Ayutthaya.

I currently have Fridays off from work. Since the boys have school until 2:30 and we have Nanny Moo until 6 or 7 Chad and I have been celebrating every Friday as “child free Friday!” While we miss Sam and Jack — it is much easier to get around the city without them (especially in the heat).

Despite a weather forecast calling for all-day thunderstorms we decided we would still attempt a day trip out of the city. Today we went to the ancient city of Ayutthaya in Ayuttaya province approximately 75 km (and a 1 hour drive) out of the city of Bangkok. Ayutthaya is located in the Chao Praya River valley (the same major river that flows through Bangkok). The city was once the capital city of Siam, replacing the first capital city of Sukhothai when a small pox epidemic forced the king to relocate. Ayyutah is now home to the Ancient Royal Palace and several dozen temple ruins. It also has elephants…

I had actually gone to Ayyutayah previously on a day trip during the 2 weeks I was TDY to Bangkok alone in early August before the entire family relocated. That trip had been more of an experiment in logistics–to see how easily you could get out of the city and around town without a car or scooter. The first trip involved train travel which is both super cheap and fairly quick (about 2 hours). This trip, Chad and I opted to take an air conditioned van to cut an entire hour off the trip and give us more time to explore. We were able to rent bikes once we arrived in the ancient city which allowed us to cover a lot of ground in the few hours we were there.

We went to several temples (called wats in Thai) including Wat Mahathat which houses the Buddha head in the Bodhi tree (extremely popular with tourists and often found on the front of tourism books/posters), Wat Lokayasutharm which houses a giant reclining Buddha and Wat Phra Su Samphet which is simply huge. Reclining Buddha statues are found throughout Thailand and represents Buddha during his last illness before he enters parinirvana (nirvana after death). We also took a side trip to visit some elephant friends and take a ride!

It was a really fantastic trip!