Adventures in Asia: Ayutthaya, Thailand

The Sapphire Princess set sail from Singapore on Monday, April 25, 2016.  She weaved her way through the countless ships of all shapes and sizes anchored off Singapore, and eventually headed north along the coast of Malaysia and into the Gulf of Siam.

We spent two days at sea, before reaching our first port of call.

Sapphire Princess is too big to dock at Bangkok's port, so we docked a couple of hours south at Thailand's largest port, Laem Chabang.

Since we had been in Bangkok just two weeks ago, and since touring on our own from the commercial port would be challenging, we opted for a ship's shore excursion to Ayutthaya, Thailand's old capital city.  Ayutthaya is about 80 kilometres north of Bangkok.  We had twelve hours in port, but sadly about half of our time was going to be spent on the bus (but it was colourful!).

Our first stop, the Summer Palace, was about two hours away.  The Thai royal family continues to use the palace occasionally, but for the most part it serves as a museum.  Luckily for Andrea and me, our tour guide was very laid back, and simply gave us a time to meet, then let us off on our own.  Most of the tour group stuck with him, so that gave us a lot of space to ourselves!

The summer palace is a very idyllic spot, and historically was popular with royalty because it was situated on an island in the river and therefore cool in the summer.  Today, however, it was far from cool, with temperatures once again over 40 C.  Personally I would not bother visiting the Summer Palace if I was touring on my own, but it was a nice place to stop on the tour.

From the palace we drove another half hour north to the ruins of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhol, which dates back to the time that Ayutthaya was the capital (cc. 1351-1767), but remains an active Buddhist temple.

This wat is famous for its reclining Buddha, which used to be enclosed, but is now out in the open air.

For me the most interesting aspect of this Buddha was his feet.

People try to stick coins into the crevices and notches in his feet.

I assume this is thought to be auspicious, so Andrea and I tried too.  I was unsuccessful, but Andrea managed to get one to stick.

There is a large stupa in the middle of the compound, and unlike others we have visited, you can climb a staircase and go inside.

Inside there was a deep pit into which people tossed coins.  There were also Buddhas with gold flakes stuck to them.

Andrea thinks worshippers stick these flakes to the Buddha as an offering, but I am not entirely convinced.  Anyway, we would later see a similar Buddha at another spot in Ayutthaya, but I never noticed them anywhere else.

After the visit to the wat we went for a buffet lunch at a restaurant, and then off to the ruins of Ayutthaya itself.  Ayutthaya was Siam's capital for over four hundred years.  Much of its architecture was inspired by the Khmer, so the ruins resemble Angkor Wat in many place.  The capital was moved south to Bangkok after an invading Burmese army destroyed Ayutthaya in the mid-18th century.  

Ayutthaya is a modern city, as well as the home to archaeological sites from the old capital.  So like Angkor Wat, Ayutthaya is made up of numerous sites spread over a large area, but unlike Angkor Wat, the ruins are scattered throughout an urban area rather than the countryside.  

We visited three places on our tour: Wat Mahathat; Wat Phra Si Sanphet; and Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit.

Wat Mahathat is Ayutthaya's most visited site and dates from 1374.  

Many of the Buddhas at Ayutthaya are headless, because frequently there was gold or jewerly or gems hidden inside, and the Burmese soldiers decapitated the Buddhas to access the loot.

Since there are so many headless Buddhas, there are also occasional Buddha heads.  One such head has been picked up by a Banyan tree over the last centuries and become embedded in the roots.  This has resulted in the most photographed sight at Wat Mahathat:

Wat Phra Si Sanphet was Ayutthaya's most important temple (the one for royalty), and its three stupas have been partially restored.  By now, mid-afternoon, it was so hot that many of the tourists in our group skipped walking around this site, and generally it was pretty deserted.

Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit is right outside the walls of Wat Phra Si Sanphet's compound.  It is actually a modern building, but the Buddha inside is centuries old.  The building the Buddha used to be housed in was destroyed, and the new building built around it in the 1950s.

From Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit we walked back to where we would meet the bus.  We could see another impressive site, and had it been cooler I would have gone over to check it out as well. As it was I retreated into the bus for one of the cool towels they hand out and the comfort of A/C.

From the bus we could see an elephant with a couple riding it, so apparently they do elephant rides at Ayutthaya as well, another similarity it shares with Angkor Wat!

From Ayutthaya we drove three hours southeast back to Laem Chabang, to reboard the Sapphire Princess for 19:00.  

Our Ayutthaya excursion was expensive (over $100 US each), but I am really glad we did it.  Given how popular Thailand is as a tourist destination, I am surprised Ayutthaya is not more well known.