Ayutthaya Thailand and its Temples

My companions, Deb, Daniel, Patcharin, and I had a great adventure visiting Ayutthaya (Eye-U-Tie-Yah) and its many active temples and ruins. We hired a long boat and took a picturesque ride on the Chao Phraya river passing houses on stilts (in varying degrees of condition), bridges, boats, restaurants, and lots of temples, ancient and modern. Ayutthaya, which was once the largest city in the world with over a million people in 1700, is now about 82,000. (Photos are under text)

As with any adventure, not everything goes according to plan. We ventured out for dinner about 9pm and couldn’t find much open so we flagged down a tuk-tuk vehicle (in place of taxis) and got a ride to a central hawkers’ market that had many food vendors. When we finished our ten dishes(!) we went out to the street around 11pm and they were empty except for a few people riding bikes and motorcycles, and a number of dogs wondering around.

After standing on the street for a half hour we figured that the tuk-tuks were done for the night and had no other options. We began walking back along a large boulevard that was poorly lit with big busses parked along it, and too many packs of dogs for Deb’s and my comfort; we could see some of them and others we could hear howling. We thought we were quite a bit farther from our hotel than we were, but after about 20 minutes we arrived safe and almost sound. (Daniel and Patcharin, who live in North Thailand, weren’t too concerned, and Deb has a fear of dogs).

Ayutthaya was first established as the capital of Thailand in 1350 and its rein lasted until 1767. It was an absolute monarchy and its official religion has always been Buddhism.

This place was chosen for the capital because, “Throughout the centuries, the ideal location between China, India and the Malay Archipelago (Malaysia) made Ayutthaya the trading capital of Asia and even the world.

“After a lengthy siege, the city capitulated and was burned in 1767.  Ayutthaya’s art treasures, the libraries containing its literature, and the archives housing its historic records were almost totally destroyed, and the city was left in ruins.”

Many of the active religious sites throughout Ayutthaya are along the river which we visited by long boat; some if not all have monks in residence. And, some of the ancient sites seemed to be unharmed, while others were irreparably damaged from the attacks by the Burmese over centuries. These are sadly apparent from the many hundreds of beheaded Buddhas at several of the sites we visited. This city’s ancient temples form a UNESCO site.

 

Bangkok Thailand: May’s Cooking Class

One of the many highlights for me on this trip to Thailand was our cool cooking class in Bangkok. Deb and I learned how to make nine Thai dishes and we hope this experience has a lasting impact on our cooking! I’m happy to learn a great way to cut and not mangle mangos, and discovered a cool tool that makes thin ribbons from vegetables. I am using these tips in Singapore with the many exotic fruits available year round.

Finding May Kaidee’s cooking school was its own adventure.  Our Thai host, Patcharin, Deb’s niece, made a valiant effort to make this place easy for us to find because there are so many small cooking schools in Bangkok.  She flagged a cab and went with us to the school which we weren’t expecting her to do. After the cab dropped us off at the school, we found out that we were at the wrong one. Fortunately, the owner was familiar with May’s school and gave us directions to it about 10 blocks away.  We did pretty well walking until we were about two blocks away. The major streets crossed with alleys that were packed with businesses and we weren’t sure where to go. After asking a couple of people, we found the school on an alley and never did see a street sign.  We were only 10 minutes late.  I always say that getting lost or taking detours are the best way to learn your way around. We certainly saw parts of Bangkok we wouldn’t have seen without this experience (so don’t fret Patcharin).

Click on the photos to scroll through.