Ayuthaya, finally

As the end draws nearer, I’m feeling I should start worrying about my top-ten things I want to do before I leave Bangkok. On top of my list was Ayuthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, just one hour and half North of Bangkok.


So I traded my business suits for my good old explorator's attire, sunhat, sunshirt, sunglasses, suncream and the likes, settled for the lazy, hassle-free option of a guided tour with a group, and bravely set my alarm clock at 5:40 m (on a Sunday morning - ouch!)


Ayuthaya was the capital of Thailand plus a good chunk of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar from the 14th to the 18th century. It was probably one of the largest cities of the world at that time, with about 1 million inhabitants, and European travelers who went there are came back with amazed stories of the riches they had seen. Unfortunately, the Burmese got jealous, besieged and took over the city, and burned it down to the bones in 1767. The general-soon-to-be the new king and the population fled down and made Bangkok the capital instead.


The Burmese made a point of beheading every Buddha

They also stole the largest Buddha image, 260 kg or so of pure gold, took it to Burma and melted it. These Burmese were an angry crowd.

So, well, there isn’t much left!


I was even a bit unimpressed at first by the piles of bricks and the few standing columns that reminded me more of Greek temples than of South-East Asian 14th century wonders.


Of course, with Angkor as the main comparison, it’s easy to become picky…

Also, there were attenuating circumstances:

One, I wasn’t exactly alone…

so much for the romantic atmosphere...

Two, we didn’t start by the most exciting stuff.


And three, our guide was unable to say anything besides “Ayuthaya was burnt down in 1767. Used to be very big city” which of course limits the excitement. How did they live? What did they trade? How was organized the society? What did they do for fun? What colors were all these palaces? I’m left to wonder…

But luckily I discovered the B&W function of my camera and had a bit of fun with that...




Very retro, isn’t it?


Hey, I’m an ancient ruin too!

So after a while I started enjoying it a lot, and the day got only better.
We spent the morning at what was the Royal palace, next to which was a temple and a giant golden buddha that had been restored recently


Then set off for a giant stupa (pagoda where they bury the ashes of their kings among others), Golden Mount quite in a Burmese style.


And rounded it up in the afternoon with what used to be wat (temples), but only the giant buddhas are left standing surrounded by open sky.

(the first picture of this entry is a portrait of this buddha)

Look at the little people on the side to imagine how huge this reclining Buddha is!



(nice nail paint!)

And the nicest part of the city, with the tree-buddha


and the best preserved ruins