Ayutthaya

Saturday Colie and I went to Ayutthaya, once the capital of Thailand from the 14-17th century until the Burmese sacked the city and it was never re-inhabited as a kingdom. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site, a city full of beautiful ruins of Buddhist temples, wats, and giant Buddhas!

We took the lazy route and instead of bicycling (as recommended) we rode in a tuk tuk with a driver who took us around to all the sights. The tuk tuk was a Song Taow tuk tuk, basically a 3 wheeled vehicle that has no doors, it's open air, and there are little benches on each side. Basically, something that would never pass US driving standards...

The ruins were really beautiful and it was interesting to see Buddhist ruins after seeing so many Roman & Greek ruins in Europe. We saw the largest buddah statue in Thailand where everyone was knelt down worshiping the buddah, placing lotus flowers around him for good luck, burning incense, saying chants, and throwing giant orange clothes on him (not sure what that was about?) We also hiked the steep steps of the Wat Phu Khao Thong where you could see a good veiw of the city and several rice fields down below, also some random cows and roosters that graze the premisis... Quite interesting! At the top of this Wat there was a monk sitting and I approached him for a picture, he let me and then tied a white ribbon around my wrist, a Buddhist symbol for good luck and happiness. Usually the monks don't put these bracelets on women, so I guess it was my lucky day, extra happiness and peace for me! Colie was exploring the Wat so I tied It on her, so I'm not sure what kind of luck and happiness she will gain from that. Haha.

Also life as a Super star (aka blonde attractive white female) in Thailand is going very well! Nichole was at the top of some very steep steps when a Thai woman approached her after running up the steps herself, to take a picture pose with her. This is not an uncommon experience here for us and we often find people gawking at us but generally with a big smile on their face too :)

All in all it was a great day trip and were glad to have gone there and captured some beautiful photos of the ruins! Next stop Angkor Wat Cambodia for me Friday! Lots more fun blogs headed your way!

Xoxo
Jenny & Colie

P.S. Happy fathers day dads! Saturday was fathers day here, they celebrate it the same day as the Kings birthday.