I rented a bike for the day. It was a perfect sunny day, warm but not too warm, low humidity and a slight breeze. The landscaping around the temples is gorgeous. The temples are surrounded by ponds and canals, gardens and rows of trees.
Where at Angkor I felt pressed to see as much as I could, here I could relax and spend a relaxing day riding at a leisurely pace.
You can't help but compare it to Angkor, so I will:
In Angkor the jungle is dense and claustrophobic at times. Not so at Ayuttayah. Angkor is absolutely mobbed with tourists. Not so at Ayuttayah. The stonework at Angkor is masterful, still holding up well after hundreds of years in the tropical climate.
This is Wat Sri Sanphet, one of the major temples at Ayuthayah, famous for its three giant bell-shaped chedis, which exhibit a Burmese influence, or so I'm told. The chedis are impressive but the walls around them, um, not so much...
Everywhere you see foundations sinking into the ground, chedis leaning over, walls twisting in crazy waves. It helps you understand why Angkor is perhaps Southeast Asia's biggest tourist attraction, while Ayuthayah is a place where people will spend a day, if they have the time. And it's not as if the city is a historical footnote. Ayuthayah was the center of the Thai kingdom from 1350 to 1767 and home to as many as a million people.
Outside this temple there's a market with food, souvenirs and beggars. I had to give this family style points.
There's an adorable little girl all gussied up in makeup and barrettes, sawing away on some sort of stringed instrument, with a collection bucket that says in English (and Thai) "FOR EDUCATION". How could I say no to that?
Her education funds certainly aren't going towards music lessons. I should have given her more money to stop. It sounded like someone tossing and turning on a busted boxspring.
Unemployed travel bums like me rent a bike for the day for 20 baht, about 60 cents. Other tourists hire more exotic forms of transportation.
There were dozen of elephants, all decked out in gold and red, each with an umbrella attached to the seat, or howdah. If the wind blows the umbrella away you get the elephant to pick it up. Must be nice to have a job...
Everyone who visits here has this photo.
It's the head of a Buddha statue held in place by tree roots. The whereabouts of the statue's body are unknown. When I first looked at it I was reminded of the sinister atmosphere of Ta Prohm, the temple at Angkor being torn apart by the roots of giant fig trees.
But then I realized this is a Bodhi tree, the type under which the Buddha sat and gained enlightenment. Where at first it looked like the tree was strangling the statue, it now seemed as if the roots were gently cradling the head. Funny how my perspective changed just by knowing the type of tree.
Sadly, there's a fence around the tree and guard to keep people from sitting or climbing on it or taking inappropriate photos. There are signs everywhere asking tourists to stay off the statues and monuments, often in vain. I can't recall seeing signs saying, "Oh, by the way, we'd appreciate it if you didn't sit in the Virgin's lap" or "Please don't climb on the altar and have your drunken idiot friend take a picture of you hugging Jesus on the cross."
Ayuthayah is on an island formed by the confluence of three rivers, so I took a boat tour around to visit temples on the opposite side of the river banks. At Wat Phanan Choeng I saw an enormous golden Buddha statue being renovated.
The courtyard at Wat Phuttaisawan has an inner wall with dozens of golden statues of the Buddha. (I didn't count them.)
The last temple we visited was Wat Chaiwatthanaramm, perhaps the most beautiful temple I've seen in Southeast Asia. It was built in the Khmer (Cambodian) style, probably to commemorate a victory in battle against them. The sun was just about to set, bathing the brick in a soft golden light, perfect for taking pictures.
Unless your camera battery dies. This is the only photo I have of it.
Posts
