Exploring Ayutthaya

Thursday the 9^th

We departed from Bangkok as early as we could muster on tired feet. My feet embarrassingly are bleeding from my choice of shoes, but I've been trying not to complain. The pain isn't much and I'd rather enjoy my trip. We navigated the BTS Sky train and metro well enough. You pay depending on distance and the station maps are well labeled. The train station was a bit more chaotic. People of all walks of life milled around and sat waiting for their ride. We purchased a third class ticket for under a dollar and had about an hour wait. It was hot and we explored for snacks to pass the time. The train was also crowded and hot.

We secured window seats near the back and some high school kids sat next to us. The boy stared very affectionately at the girl when she wasn't paying attention and would try to touch her arm or back when appropriate in a very gentle and love sick way. She was all grins and sly with him. I hope he wins the girl.

 When the train jerked forward and slowly creeped off, Collin joked that he hoped it wasn't this speed the whole trip. Joke was on us the first hour as we passed threw many stations and picked up more and more passengers. They storage bins were full and people started muscling their way into occupied seats in some sort of privileged person system we didn't understand. A grumpy old guy motioned for a young adult man to make room for a plump made up 20 year old women. He looked uncomfortable but yielded his seat and stood in the middle of the row of seats near the window. Later the high school girl next to me forfeited her seat to a younger girl with lots of packages and her father. They stored some above us, some under the seat, and then box wedged uncomfortable between me and the girl with her father resting on the armrest holding us into the seats. Other times, cranky but able bodied women would hover near a cluster of occupied seats and huff and lean and nobody would yield and they'd move on. It was strange and I had no urge myself to stand on a crowed train for an hour. We got off at Ayutthaya and a tuk tuk driver took us to our residence for the evening.

Baan Thai Villas offer small single cabin accommodations surrounded by lush plants and man-made lake gardens. All the Villas have surrounding spaces of shaded tables and benches to relax and the place doubled as a restaurant and a spa. Its very nice and was only about $27 each a night. When we arrived, they offered us a ride to town and boat tour around the rivers that form the island and the opportunity to explore three Siamese temple ruins.

Oh man, when we checked in to Baan Thai - freshening up in the AC felt so good. I'd say of the whole trip, this place was the classiest resort of them all. The villas felt romantic and exotic. The entire resort had many nooks and crannies to layout and relax. The pool was clean and right next to a massage house. The prices of the spa were the average found anywhere else and the ladies who performed the massages were so skilled. Breakfast was included and included an all you can eat buffet as well as a menu to order three different meals off of. I would definitely return to Baan Thai and the town of Ayutthaya in the future and recommend at least a 2 day stay.

The river tour was nice, quite similar long tail boat as
the one we took in Bangkok.

The "ruins" were amazing (and still in working condition) and just flowed with a power that lit up my heart. The first Buddhist temple had women sorting and folding all of the golden cloth that adorn the many statues while a service went on in the background. I tried not to take too many pictures of gawk. I hate feeling like an observer on such a personal practice.

The next temple had amazing monuments filled with old stone Buddhas. The tall structures housed bats inside the meditation caverns that the stone men meditated in.

 

I climbed, with Collins encouragement a very tall stair case to look in on one very high up. I was so happy to look upon all their faces and I didn't feel that there was enough time at this place.

The last ruins we visited was again large towers with hundreds of stone Buddhas meditating through the ages.

 Missing heads and arms, they sat on in their collective group all facing the horizon. I sat down too and you could feel the rush of time push through your body and join you in their meditation.

 I could sit there very night at sunset if I lived on this island. I won't deny the appeal.

The tour dropped us off at a night market on the island where we bought food and Collin got knock off sunglasses. Sushi rice on a strange fruit covered in Coconut sauce, Honey juice and a berry one that had chunks of possibly jujubes in the bottom, squid on a stick grilled and covered in a spicy sweet sauce, pad thai and pomellos dipped in that spicy salt. We returned home full in a tuk tuk. The kitchen was just closing up here so we snuck in an order of espresso coffees and sat on their open air dining hall.