Historic Ayutthaya

One of the great things about Bangkok is how easy it is to get out of Bangkok. We took advantage of this after only a few days and headed north by train to Ayutthaya. Founded in 1350, The historic city of Ayutthaya was the second largest capital of the Siamese Kingdom. The city flourished from the 14th to the 18th century before the Burmese army in 1767 burned the city to the ground, leaving only traces of the city's past size and splendor. 

Once we settled in our humble accomidations and found some breakfast we ventured out to find some of the temples dotting Ayutthaya. With names like Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Wat Lokayasutharam, Wat Ratchaburana, and Chedi Phukhao Thong we had plenty to see and do. I'm pretty sure I walked around with a grin from ear to ear soaking up all the beauty that surrounded us.

My final impressions of this side trip couldn't be more positive. The sites around Ayutthaya are beautiful and show how advanced the Thai people were so long ago. If you find yourself in Bangkok and can't stand the busy streets, pollution and hawker stalls jump on a train and visit this historic city. 

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The Grand Palace

To visit Bangkok and not see the Grand Palace would be blasphemy. So like millions of visitors before us we walked into this huge compound to see what all the hype was about. Built in 1782 the Grand Palace is undoubtedly the city's most famous landmark, and it is grand. It just didn't wow me like many other temples I have seen on this trip. For one, there is to much going on. So many temples, all of different styles and there seems to be no continutity between designs. They're lovely and some of them are awe inspiring if on their own but together it just didn't mesh for me. Should you visit this site? Yes, without a doubt. The gold is bright and the amount of it is astounding. The red, blue and green roofs are vibarant and contrast nicely with the stark white of the walls holding them up. Just be warned, it's packed. it's expensive and you can't go into many of the temples.

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Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun is on the west bank of the Chao Phraya river. It's believed that after fighting the Burmese army in Ayutthaya King Taksin arrived at this temple just as dawn was breaking. He later had the temple renovated and renamed it the Temple of the Dawn. The spire of Wat Arun is over 70 meters high, delicately decorated with tiny pieces of coloured glass and Chinese porcelain. What looks almost dirty from a distance truly is beautiful when viewed up close.

We slowely made it up the large steps to a lovely view point just below the spire. From there you could see modern Bangkok off in the distance. While Bangkok is filled with many lovely and very colorful temples this one was the most impressive to me. It seemed subtle and majestic compared to the everything surrounding it.

Buddha get's tired of sitting sometimes

Wat Pho in downtown Bangkok is a buddhist temple famous for it's large reclining Buddha, it's also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. The lovely temple is named after a monastery in India where Buddha is believed to have lived. As Cassie and I lined up to enter the temple with hundreds of other curious visitors we knew this would test our patience. The walking space to view the lying buddha was large enough for only a few folks, most certainly not hundreds. After shuffling with the crowds for a while we quickly made it to the exit, but not before we captured a few funny photos of our fellow visitors.

Tube socks never go out of style

It's easy when you get to a large city to start checking off all the major sites, which we seem to always do. What's not so easy is finding the truly bizzarre and wacky locations hidden in between. While walking down a side street in Bangkok one of the buildings facade caught my attention. Like usual I made Cassie stop and hold all of my stuff while I took a photo. Upon further examination it just happened to be a site I was looking for.

Nightingale-Olympic Co. Ltd. is a sports store, I think? The bottom floor is filled with aging mannequins in dusty clothes surrounded by faded off brand tennis polos and tube socks. If you follow the sweeping staircase upstairs you'll find fitness equipment sitting next to old music instruments and even some taxidermy. Is that a fat melting belt vibrater you see? Well yes it is. It was a fun store to poke around for a bit but the old ladies started getting wrestless with us so we quickly made our purchase of what looked like some used badmitton shuttlecocks and said sawasdee.