The Ancient Kingdoms of Sukothai and Ayutthaya

      The Thai Studies group took a field trip last week-- we traveled down to central Thailand, down near Bangkok, to two of three ancient kingdoms: Sukothai and Ayutthaya (the third being the present Bangkok).  The kingdom of Sukothai lasted from 1238-1438, and Ayuttaya lasted for a much longer period from 1351-1767.  The two kingdoms overlapped for a period of time, but Sukothai was eventually was just left and abandoned.  The fall of Ayutthaya didn't quite happen like that though, and was instead invaded by the Burmese, and was reduced to chaos before it was burned.  So many of the ruins at Ayutthaya are actually charred from the burning.  It's actually incredibly impressive how much of it is still intact after all these years--really shows you how advanced ancient civilizations were for their time. 
     So the first day wasn't too bad, we had about a 5 hour bus ride down to Sukothai, and just settled into a nice little hotel, and went to a museum, then got to take a bike ride around the historic park of Sukothai.  The next morning, we had to get up pretty early, enjoy a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, and wild honeycomb, followed by a tour of Sukothai which included the giant standing buddha on the top of a hill set back in the forrest (pictured below):

some perspective of how big this standing Buddha is

The tour also included Wat Sri Chum (pictured below): 

again, some perspective on just how big this Buddda is!!!

We were also toured around the main city center (pictured below):

     After we were toured around for the morning to these Wats, we had some lunch at a local market, and then got back on the bus for another five hours to head down to Atutthaya.  We pretty much just had free time once we got down to Ayutthaya for the rest of the night, and woke up early the next morning to be toured around the kingdom ruins.  The Wats we saw include Wat Si Sanphet, Wat Maha That, Wat Yaichaimongkhol, and one other Wat that is currently slipping my mind.

Wat Si Sanphet (pictured below):

Wat Maha That (pictured below):

The tree has grown around this stone Buddha head throughout the thousands of years

One of the other Wats we visited (pictured below):

so steep!!!

all that remains of a large Buddha

Wat Yaichaimongkhol (pictured below):

giant reclined Buddha

me looking TINY on these steps!

we saw the most beautiful rainbow making a complete circle around the sun!

     We were finished touring these ruins by mid-afternoon, and stopped by a museum before heading back to the hotel we were staying at.  After we got back, we had free time all night, and had dinner on our own.  This hotel was great though because it had airconditioned rooms (Ayutthaya is even more hot than in Chiang Mai because of the scenery change: Ayutthaya is not in the mountainous area of Thailand).  It also had a great place next door to grab a good sandwich and some french fries (yes I know I'm in Thailand, but I definitely need my western food fix every week)!!  That night (Friday) we took a walk down to one of the night markets that was near by to the hotel.  I absolutely love the markets because they have some amazing, and also weird food (that's fun to try out either way).  Entire body of a catfish on a stick anyone (above right)?? Actually though, until I came out here to Thailand,  when I would see whole fishes I would be rather grossed out, and very much preferred my fish prepared and cut ready to buy in fillet or steak form.  Now, I've seen that if you order fish here, you're getting the entire fish.  It's so delicious though! I think what makes it so yummy is that you're literally just pulling the fish off of the bone after the entire body has been prepared in whatever marinade or sauce.  Anyway though, after we hungout for the rest of the afternoon and evening, we had to wake up on Saturday to go to to Bang Pa-In Palace.  It was pretty crazy when we first arrived because we were supposed to wear our uniforms for this outing to the palace to look more proper, yet, my uniform skirt is just above my knees.  This was unacceptable, as they are very strict at Bang Pa-In about proper dress.  I had to walk all the way back to the bus to grab the extra skirt I had brought with me that could be adjusted to go below my knees.  Once I finally got on the grounds I found out that this Palace was pretty cool because the King has a couple of living quarters that him, and the royal family still stay at occasionally, and they also have banquets on the grounds.  In fact, there were military men stationed with guns in multiple places within the premises.  What was quite striking to me about the palace however, was that it had no Thai influence what-so-ever.  There was actually much European influence, as well as Chinese influence.  The one thing I didn't like about coming here though, was that as opposed to all of the ruins, and even the Wats in Chiang Mai that we've seen, the palace just seemed to be like something you would find in Europe and well I guess it just made the palace less impressive to me.  We spent basically the entire morning at this palace to walk around and see everything, as the grounds were quite extensive.  (Please see the pictures posted below):

view from the top of the tower pictured above this photo

we also saw a huge monitor lizard swimming in the mote!!!!

     So after we saw the Palace, we grabbed a quick lunch, and then we were off to the Ayutthaya floating market.  Before we got there, I was assuming it was going to be something like the Bangkok floating market (and actually have chains of boats in the water selling merchandise and food).  However, when we arrived, I realized very quickly that it was instead just a huge attraction.  The market was basically a tourist attraction -- although not for westerners really.  I didn't realize it at first, but noticed after a little while that it wasn't huge crowds of westerners I was seeing, it was huge crowds of Thai's.  I later asked one of the professors accompanying us on the trip why it was like this, and he replied by telling me that because Ayutthaya is so historic, and many of the Thai's still try very hard to keep a firm grip on traditional Thailand, this floating market was recreated and many many Thai's come from many places in Thailand to try and be a part of the experience.  Being there however, was kind of miserable because it was so so so so so crowded, and basically just reminded me of the equivalent of a Six Flags water park in the United States.  Nevertheless, I still took some pictures:

this woman is making omelets from her boat

there was a pen of baby goats!

     So yeah, in a nutshell, that's basically how I spent an extended weekend last weekend.  I'm thinking I probably won't be writing for another couple weeks, but stay posted about a nice long post about a week (10/15-10/24) at the South Beaches (Koh Tao Island, and Koh Phangan Island) coming in a couple weeks!!!!

Time to Play Catch-up

So it's been a really long time since I've written last, but not much has really been happening in daily life except the routine of going to classes and the occasional market.. I do however have a few things I need to write about and play catch-up a little bit.  I'm going to start with a post about the reeeeaaallly cool waterfall a bunch of us went to a couple weeks ago.  So this waterfall is about an hour away from Payap University (where we're living).. it's called Buatong waterfall.  Probably one of the coolest places I've been out in the wilderness.  The picture to the left is basically just the top half of the entire thing.. which is all we thought it really was at first, but then discovered that there was much more.  We walked down these stairs (that the picture above is taken from) and found an entirely new part of the waterfall.  Now, we had been told that the rocks are not slippery at all, so you can climb up the entire thing, but obviously still had no idea what to expect.  Turns out, the rumors were true, and the rocks weren't slippery.. it was the coolest thing, just climbing up and down this beautiful waterfall through the gushing water--i guess they were covered in calcium or something along those lines.  And much to my surprise, the water was SO warm! Sure, freezing cold water would have felt amazing also because of the outrageous heat here, but it was refreshing that we could just sit on the rocks all along the waterfall in the water in comfort instead of having to get out every few minutes.  We spent about two hours there before the skies were looking a like it was time for the daily downpour, so we decided to head back up and get our ride home, but this certainly will not be the only time we come to this gorgeous place.

middle part of the waterfall

view from the top

climbing up!!!!

Gina, Tyler, Pope, and Parker sitting on the top

just enjoying a waterfall shower!