Astonishing Ayutthaya

I wished to go to Ayutthaya as part of my goal to visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  A friend of mine was kind enough to come and explore the place with me. I almost gave up the idea of seeing the place because of time and transportation constraints. Fortunately, we were able to set foot and enjoy what Ayutthaya has to offer.

We arrived by van to Ayutthaya from Bangkok. There were a lot of vans bound to Ayutthaya at Bangkok's Victory Monument. It was an hour drive and we had to pay 90 THB.

The view at Victory Monument Station, Bangkok

Arriving at Ayutthaya, we then sought out the help of tuktuks to take us to our hotel. We rented a room in Baan One Love Guesthouse. Renting a room allowed us to leave our things, freshen up and rest a bit before exploring. We also arranged for the hotel to get us a tuktuk to drive us to the temples. The price for the tuktuk to take us around was 200THB per hour. Quite expensive but this is the usual rate.

While waiting for our driver, we found this mobile stall with dried fruits being sold on it. I didn't catch the names of the fruits but the lady was kind enough to let me taste some.

When our tuktuk arrived, we asked him to take us to St Joseph Church first before heading off to the temples. As I standby what has been taught to me to put God first in everything that I do, I believe this is just the right thing. 

Taking a wefie while on board the tuktuk we rented.

St Joseph Church is a Catholic Church in Ayutthaya built in 1666 at the request of Vietnamese missionaries. It was originally built with bricks and mortar in European style between 1685 and 1995. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during Burmese attacks and so restoration was completed in 1847. The church has then been a place of continuous Catholic worship in Thailand for over 300 years.

We were lucky to get in and pray. This is what the inside looks like.

We then headed to explore some temples. The ancient city of Ayutthaya, formally designated Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya was the the Thai capital city for 417 years and is one of Thailand's major tourist attraction. 

First temple we went to was Wat Chaiwatthanaram as it was close to the Church we visited earlier. This is one of Ayutthaya's best known temples and a major tourist attraction. The temple's name literally means the Temple of Long Reign and Glorious Era.

After the total destruction of the old capital by the Burmese army in 1767, this temple wasn't spared and was deserted. Theft, sale of bricks and and beheading of Buddha statues were common. In 1987, the Thai Department of Fine Arts started its restoration and opened it to the public in 1992.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram was a royal temple where the king and his successors performed religious ceremonies. Also, princes and princesses were cremated here. 

We spent a long time in this temple as it was quite big. It was a mesmerizing and beautiful sight. Although I have already been to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, seeing a temple like this still makes my heart skip a beat. By the way, entrance fee for this temple is 50THB.

Our next stop is Wat Phra Ram. This monastery was situated outside the grand palace compound to the southeast. It was constructed by the royal command of King Rame - suan. Admission to this temple is still 50THB.

This is where we saw a lot of elephants being ridden by tourists. My friend would have loved to ride one but then I didn't want to ride an elephant again. We settled by just seeing them on the streets. We even joked about being careful of being run over by elephants and not by vehicles. I was lucky to have a photo of an elephant who still has his tusk.

A few steps away was Wat Phra Si Sanphet. In Thai this means Temple of the Holy, Splendid Omniscient and was the holiest temple in the Royal Palace in Ayutthaya until the city was destroyed. 

The three large chedis were made to contain ashes of Kings. The styles of these chedis are considered typical of the Ayutthaya style and several replicas of them have been built in Bangkok. Currently, this temple is regarded as the symbol of Ayutthaya province.

Outside the temple was a small market where snacks, drinks and souvenirs were being sold. We found these children selling toy grasshoppers made from plant's leaves. Interesting and unique idea for these kids to have extra money.

We also found this small temple at the South of Wat Phra Si Sanphet. It is where one of the biggest bronze Buddha images in Thailand is. 

Our last but definitely not the least temple visited was..

This temple which means The Monastery of the Great Relic is located on the city island in the central part of Ayutthaya. The structure has been registered as a national historic site by the Fine Arts Department on 8 March 1935 and is part of the Ayutthaya World Heritage Historical Park. Entrance fee for this temple is 50THB.

Apart from being the symbolic center where the Buddha's relics were enshrined, this temple was also the residence of the leader of the Thai Buddhist monks. It is believed to be built during 14th century A.D.

This is the foundation of the main prang which remains until today. It collapsed during the Ayutthaya period, was restored and collapsed again in 1911. It can be judged from the size of the base that the prang was quite high. The main prang was the most important edifice in the temple compound.

