Say Cheese!

Today (which is November 19th) we arrived in Sukothai after a 6 hour bus ride. We haven't been here very long but we both have already decided that we like it here. We're staying at Ban Thai Guesthouse. We have this little bungalow with bath. We're expecting the worst when it comes to mosquitoes because I've already been bitten three times and it's only 3 in the afternoon. Anywho, I will delight you all with stories of the past few days.

Ayutthaya

Wow did we ever like it here. I think this is when we really started to enjoy ourselves here. Bangkok is a very hard city to land in. It's HUGE and crammed full of people and when you're suffering from culture shock (which we were) that was a tough thing to handle. Ko Samet was about getting over culture shock and trying to relax, but once we arrived in Ayutthaya we both breathed a sigh of relief that all cities weren't like Bangkok. The children in this city were funny. They would wave and say hello and once they passed us they would break out into giggle fits. It was actually kinda cute. There were a lot of a stray dogs here as well. Mostly males who didn't seem to have owners of any kind. They look hungry and in some cases down right miserable - it gets hard to see actually because on the same street you'll see people bring home puppies. You just have to hope they don't end up like most dogs we saw.

Day One

We had a very busy first day. We took the train from Bangkok at 8:20 a.m. (on the 16th) and arrived in Ayutthaya just after 9:30. We dropped our stuff off at the guesthouse - which was fantastic - and decided to do a walking tour of some of the ruins. We started at the local tourist information office where they gave us a great map (for free!!) and proceeded to our first wat. Our first stop was Wat Phraram and did not fail to impress. After seeing so many temples in near perfect condition it was amazing to see what hundreds of years of neglect and decay can do to them. We tried to imagine what they would have looked like when they were first built (in this Wat's case - 1369). You should check out the pictures - just be warned, we have lots. The larger cylindrical buildings are called prangs and the smaller someone pointy looking ones are called stupas. Our next stop was Wihaan Phra Mongkon Brophit which is home to the Thailand's largest bronze Buddha. The statue actually suffered lots of damage over the years due to natural disasters - it's head was struck by lightening etc. - so they constructed the wat around it to protect it. The Buddha itself has since been repaired - twice.

After that we walked to Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the Ancient Palace. This one was one of the largest ruins sites we went to and was packed with people but spectacular none the less. A strange thing happened just as we were leaving though. A group of Thai people started to flag us down. At first we thought they wanted us to move because we were in the way and they wanted to take a picture. Quite the contrary - they wanted us to pose in a picture with one of their friends. I guess pictures of white people are good dinner conversation :)

I think our favourite was Wat Ratchaburna - not because the site was any more impressive than the others but because of the feeling of the place. You could actually walk down these very very steep stairs to the bottom of the prang. I had a bit of anxiety about the whole thing and ended up walking down the stairs backwards (they were actually very narrow). At the bottom were remains of paintings that had been there since it was built. At the bottom of the stairs we were overwhelmed by a very powerful and somewhat disturbing feeling. The energy in there was amazing, but I could only handle being down there for a few minutes before I had to make my way back up - followed very closely by Paul. I later read that in 1957 the crypt inside was looted and all 10 thieves died mysteriously. After that rumours spread around the country that the king himself had placed a curse on the wat.

Our last stop of the day was Wat Mahathat. By the end of the day we were tired and kinda cranky (we had gotten lost on more than one occasion), but we were glad that we made our way there anyway. We finally made our way back to our guesthouse, cleaned up and had an awesome dinner at Kwan's Cafe. We probably had some of the best food that we've had so far. The green curry was to die for (and cheap!) and Kwan was a riot to watch. The guy seemed to have the energy of three people.

Day Two

Our second day in Ayutthaya was not a exciting. Our Let's Go guide suggested we check our Wat Chaiwatthanaram which is on the other side of the city. We debated whether we should go or not, but in the end we went with the saying "you're only here once". We paid the hefty 80 baht (which was actually a deal because our guesthouse has special rates with tuk-tuk drivers) to get us there and to be honest, it was pretty much the same as the rest of the ruins. The only difference was that it was bigger. Our new problem was that once we were finished at the wat we had to walk quite a distance before we could find a tuk-tuk driver to take us back (there weren't any waiting outside the ruins). We tried to barter with the driver but he knew we were in a bit of a pickle with no way to get out except through him so we ended up paying 100 baht to get back. Our evening ended up much better. We had our first food stall experience for dinner. We weren't brave enough to try anything other than pad Thai, but my word was it good. We followed that up with a walk down to the night market which was slightly disappointing. It was full of cheap plastic toys and western style clothing - but we were glad that we made the trip anyway.

Well that's it for Ayutthaya. We're going to head to Old Sukothai historical park tomorrow (and probably the next day - it's pretty big). We'll have more stories for you then.