Did It Anyway

I didn’t know much about the Ayutthaya Historical Site when we visited. “It’s an old ancient ruin site.” I thought. How wrong I was. It’s not very old.

The opulent and wealthy capital was destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767, and then again a few times after. In my mind when I think of destroyed cities, I generally think of places much, much older than this.

As I wandered the kiln-like ruins in sweltering heat, fascinated by the scale and signs of violent destruction, I wondered how a city like this could vanish so thoroughly, so recently. What if something like this had happened to a major capital city in Europe around the same time? And, having already visited Bangkok and Chiang Mai, and seen the flourishing Wat complexes there, I found Ayutthaya extremely moving. What happened here?

When we visited over a few days in January, the site was very quiet and peaceful. The busiest we found was at Wat Phra Si Sanphet, where a few groups were being led around the grounds. Here I was approached by some middle-school kids who were practicing their english and snapping pics to prove it. They said they come to Ayutthaya on the bus yearly, learning more every time. I asked if they had seen the very popular TV docu-fictional series called Sri Ayodhaya, about the rise and fall of the Ayutthaya kingdom. They didn’t know what I was talking about. I guess they’re still too young for a violent and political drama.

But fans of the show are evident at Ayutthaya anyway. They rent period costumes and pose for photos. Of all the tourists, I had no problem waiting for them to finish and move along. They looked so terribly hot and so utterly happy.

Visiting Ayuttaya

I was stunned at how easily we visited the ruins: got on a bike at our hotel, rode 4 minutes, parked by the road, paid an entry fee and walked in. It’s not like there’s one single area to visit. While there is a cluster, the ruins are really spread out, all over the modern city, and across the rivers. Some sites are paid entry, part of the main authority, others are entry by donation, like Wat Chaiwatthanaram. There are ruins dotting the modern city, fenced off, and with a plaque. We never found a single, authoritative map, although our hotel owner did provide a fully customized map.

If you go during a hot season, get up early, visit a site, take a break starting in late morning, and come back after you cool down.

We took an afternoon boat tour, which went too quickly for my curiosity. Our tour went quickly after a rough start, and there was zero guidance, just a boat pilot ferrying people from site to site, trying to get to the last site before sunset. While the river views were interesting, I’d have been happy just taking a taxi or Grab car from site to site, or riding a rental scooter.

I think it would take 4 solid days to see everything, which we just couldn’t muster in the heat wave. I would happily return here during a cooler time.

Ayutthaya Heros

The trees of the historical site were my heros. Without them, this post would be maybe 3 pictures long. To whomever planted them, I thank you. They really took the edge off of things, and made it bearable to walk around thousands of sun-drenched stones.

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