In a far off land...

Today we took a day trip to Ayuthaya, an "inland island" surrounded by three rivers, that is about an hour and a half by car north of Bangkok. The city is considered as somewhat of a "Venice of the East" as there are many canals and at one time prospered as a sea trade city state. It has quite a few historic temple ruins and a pretty rich history. In the late 1700s, the Burmese invaded and, after a few years of warfare, the city was taken over. This is why these palaces are now left in ruins, the buddhas that surround then are decapitated, and the once gold coated buildings were set afire, gold melted down, and taken to Burma. Our tour guide, First (yes, that is his name), told us that the Buddhist way is to forgive and forget - and that is the attitude most Thai people have taken towards the Burmese and their vicious attack over two hundred years ago. First, however, cannot forget because if he forgets, he will lose his job!
I suppose now is a good time to talk about First. First is a very good-looking Thai gentleman who continuously references how good looking he is. From telling us that he was hired for his good looks to hitting on all the girls on the trip. He wore a yellow shirt because, in Thailand yellow is Monday's color, pink Tuesday's (I think blanked out for a second because Mean Girls taught me that "on Wednesday's we wear pink" and I needed to think through how the Thai people got it so wrong), blue is Friday's color (which makes sense - even in the states many workplaces adopt blue jeans Friday...) and then I was too distracted until he got to Sunday - red. What I most appreciated about First, and the tour, was that he was able to explain Thai history and cultural ways using Western historical and pop cultural references. For example - he told us at our first stop, the Bang Pa In Palace (bureau of the royal household), a palace that looked so east meets west about King Rama who had it built. This is the king that we all know as the king Anna goes to teach English in The King and I. He was the first king to learn English and was very influenced by western architecture. He also threw in fun some fun referencing Shania Twain and James Bond at various points throughout the tour. He was great fun, and like many tour guides, crack jokes a la "the jungle cruise" throughout.



First, as we depart Bangkok.



Me rubbing the ball carved from inside the lions mouth. It's good luck.



One example of east meets west at Bang Pa In.



Alex and I wearing the flowers First gave us. According to him, the most important question a Thai man asks a Thai woman is "do you have a boyfriend". If the answer is yes, the woman is to put the flower in her left ear. If the answer is no, the woman is to put it in her right.



Herd of elephant tree bushes. These were located all over the grounds.



Wat Maya That - a temple from Ayuthaya's most prosperous time. It was constructed with Cambodian influence.



Me posing with one of the only original Buddha heads still at Wat Maya That (or it may be called Wat Phra Mahathat (we are a tad bit confused). It was hidden and then the tree started growing around it and lifting it up. Every five years it rises two centimeters. You have to take pictures lower than the level of the head - otherwise you show disrespect.



Alex and I in front of the three tombs at Wat Phrasisanpeth-I. Each of the tree "stupas" was built to house one of three successive kings of the 14 & 1500's. It used to rival the grand palace and was covered in gold but the Burmese attacks left it much more barren.



We opted out but there was an elephant park and you could go for a ride!

We finished the tour with lunch on a boat that returned us to Bangkok. We didn't take many pictures but it was an enjoyable way to see mirror the country as we passed the beautiful, the digesting, and the weird. It was fascinating how many nationalities were represented on the boat. We were definitely the only Americans on board, how often does that happen?

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