Ayuthaya / Sukhothai

---

Hey everybody,

Here's the eagerly awaited Ayuthaya (Pronounced: Are ya tired?) and Sukhothai entry. Once again Lonely Planet has woefully dropped the ball. Contrary to popular belief, the Ayuthaya temples are way cooler than the Sukhothai temples. Don't believe me? It's true!

We stayed with a Thai reincarnation of my grandmother in Ayuthaya. And, just like staying with my grandmother, it was fun in a small dose. Our first day in Ayuthaya was spent on her front porch doing absolutely nothing. A little reading, a little toast-eating, etc. She practically had a heart-attack. She was apparently under the impression that we were leaving in the morning and missing all that fabulous Ayuthaya has to offer. Once these fears were allayed she calmed down a little bit, but of course kept the fresh fruit chopped up in bite-sized pieces flowing. You guys would love her. Stay at the Baan Lotus if you're ever in the area.

The temples in the area are in just the right state of ruins. You can tell what everything was and it's beautiful, but things haven't degenerated so far that you're staring at piles of bricks. The temples were still in pseudo to full operation. The older and more decrepit the buddha, the more honored. In regards to old Buddha. I now understand why the other major religions (you know who you are) have varying levels of prohibition on depicting sacred peeps. The buddhists lack this taboo and have gone waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overboard on the depiction of buddha. Sitting, standing, reclining, dancing, directing traffic, Buddha is busy. I have to say that having ten thousand buddhas attending the 100 big buddhas does take away from the one really really BIG buddha. Enough. Buddha's cool. He be chillin'.

Sukhothai: not as cool, but quieter and more deserted. The whole Sukhothai temple complex is centrally located on the outskirts of the greater metropolitan Sukhothai area. It's in a "walled" (the wall's not in such good shape anymore) area and all very compact which is nice. Ayuthaya was quite a bit more spread out. Both places require bicycles. The bicycle riding is the most fun part to me. Fi kept wanting to get off the bikes and look at stuff. I figured if you can't see it from the back of the bike it's not worth seeing. Anyway. The Sukhothai stuff is cool. Worth a stop. And the raging stay-in-Phitsanulok-or-Sukhothai debate is now definitively settled. You heard it here first. Stay in Sukhothai. It's a nice little town.

I'm doing these two towns as one entry because if you can pick out which pictures come from which place, you get a cookie. This is Gabe signing off. To the photos!!!

---

Photos

Temple 47f
Look Ma no tripod! Sorry it's a little blurry. I still think it looks cool.

Buddha
Modern Temple styley

So Much Buddha
So little time.

Comments

[Bea]

I love buddha! and butts...and fi's butt...beautiful city. and i can tell the difference so where is my cookie?