Today I embarked on my second group tour. I was fairly pessimistic about the affair because of the last tour but it was paid in full so I put on my big boy pants and got in the van. It was another awesome 6:30 am start. Since I was the second to be picked up the day started with the usual driving through Bangkok in horrible traffic to pick up the rest of the people on the tour. Once we had everyone on board we transferred to one of those huge air conditioned tour buses with 2 levels. There’s no better way to say im a dumb tourist than when you step off of one of these bad boys. To top it off they wanted us to wears these sticker badges so that we could proudly proclaim we were on the tour. I applied mine but quickly took it off when they turned around. I wont deny I am a tourist, but I hate looking like one. Every time I look at the people on these buses I just see dumb, loud, and oblivious. Now I am one of them. I was a little embarrassed. Okay a lot embarrassed.
We set off for the city of Ayutthaya which is about an hour outside of Bangkok. It is one of three former capitals of Thailand. Our first stop was the royal summer palace. This is normally closed to the public when the King or other royalty are staying there but the king is in the hospital and apparently he prefers the beach palace over this one. It was a rather large complex with the excellent landscaping and building exteriors you would expect. There were all sorts of people there.
One thing about the royal palaces that differs from most temples in Thailand is that the dress code is fairly strict. The big no-no's are no exposed shoulders and exposed legs. To alleviate this problem, they allow tourists to rent saris and shawls so they can cover up properly. Its really the Thai's subtle way of saying you dress like a whore.
The palace was pretty but also pretty standard. Extravagant this and that. Nice furniture and artwork. Ect. Not to say it wasn't nice, its just i have seen this dog and pony show before. And before you ask, a dog and pony show is nothing like a donkey show.
After we got out royal fix it was off to Wat Mahathat. This is one of many anchient ruins in Ayutthaya. The reason Ayutthaya is no longer the capital is because the Burmese attacked the crap out of the Thai hundreds of years ago and destroyed their capital. Instead of rebuilding it they moved. So now all that is left are these ruins. That being said, they are pretty fucking cool.
This is what I came to Thailand to see and they didnt dissapoint. The pictures dont do them any justice, they were amazing. But unfortunately not everyone shares this point of view. Mainly the tour I was on. We had an hour and a half at that boring ass palace but only 30 minutes in these beautiful ruins. I just have to accept that what im interested in is not what Jon Q. Public is interested in. I could have walked around there all day. I think if the worlds ultimate hide and seek game were to ever take place, this would be the venue.
One thing I can say about this tour is it moves SLOW. The guide was very knowedgeable but just talked and talked and talked. I quickly realized this in the summer palace which caused me to tour it on my own. Wat Mahathat was no different. Since I was alone I had no one to take photos for me. That being said, this was a destroyed city and naturally it had many nooks and crannies to prop up cameras with timers on them.
As I was exploring Wat Mahathat more and more I noticed this beacon in the distance. It was calling to me. I believe it had some sort of aura. I had to achieve it.
It looked familiar from some of the scarce research I did before I left but it didn’t appear to be the complex we were in. I tried to find a way to it but got blocked by a wall every which way I went. I looked around for my tour guide and asked him how to get there (I later realized he was not my guide). He said I had to leave through the front gate and go across the street to the other ruins. I needed to ditch the tour entirely.
Looking at my watch, (which was really my camera, I have no watch. To tell time on this trip I have had to take a picture and check the time stamp.) I noticed I only had 10 minutes until the bus was scheduled to leave. In a moment of necessity I found the lowest wall I could find, hopped over it, and speed walked down the street towards my new obsession. I arrived at the gate and paid the 50 baht entry fee. I walked a bit further and was presented with this:
I mean are you kidding me? I felt like Indiana Jones immediately. I wanted to run around with a whip and leather hat. I wanted to raid temples and replace priceless artifacts with bags of sand I have deduced to be the exact same weight. I wanted to run from native villagers while dodging primitive darts blown out of bamboo shoots. Although I mentioned running in the last ramblings of fantasies I had, it was something I needed to do if I wanted to see this and also have a ride home. Goodbye power walk.
