Feb. 16

Today we took a trip to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital from 1350 – 1767. The original capital was in the north. Burma and Thailand warred over borders for years. In 1767 the Burmese conquered Thailand and burned Attalya to the ground, there are many ruins which were once obviously major temples.

Today  Ayutthaya is a farming community of about one million  people. During the period of 1767 and 1782 The Burmese ruled. After the capital was moved to Bangkok. It’s Thai name ( which I cannot begin to spell) means city of angels.

King Rama v of Bangkok (aka Yul Brenner of the King and I) had a summer palace built in Ayutthaya It was not used for long as his favorite concubine died when her barge overturned on a trip home one year. He never returned.

Our first stop was at an elephant camp. We saw a baby elephant perform and then had another elephant ride. This was more luxurious as we had a seat raised up with reasonable leg room and an umbrella overhead. The raised seat made for more comfortable riding.

We then toured the ruins. One interesting sight was a stone carved Buddha head which had grown into the rots of a tree. It is believed that a Buddha statue was buried to protect it from the Burmese, a tree was planted over the spot and years later as the tree grew the head emerged from the ground embedded in the roots. There was also a current temple with a large gold Buddha several smaller Buddhas line the temple. Most have peeling gold leaf on them. People bring pieces of gold leaf to put on the Buddha for good luck.

There were 33 kings in Ayutthaya  (all the kings are named Rama). They are known asKing Rama the (#) of Ayutthaya. When the capital was moved to Bangkok the numbering started again ie the current king is King Rama IX of Bangkok.

There was a grand palace in Ayutthaya, which must have been at least as lathe as the current one in Bangkok and from the pictures we saw just as lavish. The palaces all have an outer courtyard and an inner, only women and the king are allowed in the inner courtyard. So all the work in the inner courtyard eg gardening etc was done by women. 

The summer palace main building is Chinese style. It was built by the Chinese population in Bangkok as a gift to the king. The king had roads built in Bangkok and instead of destroying properties and buildings in China Town he instructed that the roads be built around the existing houses, so the road “snakes” through the community. There was a large carving of a dragon made of camel bones in the house. The king was the only one to use the house and sleep there. His wives (all 92 of them) had smaller houses around. His first wife and favorite concubine had the largest houses. If the king wanted to spend the night with one of them he went to their house.

His office is a small open building set in one of the small lakes. Beside it, on land is another small open building where he would go to play with the children when he wanted to relax.

The current king is considered to be a real family man – he has only one wife. As I understand it this king and the 2 before him have taken only one wife.

On our way back to the ship we stopped for lunch of Chinese food. There are a number of Chinese here and the influence of their culture is often seen. Our guide’s grandfather had immigrated from China. Apparently it often happens that one generation will immigrate here then one or two generations later they emigrate to Europe or the Americas.

I think I have figured out how to get pictures on the site and will add some pictures after our tour on Thursday.