This temple offers the much photographed Buddha head embedded into a tree trunk.

After spending time looking around at the remnants of this temple, we headed to the street market which is located right across. Most of the stalls were still setting up but we managed to buy fruits and look at their products.

We had a hectic afternoon in Ayutthaya. If only we had a lot of time we would've went to other temples and explored more of the place. As we were tired, we went back to our hotel to prepare ourselves and our things for our next adventure - our sleeper train ride to Chiang Mai. I'm excited to tell you all about it as it was my first time to ride a sleeper train. 

Thank you for reading and 'til my next blog!

One Day Tour at Angkor Wat - part 1

I've always wanted to visit UNESCO world heritage sites. One of them is Angkor Wat, the number one attraction of Cambodia. I can still remember my teacher in Civics and Culture mentioning this to us in class. I never bothered to dream about travel at that time but now travel is my addiction.

Going back to the temples, we showed the guards our entrance IDs again. This time we went with our tour guide, Mr Chenla (sorry, forgot to get the correct spelling of his name). Our hotel was also kind enough to provide us a dozen of bottled water placed in an ice bucket to combat the heat and thirst while going through the temples.

King Suryavarman ordered Angkor Wat's construction in the 12th century to serve as his official temple and royal capital city.This is the straight path towards the towers. But this view only provides at least 3 towers. We were asked to go towards the left side for a different view.

This side from the pond enabled us to see the 5 towers. Our guide suggested this pose which we gamely did. It came out nice. :)

Going towards the entrance of the first building into Angkor Wat was a stone balustrade of a seven headed serpent or "naga". In the Sanskrit, this represents power, water and fertility in many Hindu texts. The Khmers adopted this Hindu Indian myth.

A lot of beautiful carvings were on the walls of the Central Angkor Thom. These were about the stories of their gods such as Vishnu conquering the demons, Churning of the Ocean of Milk and Battles of the Gods and the Demons. Observe that the stones are now shiny because in the past tourists were allowed to touch them. Now, a rope or a wooden barricade is placed to distance the tourists from the walls. 

We were led towards the left (or maybe the north) side of the complex. It was something like a corridor where we saw a groom and bride having their photo shoot. Not to be outdone, we had ours too.

We were led by the guide a bit further outside the gate and asked us to have a jump shot. Another cute idea from him!

There were guards who regulated the entrance to the towers. They did not allow tourists who were wearing shorts, sleeveless tops or mini dresses that didn't reach the knees. I was allowed to come up because I've put on my jacket. I roamed the second floor of the complex. The stairs were very steep. 

Up close with the center tower.

We came back down and was led to a great hall so massive we appeared very small.

Heading out of Angkor, we passed by the South Gate of the Angkor Thom. It is a challenge to wait for the area to be empty of people. I was lucky to have this shot of Wincee.

From here some tourists would opt to ride an elephant towards the Bayon temple.

The Bayon

Next, we headed out to Bayon temple. This is the central temple of the ancient city of Angkor. This was built around 1190 AD as a Buddhist temple but with Hindu elements. 

Bayon is famously known for the huge stone face of Avalokiteshvara. Here is also where tourists are able to have a nose to nose photo of the stone face.

There is an estimated 216 count of the face of the bodhisattva of compassion on the temple.

The temple had a lot of passageways and rooms in it. The place is as crowded as Angkor. We had to get a good timing to take photos without photobombers. This time Wincee took a  photo of me and in a split second after this was taken, people were coming in from different directions.

Some tourists opted to have their photos taken with Apsara costumed women. This had a fee of course.

Baphuon

Just a short walk from Bayon is another temple often times overlooked by tourists. The Baphuon temple was built in the mid 11th century and is a three tiered temple mountain dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.

Unlike the temples we have visited earlier, Baphuon almost feels like it's a temple all to ourselves.

We had to climb steep stairs again to reach the top. There were no guards this time to regulate the dresses of tourists.

This is where Wincee was able to literally have a "Temple Run" kind of photo.

Me, sitting like a boss. Enjoying my view from the top.

This is the west wall of Baphuon. I really thought there was something about the bricks that at first glance was only piled up. From my readings, I found out that this was actually constructed as the face of a reclining buddha in an abstract form. 

This concludes the first half of our tour. We were dropped off at a nearby restaurant to eat lunch and rest a bit before starting the second part.

Thank you for your time and 'til next blog! :)