Thailand’s ancient capital city, now more or less like a remnant of its glorious past. When I drove into the city with Pari, it felt like I was going back in time…ignoring the modern building, the fast developments. A look at the countryside was a better way to see into its past…that and the temples rising out of cane fields and distant cluster of trees. Anyone having visited Ayuthaya may have felt this sense of glory. There were temples everywhere (Temples or Wats), each more grand and more beautiful than the other and taking pictures did not seem like a good idea. For one, it was distracting, second, I wanted to drink in all the beauty with naked eyes. Pari had a lot of information to offer.
We went around the crumbling city to the site of the Sleeping Budha, The Budha head in the tree and few other wats around…I think I have them all on video…so much easier than writing down the confusing names…come to think of it, I photographed most of the names too….and have postcards to look up names…just in case.
Elephants are fairly common here…probably comes from the jungles further north. Elephant rides are hot favourite among the tourists especially from the Eurpoean countries but for someone such as I coming from the Southern part of India bordering the Bandipur National Forest, elephants are but a common sight…and any such idea of riding one is ridiculed by everyone around….Actully when I saw people jump in glee to ride the beast, I felt that way too…however it did not stop me from riding one in Kanchanaburi two days later…but I will get to that.