Our buns are still sore from last time, but we have another date on our bicycles. Map in hand, we plot out our course for the day over toast and coffee at our hotel, Ayutthaya River Hut. Characterized by a tidy row of huts made from yellow bamboo mat walls and thatch roofs, our hotel also specializes in woodworking and features gorgeous handmade benches wide enough so your feet dangle from the edge like a little kid. It is also the most comfortable bed we have slept in during the past ten months of backpacking, this is serious. I had the most beautiful sleep: frogs and birds twittering me into a dreamless slumber, and then sun though the windows in the morning looking out over a sugarcane forest. While brimming in charm, it is seriously lacking in the restaurant department, eat elsewhere if you stay here.
For only 40 baht, you get a cute easy rider bicycle complete with wire basket to tote your camera, bag, and Thai iced tea from the street vendor, in my case. My bike is Tiffany blue. I am so excited to cruise around town like a woman in the 50s. I even wear a skirt.
After an easy 15 minute pedal, we arrive at our first stop, Wat Mahathat. This is the home of a very famous and oft-photographed Buddha head being swallowed by a tree. Cool. Like many, many other temples in the area, this was commissioned by the King to house Buddha's relics, in the fourteenth century. There are hundreds of tourists here, and we have to wait in line for a photo with the Buddha head. I even get chastised for standing next to it, I must kneel - lower, lower! The guard standing nearby with his severe hand motions reminds me of a rule I read somewhere that your head must never be higher than Buddha's. You must also be very careful to never point your feet toward Buddha, as feet are dirty, sacrosanct objects. Thank God I wasn't painting my toes at the base of that Buddha tree.
It is at this juncture we discover the city is plotted with red brick bicycle pathways linking many of the ruins together so the tourists and tuk-tuks don't have to mingle on the main roads. Next stop on our Tour de Ayutthaya is the Ancient Palace. Everything is crafted from brick and mortar, which I find more modern feeling than ancient, despite the obvious age of these buildings. On our way to our next destination, we are happily biking down a quiet lane, when suddenly a train of elephants comes sauntering toward us. You might think, how could a crew of elephants suddenly appear, and in the middle of Ayutthaya?! Well, they did. Elephants have a secret: they're sneaky! We honestly couldn't hear loud steps, big trumpeting, nor even feel the ground shake! Apparently it's possible to spend an hour touring the city by elephant, though I wouldn't recommend it. While the elephants looked beautiful, with a gold-trimmed red headdress and blanket on their back, on which was perched a rocky love seat and tasseled gold and red umbrella, they had a horrible clanking chain around their neck and the guides did not appear to treat them very well, armed with a giant metal hook and using their great ears as footrests and violent rudder.
We arrived at the Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was constructed to be a royal chapel for private use in the fifteenth century. It is a fantastic sight to behold, with three identical grey chedis keeping watch over the palace. Scraggly grey trees line the walkway and coupled with the cold chedis, give off an arty winter vibe. They seem to be new (the three chedis), and in fact there is construction at many of the ruin sites where the Thai appear to be rebuilding rather than restoring the ancient structures.
Across the river is a fantastic ruin, the Wat Chai Watthanaram, and a gorgeous place to watch the sun set. A tower stands 35 meters high, surrounded by twelve smaller oranges and a hundred headless Buddhas. I believe the heads were taken or destroyed by the Burmese, who sacked much of Thailand in the eighteenth century. A lone Buddha remains intact (or was rebuilt), and stands guard facing the river on a long rectangular bed of brick.
Several river boats cruise by filled with dinner guests. The boats look like big wooden Chinese vessels with large butcher knife rudders on the rear. Karyoke can be head from the bridge of a few boats. We take our cue and head back across the river in search of dinner. We cycle past a large two story home with a big open patio on the ground floor. There's a big sign out front in Thai, and a slough of locals dining inside, so we're guessing it's a good restaurant, though it could be just a very large family enjoying dinner. We hedge our bets and park our easy riders in front. We are immediately greeted by a warm Thai woman, who helps us order. Everyone is cooking pieces of meat and fish over a stainless steel cone, placed over a big ceramic pot filled with hit coals. It's like fondue! After dinner we excitedly return to our fluffy bed in our Thai river hut, and this is our amazing life right now. I feel so lucky to be witnessing all these Thai treasures.
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