Ancient City

Since we have grown accustomed to tours, we booked one that took us to the ancient capital city of Thailand, Ayutthaya. Our hotel had a driver take us to the meeting point (so nice!) and then we hopped on a bus with about 15 other people.

We drove for about 90 minutes and got to see some of the Bangkok “suburbs” along the way. It really is a mix of old stacked housing and new planned housing. I will say that Bangkok is the cleanest city we have been to, but the amount of single use plastic in SE Asia is a pretty concerning. They even give you a plastic bag that holds your iced coffee (and I’m given a straw with basically every beverage, sometimes bamboo but mostly plastic).

We arrived at our first temple around 9. It was the largest one we were going to see as it was the original Royal Palace; however, the Burmese razed it to the ground in 1767, so we were mostly seeing remnants that survived. What was especially neat for us is that this temple combined the Khmer style with the Thai style, so while the temple looked similar to some in Cambodia, they had a new look to them. This one also featured a Buddha head in a tree, which was so neat to see!

We stayed there for about an hour before hopping back on the bus to visit our second temple in the ancient city. This site was a bit smaller, but the three huge stupas were really beautiful. We also got to see an enormous Buddha which was originally in the temple, but was moved to a more modern structure for protection. Before we left, we also saw elephants! They were just walking down the sidewalk (giving rides) and I was just an arm’s length away - ahhh - as they walked by! Elephants were used in both Cambodia and Thailand for war, and you see everyone here (okay, tourists) wearing pants with elephants all over them.

Our final temple stop was to see a huge reclining Buddha. This was the main feature and it was certainly impressive! Having some extra time here, we stopped at a vendor who was selling durian popsicles! This time you could definitely smell the terrible smell and if you licked it, it sort of tasted unpleasant. However, if you bit it and ate it, it was creamy and fruity. So bizarre!

Next, we drove about one hour to get on our boat cruise, which would take us back into Bangkok. Bangkok is actually a city of canals, which I did not know. It’s also sinking at a rate of 5 inches a year, so flooding is often quite bad and getting much worse.

On the boat, we had a great view and a lunch buffet that featured mainly Thai food. The food here is noticeably more spicy! There was a great selection of dishes and we had fun trying almost everything! We also got to see Bangkok from another perspective. There are houses on stilts and then luxury waterfront homes right beside them. Again, it’s an odd juxtaposition of living spaces. It was also neat to see the many waterfront Buddhas and temples.

After about a 1 1/2-2 hour ride, we docked and our hotel driver whisked us back to the hotel where we promptly took a nap.

We didn’t have any dinner plans because there are honestly a million places to eat and Bangkok is so big that it isn’t quick or easy to get to other neighborhoods. So, with some Googling, I came across Sam Lor, which means tuk tuk. It looked like our kind of joint, so we got out our umbrellas and walked to it. When we arrived, they told us they were fully booked for the evening. We were about to leave, but then the host said we could occupy a table briefly and then when the couple at the bar left, we could eat there. Success!

We started with a tamarind cider and a craft beer before moving to the countertop. Then we had oysters in seaweed butter; chef’s choice fried rice; fried squid with salted egg; beef krapow; and finally the Thai style omelette which was basically an omelette inside a soufflé! We ordered way too much as usual, but everything was so good and there was so much we wanted to try! As a show of gratitude for getting us in, we bought the kitchen staff a round of beer and left feeling so full and pretty darn happy!

On our walk to the restaurant we had seen a cute little bar called Very Nice Bar, so we popped in on our way back to have a nightcap (matcha fizz for me and a sour-sour for Brad). The drinks were as cute as the place and we had a nice time looking at pictures from today’s temple visit.

Luckily, we don’t need to get up early tomorrow, and I will enjoy a restful morning for a change!Read more