I quickly headed for the temple and it just got cooler by the minute. It became instantly clear to me you could climb up into it and see out. I was going to raid the temple.
How cool is that? It even has plants growing out of the top like it hasent been discovered in like 512 years.
The stairs only begin at a certain point on the temple, so you have to scale a wall first to get up to them. Then oddly enough there is a railing to aid you on the stairs. Im not sure why they would bother installing it when you have to scale the wall to get there but who am I to judge. Once I got inside I frantically tried to see all of the views from the top, knowing I had to leave right away. That was until I saw the staircase. There was a staircase at the top going all the way past the bottom to an underground area within the temple.
This had to be the steepest staircase I have ever walked down. Again, the pictures don’t do it justice. I slowly climed down this terrifying staircase and eventually reached the bottom. At the bottom it was pretty much a 3 foot by 3 foot area but there was a hole on one of the walls. Yes it gets cooler. I climed through this hole and it lead to a compartment. A compartment with very old religious paintings on the walls. The compartment was not much larger than the 3x3 one that lead to it.
I felt like I had just discovered it. I was giddy. Apparently when the Burmese massacred the Thai they tried to destroy this temple but never noticed the compartment in the bottom. I was truly blown away. Then I checked my watch. I was 5 minutes late for the bus. Crap.
I made my way up the stairs as fast as I could and hustled out of the temple. I was running back to the tour bus which was awful because A: it was super hot and humid and B: if you know me I sweat like no ones business. As I turned the corner I saw my bus pulling out. I waved them down and got on just in time. They usually do a head count after every stop. I guess this was an exception? Regardless I made it back in time and didnt regret a thing. I felt like Eric Cartman when he ran through casa bonita. Even at the end when he had failed horribly, when asked 'was it worth it?', he replied 'totally'. Totally. It was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen.
We made out way to the next stop which was at Wat Phra Sri Sanphet. Although not as cool as Wat Ratchaburana(i did some googling and figured out its name), these ruins were the second best thing we saw. They were vast and diverse. I walked thorough saying 'that is fucking cool' about one hundred times. It really was worth it putting up with the cookie cutter tour package to get to this point. I have a lot of super cool pictures to show you.
Wait what? Thats it? Just the one? I'm sure I took more photos than that... Oh right. My camera died right after taking this picture. Thats right, this is all I have from one of the more amazing places i have been. Sad panda. Sad panda indeed. It is at this point I realize how dependent my writing is on photographs. Im not sure I can make it without them. Lets just say you have to be there to get the full effect. Pictures help me show you what it can be like but being there really fulfills the experience. I suggest following this link to see other peoples photographs of this temple.
One thing i have learned about my camera is that once it runs out of battery, there is always one left in the chamber. You just have to let it marinade a bit. That being said I held out for the perfect picture. I looked around for a while and saw this french couple taking photos from a location that could be labeled as such. I ackwardly hovered around them and waited for them to leave so I could take my perfect photo that was a total rip off of theirs.
Unfortunately i did not get the photo i wanted. Not even close. I had one shot and I blew it. I look like a fugu fish waiting to explode. The lighting is horrible. The framing is wrong. Just all over fail. I tried to get a second shot but after that my camera was truly dead. The good news is i was able to fix most of the issues in Photoshop.
After the last stop we went and boarded the cruse that would take us back to Bangkok. It was surprising relaxing and enjoyable. They featured a buffet lunch which made me feel even more like a fat foreigner but at least it was consistent with American buffets and the food was terrible. The one dimond in the rough was a Thai green curry soup with fish balls. This was my first experience with fish balls and they have the same consistency and flavor as tofu, which is none. But the broth was something to write home to mom about. Me? I just blog home to mom.
