Ayutthaya - Temples and Thai Disco

---

I spent a good few days in Ayutthaya which, for a Thai city, is a fairly peaceful place. Between 1351 and 1767, Ayutthaya was the capital of the country, before the powers that were upped house and shifted south to Bangkok. During its time as capital, the city suffered under near constant attacks from the Burmese, who almost blew the city off the face of the planet, and eventually took control of the region for twenty years.

What remains, after having been reduced to a fraction of the splendor that once was and left to the ravages of the jungle for many years, is an area covered with numerous large ruined temples and palaces. I spent one day on a bicycle, exploring some of the closer temples; Wat Phra Mahathat (famous for its Buddha head round which the roots of a tree have grown over hundreds of years) and Wat Ratburana (where you can climb down into a small crypt, long robbed of its treasures). The Royal Palace, with its three huge chedis (tower-dome structures), was particularly impressive.

The next day I went to small water park with some people I met at the guest house. It only had one working water slide, but it was surprisingly pacey. We then took a tuk-tuk, complete with the two young children of the driver, around some of the outlying temples, including Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, a huge structure surrounded by hundreds of yellow-robed Buddhas. Inside the centre of the temple, hundreds of bats slept out the daylight hours. Outside the living quarters next to the temple, one monk quietly tinkered with his car engine.

It was nice to see life going on in and around these ancient monuments. In one temple, nuns cleared up after some kind of small ceremony. Dogs slept beneath Buddha's feet and cows kept the the temple grounds well trimmed. The nuns swept and tidied beneath the sky as the roof of the temple had long gone. There is a peaceful sense of timelessness about these places; everything is on a slant and slowly falling apart. Due to the massive number of ruins around here, I have occasionally found myself all alone in a building which has been around for over 600 years. It's a nice feeling.

I was provided with a stark contrast to this when I was lucky enough to spend an evening with a Thai family who live in nearby Wang Noi. I met them, a girl, her brother and her aunt, at one of the temples. They took me to a Thai shopping mall, which was a surreal experience in itself. After that I saw their home, behind a small hair salon, where they treated me to a Thai meal (I won't say it all agreed with me, but it was interesting none-the-less). After that, along with a few friends of theirs, we went to the local disco. As was the case since leaving Ayutthaya, I was the only white guy there. The music was a curious mix of dance, cheesy Thai pop-ballads and punk. Bands were broken up by an annoying DJ and dancers, one of which was pointed out to me as a ladyboy! I honestly would not have noticed if someone had not brought the fact to my attention.

After that, we retired to a small cafe, since Thai people have trouble going 2 hours without consuming food of some kind, and I got back to my guest house room around 4am, tired and surprised at the action backed day that lay behind me.

---

Photos

Little scamps
The kids of the tuk-tuk driver who took us around some temples

Wat Yai Chai Mongkol
You can never have too many...

Comments

[Sue Andy]

Bad neck
Nice blog mate, but could you rotate your photos please I'm getting a bad neck. Cheers