Ayutthaya Hotels
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Ayutthaya ruins and temples
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Hello Everyone,
Our first day out we took a tuk tuk to see a Wat, which is the name for the Thai temples here. You can get watted out in Thailand, they are every where. After you have seen a few, it can get kind of monotonous, but so far we have been viewing ones that have very different aspects to them.
The first one we went to is called Wat Phanan Choeng. It has a massive golden Buddha that sits inside a temple. We were lucky enough to time our visit on the weekend when the monks perform a special ceremony. People come to the temple to pray and be blessed. There is a procession of people going in through the main doors of the temple. You proceed through many rituals as you make your way to the large Buddha. Candles are lit and placed in front of other religious figures, incense is burnt, and gold leaf is rubbed on smaller Buddhas. People also pick up lotus flowers to have a monk dip them in blessed water and then shake the water off on to their heads.
In the room with the large Buddha they pay a small amount of money to get a long gold colour piece of material. The floor fills up with people kneeling in front of the huge Buddha. You are never allowed to point your feet towards the Buddha when you kneel. The people are holding up a tray in front of them with the material folded up on it. They wait for a man in the front to come get their material. He throws it up high to where the monks are standing on the Buddhas lap. They take the lengths of fabric and tie them together several at a time and hoist them up over the Buddhas shoulder. Then the lengths of fabric are thrown out into the crowd. Everyone grabs at the fabric and pulls it over the people kneeling and towards the back to cover as many of them as possible. It is like being blessed by the Buddha. It was very neat to watch this happen over and over again. By the time we left the Buddha was draped with many lengths of fabric as new crowds took their place on the floor.
Next we went across the river on a small boat that took about 2 minutes and cost 8 baht. It makes it much quicker than taking a tuk tuk back over the bridges and through the city. We found a restaurant that was overlooking the river. Yet another ladyboy waiter served us. This place had very good food. It was interesting to sit and watch the different activity that occurs on the river. We could look down and see several types of fish in the water.
We then set out to do a cruise down the river in a long boat. It is a skinny boat very low to the water with a canopy over it. A older Thai gentlemen took us for a two hour trip around the Island of Ayutthaya and we also got to stop at two different Wats.
The first one was called Wat Phutthaisawan. This one had some sets of gold Buddhas in a temple. It had some ruins of Cheddi, which are tall spires made of brick. The brick used to be covered in plaster. It also had a large reclining Buddha draped in a gold cloth. We spent time walking around the ruins and taking pictures. Our boat captain patiently waited for us on the river side.
 
 
 
 
The next stop was called Wat Chaiwattanaram. This area of ruins had two large stone Buddhas draped in golden cloth. It had many Cheddi spires and remains of temples. We did have to pay a small fee to get into the first Wat. We walked around this one for a few minutes until a man in a police type uniform approached us. He said we had to pay to be at the ruins and asked if we came by boat. He produced some tickets and we paid him the small amount of money, about a dollar each. We are still not sure if we were supposed to have paid him or not. We have heard stories about men in fake uniforms making money by collecting fees from tourists. We weren't about to question the matter over $2. We wandered around the area until the sun started to set. This is always the nicest time to see any of the ruins as the lighting is beautiful and it is not quite as hot.
 
We continued on our boat ride around the river for about another hour. It was the nicest time we have spent in Thailand yet. It's so neat float down the river seeing people in front of their houses going about their daily activities. We passed many families cooling off in the water, kids playing, dogs swimming, and many men and boys fishing. On the banks of the river people were cooking their dinner, washing dishes and just relaxing and enjoying the sun setting.
 
 
We passed by another monitor lizard in the water. I'm glad it wasn't too near the boat, they freak me out, they just look like a huge water snake! We would come to intersections in the river where canals run into it. It is quite the system of transportation. It has a whole life of its own that goes on behind the scene of the city. Many people gave us friendly waves as we went passed them, especially the children. We did have one guy hold a middle finger up in both hands as he disappeared under the water, oh well, I guess not everyone likes tourists.
 
We went back to the wharf and decided to walk back to the hotel. We ended up getting a bit lost. We managed to see two younger girls inside a shop that could speak some english, but it just ended up being easier to do sign language between us. We showed them the the bus depot on the map which is near our hotel. They pointed down the street and I crossed my hands over to indicate an intersection. They nodded and held up 2 fingers to say to go through two intersections and then motioned to turn right. It is amazing how you can manage to communicate somewhat without words.
We spent another day seeing ruins of old temples. Some of the ones we saw were over 600 years old. The next one we visited was Wat Maha That. It had many Cheddi spires again, and lots of remains of the brick temples. It was all in a nice park like setting with many beautiful trees. There was a large stone Buddha again draped in gold cloth. This site also has a much photographed stone Buddha head. It is amongst the root system of an old tree. It looks like the tree has just grown around it.
 
 
We stayed at this site of ruins until sunset. The sun was setting in the sky as a huge orange ball. It got to a brilliant fiery colour and looked fake as if someone had placed a large round sticker in the sky.
Next stop, Chaing Mai.
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