Ayuthaya: Mar26

So I'm on a bus with small Oi's husband who is driving me to a place not on his route. We travel from 4 pm Friday, all through the night.

I don't know if you can see the picture on the front of his bus but it shows his majesty, Ramses IV who is the King responsible for introducing technology to the Country.

This is how I felt when the bus arrived in Bangkok at 2:30 Saturday morning. Yor (the Driver) had driven me past the turnoff to Ayutthaya and right to the Bangkok terminal so that I could get a bus to the Ancient city from there. Finally at 4 am the bus arrived and I headed to the city.

At 5 am I arrived at my Guesthouse. This is the woman who takes care of the place. Her name is 'Dim'. She's a sweetie Pie. By the way, the shirt I'm wearing is a gift from Joy in Ubon. I just casually mentioned one day that I was interested in getting a more lightweight shirt. The next day she just handed it to me. Thank you again Joy!

After a little sleep, I had a foot massage from a place that really knows their stuff. This woman pointed out some things she said I need to have checked based on what my feet were showing her; mostly to do with my prostate. Ouch. I took a picture of her chart and noted the numbers she pointed out. Something to check on when I get back to Ontario. Her T-shirt says: "I love Healthy Foods." (Enquiring minds want to know).

Those of you who follow my Blog will remember my very dear friend Jook. She lives an hour away in Bangkok. When she heard I was interested in exploring Ayutthaya she offered to be my guide at the ruins. She rented us a couple of bicycles (40 baht each) and we were off.

This is the entrance to the Palace grounds.

So much of Ayutthaya felt so familiar to me. It was if I was returning to my home town. Jook says that this was the original Capitol of Thailand. It was destroyed by the Burmese after 300 years, in about 1700. The buildings were once covered with gold, which was stolen, leaving the Palace and Temples a burned out husk. The Bangkok Palace of the present King, is a duplicate of Ayutthaya's structure, but not as intricate.

Jook says this is the Goddess of the Rains. Her job is to bring the rains to the earth so that things will grow. Thailand has been experiencing a drought this year so her presence is especially welcome right now.

This is a view looking from the Palace grounds to one of the lesser palaces.
Treasure Hunt

I thought it might be fun to place an object in the Ruins for you to discover. See if you can identify where this is.

I placed this 1 baht coin here. By the way, the green bracelet is a good luck bracelet and was a gift from Gai. The strings are good luck from a Buddhist monk. The day I was blessed by the Monk, I was given these strings and we all took turns putting them on each other's wrists as symbols of our friendship.

Then I placed the brick back on top where I found it.

If you can tell me what I inscribed on the coin I'll buy you dinner. I hope you like fried grasshoppers though...

Now under the category of really stupid things to try, let me tell you about the monument I climbed.

It's one of those things that is so easy to do but so hard to come back from. When I stood at the top and looked out, the view was magnificent.

I walked to the inner chamber and looked at the alter. Then I turned around and walked to the edge that I had come up.

I had to master my fear to even begin the descent. It was the same feeling I had the day I jumped off the 40 foot waterfall in Chiang Mai, except this time I couldn't chicken out. There was only one way down.

When we finished the tour, I came back to the Guest House and said goodbye to Dim.
I went back to Bangkok with Jook and there I embarked on one of the boldest adventures since arriving in Thailand: eating at a Thai McDonald's.