Wat's what in Ayuthaya (plus New Year on the moon)
Text written in: English
Although as excellent as our tour was, Lindsey and I wanted to see
some of the wats we had visited on our own terms (and preferably when
they were open). So a couple of days after our tour (New
Years Eve) we set off early in the morning with a map in hand; dressed
to the nines in our cliched tourist garb (caps, backpack, digital
camera etc), to see what Ayuthaya had to offer. We didn't have to walk
far to get to our first destination, Wat Ratburana, which happened
to be at the end of our road and next to that lay another
major temple, Wat Mahatat, which is probably the most photographed site
in Ayuthaya as it contains a Buddha head, around which, tree roots have
grown.
Wat Ratburana was built in 1424 to contain the
ashes of King Boromaraja's II two brothers, who killed each other in
battle, on elephant back, fighting over the throne. When
both brothers died, the younger brother, Boromaraja, was given the
throne and in commemoration of his brothers this wat was commissioned
and built. Much later in 1957 thieves managed to break in to the wat
and steal undiscovered relics, including a golden crown and
sword, most of which were never recovered, those that were
are now in the national museum. Wat Ratburana (like the
other temple we saw on the day) is in worse condition than Wat Yai Chai
Mongkhon, the Buddhas that once surrounded this beautiful place were
destroyed by the Burmese when they ransacked the city in 1767
and then later beheaded by trophy hunters, but the remains
are still here. From reading the literature around the temple we
discovered that a mural of the early Ayuthaya period resides in a crypt
of the temple.
To get to this crypt however you have to
walk to down a steep and narrow stairwell which halfway down becomes
even narrower. On seeing this it was obvious that Lindsey
wasn't going to go down there, to make it even less appealing the steps
were so thin, you had to walk sideways and climb it like you would a
ladder. Even I had second thoughts and only when I saw
others doing it did I join in and start to descend into the
darkness. At the bottom, after quite a way, you come to a
room which can be reached by climbing a massive stair and can only
house two to three people at a time. It was incredibly hot
down there and considering the day was hitting around 32, that's some
heat. To add to already overwhelming sense of claustrophobia
a queue had formed, as the room was so small, outside on the narrow
stairwell. Finally when there was enough room I climbed the
step and stood upright in the small chamber, on the walls
where the murals as promised and some Buddha shrines. The murals were
almost intact but not overly impressive, the climb had been the
highlight for me and I would only recommend the experience just for
that.
Wat Mahathat is located just next to Wat Ratburana
and dates back to the early 14th century and was built by King Ramesuan
and despite the extensive damage, the wat is still extravagant to
a large degree. To cover what we saw here would go on
forever, so I sometimes find that it would be easier (for me that is)
to let someone else explain, those wishing to learn about this amazing
wat should look here :
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7153/wayut_mh.htm
After
walking around the grounds of these impressive wats we went on our
merry way to find the Ancient Palace and Wat Phra Si
Sanphet. On our travels we took in Wat Phra Ram; which
happened to be just across the road from our destination but us,
being us, we were already lost. Wat Phra Ram was less
impressive than the previous two and as expected, and as we were
warned, we were already wat(ted) out. By now it was really
hot and we were starting to feel it, we still wandered around for
another 45 minutes lost and confused before stumbling upon a tuk-tuk
driver who took us to our destination. Near the grounds of
Wat Phra Si Sanphet lies Wat Mongkhon Bophit , a monastery, which
contains one of Thailand's largest Buddha images, a 15th century bronze
casting. Many Thai flock to this temple to meditate and pay respect to
the Buddha so there was a constant flow of people
milling about and a sea of shoes
were scattered around outside. The Buddha itself
is incredibly huge, and we mean huge, it's so large that you have
to crane your neck backwards when you're close just to see the
face.
After seeing the Buddha we took a walk around the
food market, which is located in the temple grounds, as it was now way
past lunchtime and we must have our food. We came across a
stall that appeared to be frying fish cakes but we couldn't be sure, so
as we stared and wondered a skewer with the cooked food appeared right
in front of Lindsey. It was held out for us to try and to
our delight they were fish cakes, the finest fish cakes we've ever had
as it goes and instantly we ordered two bags. For 40 baht
(just over 60p) we had two bags of fish cakes, each bag contained
around a dozen, which were dripping in sweet chilli sauce and fresh
cucumber slices. We bought some water, plonked ourselves on
the side of the road and scoffed the lot! What a perfect way to take
lunch.
We ended our sight seeing tour at Wat Phra Si
Sanphet which was Ayuthaya's largest temple in it's time and it was
used as a royal temple/palace for several Ayuthaya kings. At the back
of the major structure lies the foundations of the Ancient palace which
in itself isn't worthy of any note, other than its scenic resting
place, which is now a massive park with hundreds of
trees. Once again it falls to other people to do describe
this wat, so those wishing to know more should look here :
http://thailandforvisitors.com/central/ayuthaya/sisanpet.html
In
the evening, completely knackered and slightly burnt, we headed for the
Moon Cafe to see in the New Year. The Moon Cafe is a chilled
out place with musical instruments scattered around inside and a
bar that has money of different currencies hanging from it with brief
notes attached from the traveller who left it there. It has stools
surrounding the bar, for farang tastes, and plays great music such
as soul, Thai folk, jazz and the odd bit of Tom
Waits. Outside, on this particular weekend, was a massive
barbeque griddle and gas stoves. Tables and chairs surround the cooking
area and loads of fish, chicken, beef, shrimp, stir fries, potatoes,
sushi and some weird Japanese pancake concoction were all happily
cooking away. All of this was readily available for the Moon Cafes'
guests and it was all free. We ate and drank plenty and
spoke to people from all over the world all night; from Canada,
Holland, South Korea, Japan, etc and it just felt great to be able to
see in the new year wearing a t-shirt! At
midnight a huge fireworks display took place across town for the whole
City to see, there was dancing in the street and the festivities ran
until early in the morning. We got home around 3am (we
think) and we're greeted by our guesthouse owner with some flowers that
she had just picked from her garden. New Year Thai style
comes highly recommended.
The next day was our last in
Ayuthaya, with our hangovers we weren't up too much but we said goodbye
to our friends at the Moon Cafe. Once again we were invited
to the barbeque and were given a huge fish, stir fries, crispy pork and
rice to nurse the hangover. The barmaid, a lovely young
woman by the name of Took, cooked up her specialty desert for us;
Banana flambe. She took some white sugar and added lime
juice and brought it up to the boil, added a little water, boiled some
more, added the sliced banana and sprinkled brown sugar over the
top. She let the banana caramelise and turned them over,
then after a few minutes she added her special ingredient - tons
and tons of rum! She then spilt a little of the mixture on
to the gas flame and the whole thing went up, big red flames shot out
of the pan and after that it was ready to serve. It was
so, so good. God bless that woman. We said our
goodbyes to Took and the owner, a scary long haired man by the name of
Chai (who incidentally has a bad reputation around these parts and
although he looks like he could pull out your still beating heart, with
his teeth, he was nothing but hospitable and kind to us).
We
were leaving the next morning for Lopburi, the land of the monkeys,
which we will tell you about in our next update.
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(5) (Josh Cleall and Sophie Walker)
Everyone else on our bus was heading for Bangkok and it was only us who wanted to get...
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Entry 10 of 53 
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