Mother's Day Trip to Ayutthaya

Tuesday was Mother's Day here in Thailand, so we had the day off of school. All 5 of us SMs decided to go to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is an ancient city that was conquered by the Burmese. There are tons of tourist hot spots that are so interesting to excavate! At 7:30am we left and got on a som tao that took us to the BTS. Once on the BTS we traveled the whole route! Once at the last BTS station, we took a taxi to the bus station. You have to make sure that the taxi driver has a meter and that he starts it because they will try and rip you off. We each bought a ticket for a bus that would take us to Ayutthaya. It was an hour and 15 min. trip in the bus. The trip wasn't bad at all since we entertained ourselves with playing cards and ipods. Once there, we got off and didn't really see what we had expected. There were tourists everywhere. We heard them talking to drivers of tuk tuks and we were really confused. We thought that once we got there we could just walk to all the locations. Apparently not....So we found a driver that said he would take us to all the spots and that it would take 4 hours. We haggled him down to 800 baht from 1000 baht for the whole trip, which we were proud of. Stephanie was just sure she could haggle him down further than that, but we took what we could get. Once in, we quickly discovered he was a...ummm....good? driver. Efficient is the word I'm looking for I suppose. We all squished into the tuk tuk and he took us to our first stop. This was a place with a BUNCH of buddha statues. It was so interesting to see all of the history that was encased in all these crumbling buildings and buddhas. There were such pretty flowers all over the ground from trees. So, I decided to put one in my hair. After this, we decided to hike up to the top of one of the buildings that was still in tact. At the top of the building they have a place where Buddhists can give an offering. You can go up the side and go to the top where you can look over the top. It was quite a hike up all those steps, but it was worth it to feel the wind at the top and to see the view. It was a beautiful view of the ruins.

The next stop was similar to the first. This location had ruins just like the first, but it also had a famous buddha head that has a tree growing around it. It's 

 really neat to see. They have rules about taking pictures with the different buddha statues. You can't be above the statue. This is why I'm crouching next to the buddha head. They

 have a guard there that will blow his whistle if he sees you on the same level as the buddha taking a picture. He'll make you delete the picture! I saw this in action. We 

decided not to go near the bigger buddha to take a picture because we were nervous to have the same thing done to us! We opted for a nice group picture instead-not beside a buddha statue! 

At the entrance to this stop there were lots of vendors selling items toward off the heat. Among them there was ice cream with corn(crazy), popsicles, water, and coconut milk. I opted for a strawberry popsic

le. It was an amazing refreshment! The heat here is just so

intense that any relief like shade or a cold beverage or treat is just a life saver! Especially since there's no A/C!

Next our driver dropped us off at an elephant show/elephant riding

 place. I really wanted to take an elephant ride, but it was too expensive for such a short period of time. That, and I'm stiff when it comes to money here. We don't get paid till the 25th of August, so we're all trying to save our money. We just walked around for a couple of minutes looking at the elephants and feeling sorry for them. They chain them to a tie rail and leave them until someone wants to take a ride. For such an enormous animal, you would think they'd need both more brain and

 physical exercise. I want to have an elephant and let it graze however much it wants and let people come pet and feed it for free! But I suppose I'll have to wait till Heaven until that happens! 

One of the elephant holders was holding an older elephant and letting tourists pay to feed it. He was sitting on a chair and I noticed that he had something on his head. I was really curious to what this creature could be, so I went forward to take a closer

 look. It was then that I realized that it was a baby squirrel! This guy had a baby

 squirrel on his head! I just had to pet it and hold it! I just had to. So I went over there and tried to 

motion and ask if I could pet it. He nodded his head in approval, so I pet it. It didn't mind at all! This was so awesome! So then a friend of his

 came over and picked him up and put it on my shoulder! That was awesome! The baby was totally domesticated and I loved being that close to something I've never even had the chance to interact with in America. The "friend" then said "Okay, One Million Baht." I gave him a look of horror and then a look of disapproval. He began laughing! I couldn't believe it! This man had just made a joke out of what his fellow Thais do to tourists all the time. I laughed with him and we both got a kick out of it. It's so true. They will let you pet something or hold something, and then after you're all set to take a picture, they ask you for money.  

Next, we stopped at another ruin site before lunch. To tell the truth, all the ruin spots started to look the same. I don't know if that's bad to confess or not, but it's what I was thinking. Even after looking at pictures, I can't tell what picture was taken where. Lunch wa

s our next much needed stop. We were running low on fuel, and were surprised that our driver dropped us off somewhere where we could eat. We order

ed a platter of fried rice and chicken for all 5 of us. Our order came, but it d

id NOT look like fried rice and chicken. We were quite sure it

 wasn't what we ordered, so we flagged our waitress down and she immediately noticed the mistake. The food on the left is our "mistake"

 food and the food on the right is our actual meal. Our actual meal was pretty good! We all shared, and actually had plenty of food.

 After lunch we had about 3 more stops. 

The first of the after lunch stops was the temple with a giant buddha built in the period of Ayutthaya. 

It is 12.5 meters tall. Pretty much huge! It made of bronze and there were so many people there worshipin

g. There was a large group of people

 circling the buddha constantly praying. There were people all over the floor bowing and praying. Outside there several offerings of incense. Before you enter into the temple where the buddha is you have to take off your shoes. There are lots of numbered slots to put your

 shoes in. I

 was a little apprehensive about taking off my shoes and walking around where so many people had been :( But when we went in, we were struck by the size of the buddha. 

A couple more ruin spots were next, and then came the giant lying down buddha. This was also from the Ayutthaya times. It was interesting. They covered it with an orange covering like the monks wear. There I found what I had been looking for

! I found my hammock! I was so thrilled about it, because when I saw it, I just knew it was perfect! The lady I bought it from said that her family makes them by hand. I appreciated it a lot more then. It's also made from Thai silk. It's blue, yellow, and white. Too bad I can't put it up here. No where to put it! After this we saw a cute dog that was enjoying a nice treat from the weather. I thought it was such a good idea and I thought it was so sweet that his owner had done it for him!

It was so interesting seeing the history of this wonderful place that I'm living in. It makes me feel like I'm a better addition to the country knowing a little more about what it's made of. I can't wait until our next adventure! God Bless you all.