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Published: October 3rd 2007
After arriving to Bangkok from Phuket, the next two days was all about lounging and vegging out. Suffering from jet lag, not enough rest, and too much sun in Phuket all I wanted to do was sleep and thats what I did.
On the 3rd day I booked an all day tour to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. We rode a tour bus to the city and caught a boat back down the Chao Phraya river, well worth the 1500 bahts.
The ruins of the city was beautiful. Even after been burnt and ransacked by the Burmese, you can visualize how great and might this capital was back in its glory days. The only thing that I didn't like about the city was the many headless Buddha statues that you encountered walking through the capital. Its a shame that thieves have looted great national treasures and sold them on the black markets. This is a very sacrilegious crime especially when most of the thieves are Buddhist and Thai themselves.
A famous icon of Ayutthaya is the head of a Buddha that has infused into the aerial roots of a banyan tree at Wat Mahathat. The tour guy, a local told
Bang Pa-In Palace
Floating shrine of King Rama 9us that about 20 yrs plus, a thieve had cut off the head of a Buddha statue and hid it underneath the banyan tree. For some unknown reasons either he was too scared to retrieve it, was caught or was killed, the head was left there. And over the years the roots pushed the head upward and became part of the tree. This icon is very important to Thai people, it is a great sign from the gods or Buddha.
Hope you enjoy the pictures even don't it does not do justice to how awesome this place is.
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Tony
non-member comment
Awesome
I wish i could be there too, keep having fun.