The ruins of Ayutthaya - Part 2, I Got Pooped On

So we move on to the next destination in the tut-tut (pictured above). The second place we visited was Wat Na Phra Men. Here was the first large image of the Buddha I would see. I would see many more today, and many many more throughout Thailand.

Outside the Whan are several markets and a chance to walk along the river. There was a chance to ring the bells, I have no idea what they are actually fore and what they are supposed to bring. Nore how to do it, how hard or how many times, but it was fun!There were some more buildings here, but these were of Chinese origin. Considering how much of a tourist city this had become, there were no English information signs about these beautiful buildings.

From here we moved on to the Grand Palace, also known as the Ancient Palace, the residence for every king of Ayutthaya. The grounds are a maze of various buildings, markets, wats and whans. We wondered through a maze of a market, at times there was no way of knowing where you were, it was completely covered in large cloths and totally hidden from entrences, exits and any readable maps. After finally making it out alive we found ourselves at Whan Phra Mongkhon Bophit. Phra Mongkhon Bophit is a large, bronze cast image of the Buddha and was originally located outside the grand palace. Sadly after it was moved by King Songtham and covered with a Mondop it was badly damaged in a fire during the second fall of Ayutthaya. Below is a picture of the reconstruction.

We then moved on to the ruins, encircled by 'the wall'. In here there are a whole host of wats and whans and I must confess, looking around I didn't pay attention to which were which. The area was very large and we didn't have much time to take it all in. I love looking at ancient ruins, and I just wanted to get some good pictures. Below is one of those pictures.

From there we moved on, but not very far. Just to the front of the palace but still by tut-tut. Here were visited a small temple called Wat Maha That. It holds one of the most famous images from Ayutthaya, the one that is being engulfed by a fig tree. It's understandable why the image below is the most photographed in the city. This whole area is one of the few places that wasn't destroyed by the 2nd Burmese invasion and so one of the least disturbed sites. It was probably one of my favourites, it was the oldest of the 'still standing' ruins. The reason for this is, according to legend, is that during the last attack on the city a Burmese cannon miss fired and killed their own king. This was not forgotten during the the second attack and was left in peace.

Now onto the final place that I cared about. Wat Phutthaisawan. Despite what happened, this was my favourite place. The grounds surrounded it were beautiful and it's multiple layered base was great to climb. And you really had to climb. This is Thailand, there is no such thing as health and safety. There are no safe steps or anything built up to make it easy to get up. It took a few times around before we found the way up. You could climb right to the top, and inside there is a place to climb through that used to be a tomb, filled with valuable objects. These objects are now all in the museums and it is empty, but it is still fun to climb through.

Then it happened. A bird crapped on me. It went all down the back of my neck and my bad. Dammit. This ruined my day. Using tissues, cleaned myself up as best as I could. There was no bathroom here, but we were moving onto one final place and there was a bathroom there.

This final place was a giant lying Buddha. I didn't get to see it, I was just interesting in washing myself up. We had another hour left, and we cracked a deal where we would go back to the hotel for fifteen minutes so I could shower and change and then move on to the final destination. We did that, and after a shower and a change of cloths I was in a much better mood. The very final place was a very expensive massage place. We were hoping to Kanchanaburi prices, 100-200 baht for an hour. Here it was 500-700 baht an hour. I had the foot massage, the cheapest option. This is where my addiction began.

In the next post I will talk about the end of the day and the final day in Ayutthaya. Depending on the length I may even get into the celebrations for the kings birthday at the school.

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