Day 5 - Thailand (12 March 2020)
We had another calm morning as we got ready for the day. Here’s the view from our hotel window!
After another good breakfast, we met Kris in the lobby for another full day of exploring. Today, we drove about an hour to Ayutthaya. This impressive city has 515 temples! Some of them are in ruins from when Myanmar burned them, but some of them are quite spectacular!
Back to the Wat Yai Chai Mongkol. I really enjoyed this visit. Probably my favorite were the multi colored Bougainville. I was also impressed with the good condition of the temple and grounds too!
We walked around gathering information from Kris about the temple. It was constructed in about 1560 a.d. It is so impressive to me that these structures are still in great shape! We took our picture by the reclining Buddha.
I don’t know if you can see the cooling cloths we all are wearing around our necks, but if I haven’t mentioned already, it’s amazingly hot here. Whoa.
The views from the top were glorious! Did I mention how hot it was? I’m pretty sure if you stood in the sun, you’d loose a decent percentage of your body weight in sweat before you had a chance to move to the shade. But what an experience!
Did I already mention the beautiful bougainvillea?
From there, we drove over to Wat Mahathat. This is a temple built in the Cambodian style from 1350 a.d. Can you imagine? That means that 142 years before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, they built this temple. Whoa.
We were able to walk around for a bit, but a lot of this temple is in ruins. So there is a model to see what the temple complex used to look like, before Myanmar burned several of the buildings when they conquered Thailand.
From this Wat, we had a choice on the next temple we would visit. Since it was hot, a few of us wanted to head back to the hotel. So I picked to visit the royal cremation temple, Wat Naphrameru Rajika Ram.
I asked our guide if the ceiling had gem stones as decorations. He said no, because you could find them in Thailand. It’s cut glass, because you had to import it and it was more expensive.
These are the Buddhas that represent the day you were born.
Since I was born in a Wednesday night, this would be my Buddha, in keeping with tradition.
You had to remove your shoes to go in the temple, but the tile was extremely hot to the touch. I learned from our tour guide that you enter temples on the left and then exit on the right, clockwise. So exiting the temple and speed walking on the hot tiles back to our shoes was like playing a game of hot potato for your feet.
We climbed back into the van to visit our final temple for the day, Wat Chai Wattanaram.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a gold and gem stone workshop and store. It was pretty fancy!
We finally made our way back to the hotel. Holy smokes, I was grateful to be able to go swimming in the cool waters of the pool!
We decided we wanted to eat some pizza, so we walked down to an Italian restaurant. What a pleasant surprise it was! It was so good, we may just eat there tomorrow too!
To me, it is mind boggling how many cultures there are in the world. I am grateful for the experiences we are having in Thailand. To be able to see the former Kingdom of Siam makes my 10 year old heart happy! Such wonderful things to experience with fantastic loved ones.
After another good breakfast, we met Kris in the lobby for another full day of exploring. Today, we drove about an hour to Ayutthaya. This impressive city has 515 temples! Some of them are in ruins from when Myanmar burned them, but some of them are quite spectacular!
Our first stop was Wat (meaning temple) Yai Chai Mongkol. It means ‘the temple of the boat noodle.’ It was a beautiful temple area with gorgeous flowers, textures, and color everywhere you looked.
However, we needed to use the facilities, so Alex had her first experience of the squatty potty. It’s authentic! After we exited the bathroom, we learned that they had western toilets around the corner. Hmm...jerks.
Back to the Wat Yai Chai Mongkol. I really enjoyed this visit. Probably my favorite were the multi colored Bougainville. I was also impressed with the good condition of the temple and grounds too!
We walked around gathering information from Kris about the temple. It was constructed in about 1560 a.d. It is so impressive to me that these structures are still in great shape! We took our picture by the reclining Buddha.
I don’t know if you can see the cooling cloths we all are wearing around our necks, but if I haven’t mentioned already, it’s amazingly hot here. Whoa.
After seeing the model of the whole temple area, Alex and I decided we would hike to the top of the staircase, while my parents walked around the base of it with our guide.
The views from the top were glorious! Did I mention how hot it was? I’m pretty sure if you stood in the sun, you’d loose a decent percentage of your body weight in sweat before you had a chance to move to the shade. But what an experience!
Did I already mention the beautiful bougainvillea?
From there, we drove over to Wat Mahathat. This is a temple built in the Cambodian style from 1350 a.d. Can you imagine? That means that 142 years before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, they built this temple. Whoa.
They have a Buddha head that the tree claimed as part of itself and grew up around it. So they allow you to take pictures of the Buddha head and tree, as long as you’re sitting, if you want to be in the picture, as a sign of respect.
We were able to walk around for a bit, but a lot of this temple is in ruins. So there is a model to see what the temple complex used to look like, before Myanmar burned several of the buildings when they conquered Thailand.
From this Wat, we had a choice on the next temple we would visit. Since it was hot, a few of us wanted to head back to the hotel. So I picked to visit the royal cremation temple, Wat Naphrameru Rajika Ram.
It was the royal temple where there was mourning after the death of a loved one. I’m glad we were able to see inside. It was really pretty! The reason why this temple was still standing, was because when Myanmar conquered the city, the person in charge of the army stayed in it.
I asked our guide if the ceiling had gem stones as decorations. He said no, because you could find them in Thailand. It’s cut glass, because you had to import it and it was more expensive.
These are the Buddhas that represent the day you were born.
Since I was born in a Wednesday night, this would be my Buddha, in keeping with tradition.
You had to remove your shoes to go in the temple, but the tile was extremely hot to the touch. I learned from our tour guide that you enter temples on the left and then exit on the right, clockwise. So exiting the temple and speed walking on the hot tiles back to our shoes was like playing a game of hot potato for your feet.
We were getting ready for lunch, when we found a darling place to eat, overlooking the river. The food was served family style again, and it was good!
We climbed back into the van to visit our final temple for the day, Wat Chai Wattanaram.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a gold and gem stone workshop and store. It was pretty fancy!
We finally made our way back to the hotel. Holy smokes, I was grateful to be able to go swimming in the cool waters of the pool!
We decided we wanted to eat some pizza, so we walked down to an Italian restaurant. What a pleasant surprise it was! It was so good, we may just eat there tomorrow too!
To me, it is mind boggling how many cultures there are in the world. I am grateful for the experiences we are having in Thailand. To be able to see the former Kingdom of Siam makes my 10 year old heart happy! Such wonderful things to experience with fantastic loved ones.
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