Wat-ed out

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We spent a couple of days visiting the wats (temples) in Ayuthaya, which was the capital of Thailand before Bangkok and a major port and trading center in Southeast Asia. Most of the wats and palaces are in ruins due to the Siamese wars with Burma, particularly in the mid to late 1700s.

We rode bikes around the city to visit the various wats. It was hard to find some of them because many are only marked in Thai and our map was not very good. It's really hot and the sites are spread out pretty far, so we could only see a couple a day. We also took a boat trip, stopping at some of the wats that are farther away, and visited an interesting museum about the history of the area.

A couple of wats were very busy, because the pilgrims were out in full force for Chinese New Year. Everyone was wearing red shirts for good luck and the air was smoky with clouds of incense. There are many dog statues for sale at the food markets that always seem to spring up around temples.

Speaking of dogs, there are packs of stray dogs all over this city. Stray dogs are unfortunately a common sight in Thailand, and many of them look quite pitiful. The dog situation is even worse here because the dogs are aggressive about their territories. They run around in packs and are known to bark or sometimes bite if Thais or tourists wander into their territory. Fortunately, we had no problems with dogs during our visit.

We returned very briefly to Bangkok before we left for Cambodia. I had hoped to add photos from Ayuthaya to this entry, but since I was only able to upload one photo before the camera battery died, I will have to do it later.

We flew to Phnom Penh because Air Asia was so cheap and the land journey is long and painful, with corrupt border officials. Internet speed is slower in Cambodia, so I will most likely be able to add text-only updates while we are here. Cambodia is a very interesting country and we really like it, despite the not-so-great infrastructure, bad roads, and the strange smells of drying fish and raw sewage. The people here are so friendly and it is great to be eating baguettes again. I will save our impressions of Cambodia and stories of our experiences here for additional postings, but I hope everyone is well.

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Photos

Objects worshippers left at a wat
We had to brave two howling, barking dogs to visit this old temple.

Gold Buddha statue
This Buddha was chosen as the witness of the peace talks between the Siamese and Burmese kings in 1767. The Burmese king later captured this temple and used it to fire cannons at the palace. A cannon backfired and exploded, gravely wounding the king. He was taken back to Burma and died on the border.

Guardian lion
These decorations look very Chinese, which is unusual for these temples.

Don't look down!
Some of the stairs on these things are scary! They have no hand rails and can be slippery. Fortunately, suing is not a national pasttime in Thailand, unlike the US.

Stevan ringing the gong for the New Year
It is considered good luck to ring the gong 3 times.

Comments

[rob and sara]

have enjoyed the website and journals of your travels. be safe and have fun!!