Ayuthaya

Being stuck in Bangkok because of visa processing to Vietnam we decided to take a day trip to (one of) the formal capitals: Ayuthaya. It is 86 km North from Bangkok and I know it is boring, but it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was the Siamese royal capital from the 14th till the 18th century, when Burmese took it over and almost completely destroyed it. Today not too much is left to be proud of other than the ruins, as a silhouette reminding the once illustrious city. Three rivers meet here and most of the ancient ruins by canals, making it a really idyllic option to discover the sights on boat ride or bicycle.

We have chosen the later option, as usual pushing the pedal when the Sun was at its peak, so we had to take it really slowly with a lot of breaks and trying to drink at least a portion of the liquids we have lost by perspiration. Amazingly sometimes only by sitting sweat run all over us just like when sitting in a Finish sauna.

I am not even trying to list all the temple ruins there are to visit and the ones we saw, hopefully our photos in the Gallery will talk for themselves. But the elephants! I have to mention them after we fell in love with these creatures in Nepal; there is a so called Elephant Kraal, which used to be the spot for the annual wild elephant show, now functioning much in a similar fashion except that it is mostly for the tourists, not for the royal family. Luckily these species seem to have have a better treat than their sisters in Chitwan, having a huge area for their walkabout and a number of babies similarly charming and playful as we already experienced. They are beautifully decorated with paintings already preparing for the biggest Thai festival, the Songkran, starting on the 12th turning the whole country upside-down till the 15th of April. Probably we should better equip ourselves also than at Holi Festival in Nepal...