After midterms finished on Thursday, and we had a crazy sports day outside on Friday, we got some time off for New Year's. It's a really big holiday in Thailand, and most people leave Bangkok. Things can get a little expensive to travel at this time of year, so I didn't go very far away. On New Year's Eve I took a day trip out of Bangkok to Ayutthaya, the old royal capital of Siam from the 14th century until 1767 when it was sacked by the Burmese and the king moved the capital to Krungthep (Bangkok).
Ayutthaya is only a little over an hour away by train, and the ticket cost me a whopping 15 baht (about $0.50) each way. The old city was settled on a small island between three rivers, and you have to take a ferry across from the train station. That only cost me 4 baht!
On the island I rented a bicycle, and spent a few hours riding around. They gave me a map, and it wasn't too hard to find the way to all the historical sites; the island is only a few miles square.
One of the main sites to see in Ayutthaya is the Old Grand Palace, where the kings ruled Siam until the city was destroyed. Each of the historical sites are pretty cheap to get into; just over a dollar US. It annoys me a little though; each site is free for Thai people, but has a special "foreigner" price posted. It's the same in Bangkok, and probably all over Thailand. That's just one of the things you have to deal with as a farang!
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| Elephant tours and a modern temple at the Old Grand Palace ruins |
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| the ruins of the Old Grand Palace |
The most photographed site in all of Ayutthaya is a mysterious Buddha head grown over by a huge tree on the grounds of Wat Mahathet. They're not really sure how the head got there; but it's not too hard to guess. Whenever the Burmese would sack a Siamese city, they would go around chopping the heads off of all of the Buddha statues. It was the same in Kanchanaburi. Nearly all of the Buddha statues in Ayutthaya are headless. I imagine the head was dropped and forgotten, and over the last few hundred years, the tree just grew up around it.
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| at Wat Mahathet; this Buddha head is the most photographed site in the city |
I spent a few hours in Ayutthaya, then caught the train back to Bangkok. The weather has been perfect lately. I had no idea that it could ever get to be in the 60's and 70's F here, but it's actually been a little chilly lately. It was a really great day to be outside. Ayutthaya is known for being pretty uncomfortable to visit most of the time, due to the heat.
The train back was pretty crowded, and I wasn't able to get a seat! I had to stand for the duration of the trip, but it's only about an hour back into town.
All in all it was a good way to spend the holiday and have a short adventure to wrap up 2013.
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