Ayuthaya, Thailand

Saturday I went on an Embassy sponsored trip to Ayuthaya (the "th" do not make a "th" sound like in english...just a "t" sound). My friend who works for the embassy signed us up. We met at the embassy at 7:30 and rode a bus the 90 minutes to get there. Our first stop was Bang Pa-In Palace. Ayuthaya was anciently the capitol of Thailand. A palace was constructed in Bang Pa-In during those days but after the fall of Ayuthaya it was left to be overgrown and in disrepair. The palace was revived in the 1800's and is quite lovely!

The next stop was Wat Mahathat home of the Buddha head embedded in twisted tree roots. This Khmer style temple built in the 14th century was burned down by the Burmese during an invasion. The ruins themselves are impressive!

The final stop was Wat Phrasisanpeth. I'm afraid I don't know much about this Wat other than it was built in the 1400s and also burned by the Burmese since as I wandered to the entrance I was bombared by school children with the assignment to practice their English. They each had a paper for me to write my name and my email address and a lot of other questions I just couldn't get to! They practiced their English and were patient while I practiced speaking Thai. After signing about 20 papers and getting multiple photos taken and shaking each students hand at least once I was finally able to slip away, into the walls of the Wat, only to be snached up by university students of tourism doing a survey. So, I didn't see much of this ruined Wat but got a few photos.

After this stop we got back on the tour bus and headed to the pier where we were picked up by a small cruise boat that had lunch waiting for us. I enjoyed an international buffet as we cruised the 2.5 hours back to Bangkok. It was a lovely day except that sometime before lunch my friend got food poisoned. YUCK! Hard to tell what it was since the only thing we had eaten before lunch was fried bananas and fruit, which we shared and neither effected me. strange. So I had to drive us back in her car to her apartment. Driving the streets of Bangkok on the left side of the road was nerve-racking! We made it with minimal damage to her car (I took a turn to sharp and met up with the curb...oops).

As soon as I can figure out where my photos are I'll post them! :-)