are in Bangkok is a day trip out to Ayutthaya to see the ruins of the previous capital from the 13th and 14th centuries.  We have done this day trip before, so to change things up a little we will be taking part of the trip on a boat along the Chao Phraya river.

Our trip starts at 6:30am with a pick-up from our hotel, and they will take us to a central collection point where we will transfer to a air-conditioned bus for the outward part of the trip.  We are still adjusting to the time difference a bit so the good news is that we are awake at about 4:30am without the aid of an alarm, of course the bad news is that we are likely in for a looong day.

The bus makes it’s way through the city and we can see the inbound rush-hour traffic.  The tour guide informs us that the rush hour goes from about 6am to 9am and if you are unable to make your commute either before or after the rush, it can add as much as 2 hours to your trip!

Our first stop is at the summer palace at Bang Pa-In.  Built and expanded by previous monarchs of Thailand the summer palace is now only occasionally used for special occasions and ceremonies, but it is open daily for tourists. The grounds are immaculately maintained and the buildings are inspired by various other cultures – Chinese, Italian Renaissance, Colonial, etc.

Having been here before we know most of the narrative and so we separate ourselves from the tour group to wander about on our own, and take in the peacefulness of the area while avoiding the large tour groups – with good timing we are able feel like we mostly have the place to ourselves.

From there it is off to the city of Ayutthaya to see some of the ruins from centuries past.  The area has dozens of sites and temples that co-exist within the city that has grown around them and there is a stark contrast between the new and the old, often right across the street from each other.  We only have time to see three of the sites, and as luck would have it there is only one spot that overlaps with out last trip here, so it is nice to be able to take in the tour without it feeling like just going back for a repeat.

Our first stop is at Wat Mahathat, a collection of temple runis that dates back to around 1374.  In 1767 the capital was sacked by the Burmese and upon gaining victory they defaced the local Buddha statues by removing their heads – sort of a 13th century ‘in your face!’  One of the Buddha heads was left by a tree and in the centuries that followed the roots of the tree have grown around the head and it is now one of the distinct features of this site (and why it is a stop on almost every tour of the area).

Next up is Wat Na Phra Mane.  During the final conflict with the Burmese the city of Ayutthaya was one of the last hold-out and was finally taken by siege.  The city was surrounded by Burmese forces and finally after about 18 months of being shut off from supplies and under attack the city was taken.  The temple at Wat Na Phra Mane is a very solidly constructed building and it was from here that the Burmese forces headquartered their siege of the city.  In addition to it’s military significance, the large temple building houses an elaborate Buddha statue and shrine, and the monastery on the grounds houses a Buddha figure carved from stone that is estimated to be over 1000 years old.

Our final temple stop is at Wat Lokayasutharam to see a reclining Buddha statue. The statue is quite large and impressive – similar in size to the one at Wat Pho in Bangkok we saw the day before, but this one is outside on a plain along with some other temple ruins.  Of particular interest to me is to see the statue directly and compare it to the photos I had seen of the same statue during the massive floods of central Thailand in 2011.  There was about 2 meters (about 6-7 feet) of water in this area and it was over a month before all the flood water receded.

After the last stop it is back on the bus where we are driven back towards Bangkok to a pier on the Chao Phraya river for the final leg of our journey.  For the rest of our trip we load onto a large boat for a late buffet lunch and a 2 hour trip down the river back to the heart of Bangkok where we started the day.

The trip along the river is a nice change, and after a big lunch we secure some chairs out on the back deck and watch the sites along the banks of the river.

Overall it has been a long day, but a good bit of sightseeing and we are all once again fairly beat.  It is still too early to turn in though so after a bit of freshening up we head out for a massage (’cause we can) and then a bit of wandering around for some street snacks (banana pancake, woot!) before calling it a night.

For our 2nd day in Bangkok we decided to take a day trip out to see some one of the many historic sites. We wanted to go out to Ayutthaya to see the ruins there, so between our trip to the Palace and our river tour yesterday we stopped at a Tourism Authority to see what our options were.  There were several pre-packaged options, but after haggling the price a bit and evaluating the options we decided to hire a private van and driver for the day.   For 2000 Baht (about $60 US) we got an air-conditioned van and english speaking driver and could go anywhere we wanted as long as we were back by 6pm.

