Day 4 of the holiday and day 1 in Bangkok. A chartered tour van is supposed to pick us up at 08:00 hours.
I went to breakfast with Pa and Ma. The elder has a stomach discomfort. We found a little shop and walked into it to find them only selling healthy grain shakes. We gave it a try, and liked it fine. It made me feel sleepy though.
The van was not waiting for us at the train station exit as agreed. Instead, they had changed the meeting point last minute to the hotel. Our tour guide, Pam, made us girls change into more appropriate clothing (we were in singlets and shorts). The driver was introduced as someone sounding like Panya. And at approximately 09:00 we embarked on a one-hour journey to the city of Ayutthaya.
15:44 hours. The tour for the day has finished and we are on the van, heading back to the hotel. We've visited a few spots since the morning. The tour started at the Summer Palace, Bang Pa-In, in the morning. The Palace consists of various establishments within, connected by walkways and waterways. There is the first ever Thai-style pavilion, from which the other famous Thai architechtures copied from (according to the guide). Also there was a Chinese style mansion in there, which was supposed to be a gift to the Thai King from the local Chinese leader. The most amusing of all was the Western-style living quarters of the royal family. It was said that the previous green wooden living quarters was burnt to the grounds in history, and was rebuilt in cement afterwards as we saw it today.
The gardens were pretty, with the Chaopraya River flowing through the Palace. The gardener was very clever and there were various bushes being sculptured into animal figurines.
We then visited the large sitting Buddha at Wat Ayutthaya Choeng, which maintenance were taken cared by the Chinese community. The sitting Buddha in this temple is known to be the largest ancient Buddha statue in Thailand.
After the brief visit, we went to lunch. It was a little sad that the guide didn't bring us to a local eatery, instead she booked us a buffet lunch at one of the hotels near Ayutthaya. For 220THB, the lunch, which featured various cuisines, including Thai, Italian, and Japanese, was alright. I tried as much food as my stomach could hold. The tom yam was not as spicy as those that were served back home, while the green curry was just fine.
After lunch, we went on a tour of the Ayutthaya island/city. First stop, Wat Maha That, where we saw the sandstone Buddha head embedded in roots of the bodhi tree. The Wat itself was almost fully destroyed. There were hardly any stupas or prangs conserved in good condition. It was saddening to see the thousands of Buddha statues being cut in pieces. But it was a little uplifting when I discovered an intact large Buddha statue at the far end of the Wat. It was rather ironic, that the Buddha statue had a smiling face, seeing that it was surrounded by hundreds (maybe thousands) of destroyed Buddha statues.
We then visited Wat Phra Si Sanphet, where one Thai King dedicated three great stupas for his father, and his two brothers. This Wat was previously situated in front of the royal palace. The palace was destroyed in the war but the Wat was hardly touched. There were many other stupas build around the three great stupas, containing the ashes
of other royal family members.
The last stop of the day was Wat Chai Whattam, a well preserved temple off the island. The Wat was safe from the destruction of war, but was slightly damaged by a flood. At this temple, we were allowed to climb up the perfectly preserved prang. I was the only one who did go up the east side of the prang. There was a Buddha statue in it, and the view was magnificent.
We arrived at the hotel past 17:00 because of a great jam in the city of Bangkok. After a brief wash, we went to dinner at a local shop near the Patpong night market. We ordered grilled chicken, papaya salad, fried vemicilli, Thai pork sausages, and spicy pork ribs soup for dinner. Except for the chicken, the food was not what we usually eat. But it was nice. I was so hungry I hadn't photo of any food tonight.
We took a walk around the market after dinner, but did not buy anything. We did, however, witnessed the Thai prostitutes going after business.
Back at the hotel, after shower and much logging, it's 23:15 hours, and high time for bed!
