Ayuthaya

Today, we headed to Ayuthaya which is an area of ruined temples dating from the 1300's. Somewhat similar to Angkor Wat and Sukothai, it was amazing to trek through ruins with such history. We really enjoyed exploring about and checking out the various Buddha statues and carvings. However, to say it was brutally hot would be kind. We couldn't drink enough fresh coconut water. (which naturally cools you down). I wish I had an endless supply. A camelback would be nice.




Elephants being a major element of Thai culture, they naturally would have them waiting to cart tourists around the various temple grounds. Victoria and I opted for doing it on foot so that we could crawl all over the ruins and explore, but we stopped off for a little fun in the middle of our day to play with the elephants. Feeding elephants is always fun and having done it in both Thailand and India, I knew she would enjoy it.





Our last temple of the day we both agreed was our favorite. It was the most picturesque and unique. We climed the main stairs into the little dark pinnacle tower and made an interesting discovery. As we walked inside the little temple up top, we heard a strange chirping sound. I was checking out the carvings when Victoria hestitantly told me to look up. There, hanging from the ceiling were about a hundred bats. Eeewww!! I did NOT know that bats chirp... but you learn something new every day. SO gross. This not being my first encounter with bats, I wasn't too freaked out. However, I didn't want to hang around or anything in there. I was really proud of Victoria. She thought it was pretty cool. Definitely NOT her mother's daughter in this case. ;-)








We headed back to Bangkok for some work things for me and ended up at the Oriental Hotel - one of the oldest hotels in Southeast Asia. Beautiful grounds and lush surroundings make it a fun place to explore. One of the cool things about hotels on the river are their own little "shuttle boat" services. We hopped on the Oriental shuttle and headed down the river for dessert - or a dessert buffet rather. (at the recommendation of our friend Catherine Kot). We had to cut ourselves off.

Finishing off the evening at Saum Lum Night Bazaar - night bazaars being another typical Thai event, we found ourselves utterly exhausted after such a long day and began dreaming of our beds as soon as our bodies entered the taxi. Ah, adventures !!