Our driver picked us up at 8:30 and we headed out for Ayutthaya.  The drive from Bangkok is about 1.5 hours and we settled in for our trip.  Bangkok seemed to spread out for about the first half of the trip, but once we cleared the city the smog started to thin and it was a beautifully clear day.  You don’t really realize how dirty the air is in the city until you leave and have some point of comparison, but Bangkok seemed to be fully engulfed by a reddish-brown haze as we looked behind us.

Summer Palace Bang Pa-in

Our first stop was about 1 hour outside of the city at one of the many summer palaces – this one in Bang Pa-in.  Construction at the Summer Palace was started in 1872 by King Rama V and is about 20 acres of manicured grounds, water features, residences and ceremonial buildings.  The Palace is used by the current royal family only for special occasions, so is open to tourists and visitors most of the time.

While the weather the day before seemed hot, it was only an introduction to real heat – without the protective smog layer and clear skies it felt like we were having a brief tour of the sun.  Luckily for Laurie the guards at the gate loaned her a special shirt to cover her shoulders, with the added side benefit of being able to soak up an extra gallon or so of sweat.

The Palace grounds however were so inspiring that there were times when we forgot the heat and just soaked up the beauty and tranquility of the place.  After seeing both the palace in Bangkok and the palace here we came to two conclusions: 1) it is definitely good to be the king, 2) with the palace at Bang Pa-in why would you ever want to go back to the palace in Bangkok.

Ayutthaya

Next it was off to Ayutthaya.  There are more than a dozen different temples and ruins throughout the area, and the modern city has grown up in and around the historic sites.  We clearly don’t have time to see them all (and likely not the perseverance as the small people are getting a little temple weary) but our driver takes us to the highlights.  We end up seeing 3 of the more famous spots, including the temple of the Reclining Buddha, the ‘Face Buddha’, and the ruins of the old palace.

We did stop briefly for lunch, where we had a great meal on a floating barge on the river, and then also at a little ‘safari park’ as the one thing Jackie wanted to do on here birthday was ride an elephant.  So the kids took a short ride on the elephants while I stayed back to take some photos of Mrs. Columbus (the Great Adventurer) taming a fierce jungle cat!!

The temple of the Reclining Buddha is a regular stop on many tours because the image of the Buddha in a reclining position is not very common – from what I can gather there are only a handful in all of Thailand, and coupled with the fact that the main temple here is almost completely intact, it brings a lot of people to worship as well as tourists to see the grounds.

The ‘Face Buddha’ is at the Ayutthaya heritage park, and is part of the original temple / palace complexes here that were built in the late 1300s.  The entire complex was damaged during one of the may conflicts with the neighboring regions, and the city was mostly leveled in 1767 by the Burmese army.  As part of the temple razing, the Burmese Army defaced the Buddha images, mostly by removing the Buddha’s head as sort of an Asian ‘in your face’.   At this set of ruins, one of the Buddha head statues was engulfed by the roots of a tree and has grown ‘into’ the tree over the 100s of years that it sat there.

It was a bit daunting to walk through the grounds and realize that 500+ years ago people were building these great monuments and we were able to still see today some of their efforts.  In looking at many of the ruins it seems that time will not be on their side, and even though there are ongoing restoration efforts being taken on all of these sites, the sheer forces of nature are slowly wearing things down.  I am glad we took the time to come and see it while we can, as I’m sure that it was different 10 years ago, and will be changed again 10 years from now.

After a long hot day of touring all of these sites we re-hydrated ourselves with what seemed like gallons of water and climbed back into our air-conditioned van for the trip back to Bangkok. We got in an hour or so at the hotel pool (very refreshing) and then out for dinner and into bed.  While out for dinner we encountered our first round of rainy-season weather – while searching for a place to eat, the skies literally opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted for about an hour or so before clearing off.  We did get caught in the front part of the storm while dashing for a restaurant, but even though we did not have to go far, we were well soaked by the time we got about 2 blocks – it is a good thing the rain here is warm.