Notes from Ayutthaya Thailand
After a long flight, we made it to Bangkok, Thailand, where we are staying with a friend I haven’t seen since college. She has been an absolutely amazing host and helped us see so much in our time here. Our first stop was the ancient city of Ayutthaya. I am somewhat obsessed with seeing UNESCO World Heritage Sites (and I live just a short walk away from one!) so starting here made me giddy to check another site off the list.
Ayutthaya dates back to 1351, which means the buildings we saw were actually younger than places like the Tower of London, but earthquakes and a Burmese takeover that burned the town to the ground really didn’t help preserve things. As a result, there are many headless buddha figures found here – hundreds, if not more.
The different sites here are spread all over the town, so after walking through a few that are right across the street from each other, we bought some postcards of things that looked interesting so we could communicate to the driver where we wanted to go. It worked a charm, and we were able to see different areas of the city, from old and unrestored to shiny and new.
One of my favourite aspects of going to places like temples and shrines is looking at the objects that are part of the rituals. Candles, flowers, offerings – there is a personality to what is left at each monument. Here it was basic and often worn, but beautiful in its balance.
Rubbing gold leaf on a buddha helps build good karma, as you’re helping to keep the monument at its best, as we were told. I love that making things glittery is seen as a way to do good!
One thing I never imagined I would see: monks with mobile phones. And they posed for pictures with each other, as these monks were visiting from another area of the country. They had an amazing way of being happy and something I would describe as excited but in this completely calm way.
Heck, I was jumping up and down and clapping my hands just to have such a pretty blue sky as a backdrop to the pictures. Calm excitement? Clearly not in my nature.
xlovesx
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17 December 2010, 11:18
Sounds like your trip is off to a rocking start :-) You got some great photos, too. Looking forward to hearing/reading more about your travels through that part of the world.
17 December 2010, 11:36
Great start to your trip…it looks stunning.
17 December 2010, 11:39
Amazing sites!!! enjoy yourself~waiting for more. cm
17 December 2010, 11:43
What a great start for your trip! Love the pictures ~ looking forward to more.
17 December 2010, 11:51
Yay! You made merit! We rode bikes around there – truly awesome! Glad you have a great “guide”.
17 December 2010, 12:14
Thailand is a stunningly beautiful country, isn’t it. I hope to return one day.
17 December 2010, 12:27
Wonderful photos and I love the tip about buying postcards to tell a taxi driver where you want to go. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.
17 December 2010, 13:31
Wow! what an exotic start to your journey.Great photos.Hope you’re enjoying the warmer weather.
17 December 2010, 19:12
I love that you use postcards to communicate. I confess that I bought some to try and find good places to take photos. My favorite find was a bank building next to the American Embassy. It was designed by Frank Gehry. It was mentioned in the guidebook but no photo.
Also I was surprised that the grocery stores of train stations had some of the best postcards. Maybe that is a European thing?
18 December 2010, 02:05
Stunning photos, Shimelle! So excited to see you’re in Bangkok.. we were there for our honeymoon 5 years ago. Have fun!!
18 December 2010, 08:25
great picts!!!! can’t wait to hear from u again from another destination of course!
18 December 2010, 08:38
think I’ve seen too many world heritage sites in nz and oz they don’t seem that special to me anymore. Lol. but hopefully you’ll get to see loads. glad you’ve had a great start to the trip! :)
18 December 2010, 11:06
Beautiful photos lady!!!
18 December 2010, 18:27
Thanks so much for posting the photos of Thailand. I’ll probably never get to see the real thing but the photos are the next best way to experience Thailand. Please keep posting your photos as you travel around the world.
19 December 2010, 01:52
Glad you arrived safely….have a ball!!