A Driving Trip to Ayutthaya and a wholesale market

I wrote about a trip to Ayutthaya here once, but it was a train trip. We decided to rent a car this time and drove from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.

In 1976 Ayutthaya was declared a historical park and in 1981 it was declared a UNESCO World Herritage site. Click on the map to see the full-sized one.

It was Sunday in the morning that we started our driving trip. From Silom road, it took us only 40 minutes to get to Ayutthaya. The first place we stopped for a visit was Mahathat temple. We missed this place the last time we came.

Next we went to Wat Thammikarat which is not far from Wat Mahathat. It is an old temple but not part of the historical park. It is still in used today. There are some monks in that temple and many stray dogs. I donated some money for them. When we walked in, we saw some cows eating grass in the temple. There was a donation box in front from the yard said to buy a cow that was sending to a slaughterhouse and then they would brought them back to the temple and let them stay there.

See the elephant in the picture above? It was to cast lots. Use the ring finger to lift the elephant for female and use the pinky for male. You will have to do it twice:

1. say in your mind about what you want to have it come true and that if it will really come true you can lift up the elephant
2. use the finger, ring finger for female and pinky for male, to lift the elephant
3. if you can lift it up for the first time then you have to do it again but say it in your mind that if what i said in the 1. will come true, I cannot lift the elephant up this time.

And then see what you will get :)

I never try it though.

The last temple was Wat Chaiwatthanaram. We went only to 3 places cause we have been here once and got many photos already. We came here once again to take photos at where we missed.

Chai Watthanaram is a big old temple by the river. It is part of the Ayutthaya historical park. It was constructed in 1630 and there were 120 sitting Buddha statues along the wall but they were all ruined.

I forgot to tell you that the Ayutthaya City was destructed by Burmese in 1767 and every temples there was also destructed. They burnt the temples for gold and cut the heads of the statues and brought them back to Burma. So you will see a statues without head everywhere.

We spent only half a day in Ayutthaya. We had lunch at a place by the river and then drove back to Bangkok. On the way we stopped at a big market. It is a wholesale place where the retailers come and get goods to sell in a small market, department store or at their own places. You can find various kinds of things for sale there, seafood, fruits, vegetables, flowers, pets, etc.

Once we got to Bangkok, we went to a bookstore for some Thailand travel guide books and maps and did research on the internet for where we would have the next driving trip to :)

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• A Trip to an Ancient City and Monkey Town [2]
• A Trip to an Ancient City and Monkey Town [1]
  

A trip to an ancient city and monkey town [2]

The next day we woke up early and walked to the train station to take a train to Lopburi. We got to Lopburi in an hour later. We got a/c this time.

Lopburi is a small city with ruined buildings like temple or palace. Once you get there by train you can hire Tuk Tuk, motorbike taxi or Sam lor to explore the city. Start from the train station you can travel in circle to visit the ruined place there.

After we got out of Lopburi train station, we saw a big ruined temple. We walked across the street to the temple, Wat Prasrirattanamahathat. That was the first place we visited in Lopburi.

After we got out of the temple there was an old man waiting for us and offered us a Sam Lor ride around the city for 200 or 300 baht. It must be hard work for him!!

In Ayutthaya era, there was a king named Narai had the second house there. It's called Narai Ratchaniwet Palace.

We had been to 2-3 places but never saw any monkeys yet. Then we saw one running in front of the building and we took pictures of him. Once we got to Pra Prang Samyod, we saw lots of them there. It was like the big house of monkeys. We bought some monkey food from a boy there. He gave us a tour around the place and told us how to feed the monkeys.

After that we walked to San Prakarn, where the monkey god was. We hardly saw monkeys there but there was a monkey sitting there eating boiled eggs but he ate only the yolk and threw the white away. Before we got to San Prakarn, we saw a big group of monkeys walking across the road.

After we were done, we went back to the train station. We got the standee tickets and no a/c. When we got back to the hotel in Ayutthaya we cleaned ourselves and were ready to leave. We checked out almost at 5 pm and took the train back to Bangkok.

We took lots of photos from there. It was a good place for photos!

Related Article:

• A trip to an ancient city and monkey town [1]

A trip to an ancient city and monkey town [1]

There are many ancient cities in Thailand, Ayutthaya, Lopburi, Kanchanaburi, Sukhothai and so on. I dont know how many exactly ancient cities we have here. I have been to fews of them.

And the trip Im gonna write about here today is a trip to Ayutthaya and Lopburi, 2 different provinces. Ayutthaya is an hour away from Bangkok and Lopburi is another hour away from Ayutthaya.

We decided to take the train trip. On Friday 20th of March after, we went to Rangsit train station which is not far from my house. We got to the station at 7 pm. I asked for 2 a/c seat but the ticket guy gave us free ones and said it would come soon so we didnt have to wait long. Because it was only one hour away we got it. The train was crowded and we stood till we got to Ayutthaya at 9 pm.

We walked to the hotel where I stayed there before, Krungsri River. It only hundreds meters away from the train station. We aksed them to check in for 2 nights. The next day we took Tuk Tuk in front of the hotel to the scooter place. We rented a scooter for a day for 300 baht and then rode it around the town.

As shown in the map, you will see the island which was the Kingdom of Krungsri Ayutthaya hundreds years ago. The train station is outside of the island and also the hotel we stayed in.

The first place we went to was the ancient city. We parked the scooter at the market in the Phra Sri Sanphet temple. We had breakfast there. Yep, Ka Prao Gai with Kai Dow. You will see lots of food there.

After breakfast we went to the temple. There was a big golden statue of Buddha there. Outsite the temple was the big ancient city. I have never explored the whole area cause it was always hot and I think if you wanna walk around that place you will have to spend more than an hour.

See more photos here and here.

When we were done, we moved to the other temple near there. On the way we saw people riding an elephant. Looked fun!

The next place we were gonna go was a temple with the big laying Buddha. The temple was outside of the island. We rode across the river and got to the temple, Wat Yai Chai Monkol.

That place was the last place for us for that day. After that we went back to the hotel to clean ourselves and then drove the scooter to the town for dinner and to return the scooter. We took Tuk Tuk back and rest for the next adventure we were gonna have the next day.

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