Ayutthaya is a Thai adaptation of the Sanskrit word “Ayodhya” meaning “not to be warred with.” Ayodhya is actually the name of an ancient city in India believed to be the birthplace of Rama, the seventh incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. This is just one example of the powerful influence of ancient India on the people of Southeast Asia. Ayutthaya was founded as the capital of a Thai king by the name of U-Thong (Ramathibodi I) in 1350. In 1365, he forced the king of Sukhothai to submit to him and made Sukhothai a vassal state. Then, in 1438, Sukhothai was made into one of Ayutthaya’s provinces. Thus, Ayutthaya became the new center of military, political, cultural and socio-economic power and eventually, the capital of the kingdom that was to become Siam (before the kingdom’s name was changed to Thailand in the 20th century).
My trip to Ayutthaya came about in a fairly interesting way. I went with a young Thai lady by the name of Mai, whom I had just met a few days earlier on my trip to Koh Kred. Originally, we had planned the trip to include my Canadian friends Sacha and Jeremy through whom I had met Mai, but Sacha ended up having to work unexpectedly and Jeremy had some sort of headache the morning of. I wondered if we would still be going, just Mai and me. It was particularly awkward because young Thai women (the “proper” ones) don’t normally hang out alone with men, unless they’re dating and even then, she is often accompanied by an older sister or female friend. Also, it’s just weird to hang out with a relative stranger for a whole day. I started to get worried that we weren’t going to go as I was really looking forward to it. I was relieved to find out that Mai was where she said she would be at the appointed hour and that she had invited another female friend to go along with us. Her name is Rini and she is an English teacher from Malaysia.
So the three of us met up at a place called Victory Monument, a common meeting place for buses and mini-vans for hire to various places in Thailand. It was also one of the places that was bombed during the New Year's Eve attacks -- don't worry, it's USUALLY quite safe. Two of the reasons I was looking forward to traveling with Mai, aside from the fact that she is a total sweetheart, is that one, she speaks Thai and knows what she is doing or at least, she can ask questions better than I can in my broken Thai; and two, she’s from Surin, a province that borders Cambodia and so she can also speak Khmer (Cambodian). We had lots of fun when we first met just learning languages because the two of us conversed in Thai, Khmer and English. She taught me some Thai whilst I taught her Khmer and English.
When we arrived in Ayutthaya, we met up with one of Mai’s friends, Gook. Gook was a blast and completely atypical of any Thai woman I’ve ever met. Actually, she has the personality of a western woman. She’s independent, extroverted, free-spirited, speaks her mind and doesn’t conform to any such notion of a “proper” lady. She jumped on the tour bandwagon with Mai, Rini and I and the four of us went about exploring Ayutthaya in a tuk-tuk we had rented for the day.
This is a very famous "postcard" site. It is located at Wat Mahathat.
Apparently, Gook has never actually taken a tour of the historical sites in Ayutthaya, even though she lives there. We finished off the day in a boat tour around the island part of the city, which is fairly large.
These are shots I took of the people who live along the river...going about their daily lives, particularly when tourists are around.
This is me pretending that I'm a traditional Thai dancer.
Ok, so one of the temples we visited featured this glass case displaying a life-sized image of a famous Buddhist monk. A little freaky, if you ask me...
These are pictures of I took of a Chinese temple along our river tour.
See what I mean about a gal who is untraditional? I mean, what kind of a Buddhist would put merit-making gold leaf on herself instead of on the Buddha figures? Ah Gook...
These grounded boats used to be part of a floating resort. They're still part of a resort now, just on land.
These are pictures of my elephant riding adventure. My companion is Mai.
We made a few stops along the way to visit some of the more prominent temples and then headed back to the restaurant that her boyfriend owns. There, we were treated to drinks and a fabulous dinner.
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