Feb 2 My last day in Ayutthaya

My last day of sightseeing on this trip.

I am pretty well "templed out". Thailand has more temples than Canada has Tim Horton coffee shops. Hard to believe.

I am staying in Ayutthaya. This city was founded in 1350, as the capital of Siam, after the Burmese over-ran Sukhothai. It's about 400 km south of Sukhothai. This part of Thailand is very fertile agricultural land. Lots of rice fields along the way.

This site was chosen because it was an island, at the junction of three rivers, and was easily defended. It's location also made it ideal as a trading center between China, India, and Malaysia, and also Europe.

By 1770, Ayutthaya had a population of 1 million, making it the largest city in the world. I checked Google, Istanbul had a population of 700 000, Beijing 650 000, and London 600 000. It's temples and riches were known worldwide. It had representative communities from several European countries.

Everything was going well, until those nasty Burmese invaded and burned Ayutthaya to the ground in 1776. 

All that is left now are the ruins of some temples and palaces. Anything not made of stone was burned, and looted. One of the Bhuddas was melted down, and yielded 160 kilos of gold. Makes invading worthwhile.

The ruins are right in the center of the old city. I visited early in the morning. First it's not too hot, and secondly the tour buses haven't arrived. Ayutthaya is a popular day trip from Bangkok, only an hour away. Every tour company in Bangkok sells tours to Ayutthaya, so between 11 and 4 Ayutthaya is over-run by tourists. Mornings and evenings are much quieter and cooler.

An interesting little tidbit...the tuk-tuks are quite different from city to city. A piece of interesting, but totally useless bit of information.

Another thing I have noticed. There are some fat people here. I can't recall seeing any overweight people in Northern Thailand, or in Cambodia and Laos, but the good life has arrived in the South. I even saw quite a few chubby school kids. I remember the same thing in Vietnam, obesity was only in the south.

To top everything off, there was a beautiful sunset tonight.

Back home tomorrow 

Ralf

Tuk-tuk in Sukhothai 

Tuk-tuk in Ayutthaya, they come in many brilliant colours

The lobby in the hotel I stayed in Ayutthaya 

This head of a Bhudda, overgrown by a tree is one of the iconic pictures of Thailand, and is on many postcards. After the Burmese burned Ayutthaya, this head became entangled in the tree, and this is the result after 200 years

Another big Bhudda, made of brass, it stands, or sits over 20 m.