Aye, Aye Ayuthuya

Chicago, Princeton, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Southampton and a taste of DC are all well and good, but now it’s back to Thailand. I wasn’t convinced that I needed to go to Ayuthuya (I wish I could have stayed in Luang Prabang an extra day) but it was on that piece of paper Linda had drawn up for me. And how could I compare it to Sukhothai without seeing for myself? I had the time to go. And it was a short train ride away, so I could go up and back in a day - though if you stay over, you can see the ruins lit up at night, which sounds dramatic. You can also get there by boat up the Chao Phraya river, seeing the Bang Pa-in, the former summer palace, as well, and then return by bus the next day. However, a day trip worked well for me.


I got up early and went to Wawee Coffee to confirm flight reservations I had made the night before for the next week – training-of-trainers was going to start for Marilee, so it was time to get out of her hair – and then took the BTS to the Metro to the train station going north, and then I got a third-class ticket for the hour-long ride. Ayuthuya was the capital of Thailand from the end of the Sukhothai age (founded in 1351; the seat of power by the 15th century) until 1767, when the Burmese sacked the city. In the 1500s, the Portuguese, British, Dutch and French came to call and remarked upon the riches of the city. In the 1600s, the population was over a million – larger than London’s at the time. As with Sukhothai, there are several temples (over 400 in its heyday!), and a good way to see a lot of them is by renting a bike – and this time I did. And since I experienced each of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites in different ways, I am glad I went to both. It was great to ride from one wat to another. The iconic one, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, has three stupas in a line.


Another iconic image is at the center of the old sacred city, Wat Phra Mathathat. The intertwining of a sacred image with nature is extremely auspicious in Thai Buddhism, per Lonely Planet.


There were modern, active temples too.


I could have biked all day – I certainly didn’t cover it all - but Marilee told me that when she went, she and her friend took a boat around the island (the city is built at the intersection of three rivers), and I love boat rides, so I decided to do that too. The boat ride went past houses and included stops at three more wats.



Wat Chai Wattanaram is everyone’s favorite sunset spot, but even during the day it was an impressive example of the Khmer style.


And I liked this picture of Thai heroes.


I got back in time to hear the King’s Anthem at the BTS station at 6 pm – a nice little bonus to the day. I met Marilee at a gourmet food court (kind of like Foodlife, you Chicagoans!) at one of the shopping malls of Bangkok. I don’t think I have talked about them yet. There are many shopping malls, with every kind of store you can think of, and going to the shopping malls is a typical thing for a citizen of Bangkok to do (so is going to the movies, but I didn’t get to one – though I did miss movies while I was gone and would like to catch up on any must-sees). We even did some mall shopping! And we stopped at the Erawan Shrine, which is actually of Hindu origin; many Thais make offerings there because it has a reputation for granting wishes.


I should also mention that when we got back from Luang Prabang on Sunday night we went for massages – I one-hour, Marilee two. Between my massage and an internet café visit, I went to a drug store and a grocery store – two of my favorite things to do when I go to other places. I bought some baking needs (chocolate chips, not available in Morocco, can be found in Bangkok – along with peanut butter and many other imported essentials!) so that I could make some brownies for Marilee as yet another thank-you. I didn’t need anything in particular at the drug store, but I like looking at the products (even if I don’t ever want to work in product marketing again!).

I hardly noticed the winter solstice – when you are this close to the equator, there isn’t much of a variation – maybe half an hour at most between winter days and summer days. While I was there, it got light around 6:15 am and dark around 5:45 pm. That said, I am always happy when the days start to get longer!