Buddhist Temples and a River Cruise

Another early start on our last day in Thailand, up at 6am so we can get picked up by 7am to go on a tour of several temples close to the capital.

After a long drive (and a quick catch-up nap) our first stop was in Ayutthaya and the ruins of the old capital which contains an old Royal Palace and Wat Pra Si Sanphet. This city was destroyed by a Burmese invasion and the site was never used again because so many women and children died there. When the Burmese were attacking the city they had defeated the Thai army defending the city and many of the women and children fled to the Royal Palace to take shelter in the confirmation hall, and other large buildings. When the Burmese king came to capture the women and children to take them back as servants they refused to open the doors and the Burmese army burnt down the buildings.

A few of the larger buildings were rebuilt, or had extra mortar added over the years to keep them standing, and now the ruins of the palace is the only building left from the original capital.

We also saw a temple at the same site with an enormous golden Buddha, which was much larger than the one we saw in Bangkok.

We had about 20min to walk around the grounds before we had to meet our tour bus and depart, so we walked back to the front of the park to look at the elephants. As we got there we saw about 5 or so elephants, and one baby elephant being unloaded from a truck which was quite a sight. These elephants were also unfortunately chained up much the same as the previous ones we had seen. You could also have an elephant ride, buy a small basket of corn to feed the elephants or pay 40 Baht to get a picture with the baby elephant.

We then piled into the bus again to visit the Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol temple (The Great Temple of Auspicious Victory) which was built to celebrate a victory over a massive Burmese invasion in 1593. Many of the sites we visited seemed to be either destroyed by, or built to celebrate a victory over, the Burmese.

At this temple we walked the grounds and saw a reclining Buddha statue and a courtyard lined with many other smaller Buddha statues, some of which had been offered a small glass of water so they wouldn't get thirsty. You could also buy offerings of a flower, a candle, and an incense stick to make a wish at one of the halls.

Back into the bus once more we proceeded to the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace where it started to rain. Heavily. Lounging around in the front building we sampled some Mangosteen which is a delicious local fruit. It took some prodding but I finally convinced Sancha to try some, which she enjoyed as well. The fruit, not the prodding, that is.

Once the rain eased up we eventually got to wander the grounds and see a pavilion in the middle of the pond, the awesome hedge sculptures, the Chinese style royal palace, a lookout tower, and another royal palace which we weren't allowed to enter. Sancha passed on the lookout tower since she was royally over stairs by this point.

Onwards, and our last trip in the bus involved travelling back to a dock and our lunch cruise down the Chao Phraya River. This was probably the nicest part of our day, as we relaxed in the boat, had a nice buffet lunch, and saw all the various riverside buildings. These buildings ranged from giant new condominiums to some barely upright shanties that looked like they could collapse any second.

We were quite exhausted from the day once we were dropped back at our hotel, but we did end up having the nicest (and cheapest!) Thai meal we had during our stay at a restaurant down the road. This time it was a much more relaxed walk down the road as much of the military presence had eased up.