About a 1 hour drive north of Bangkok is the small city of Ayutthaya. From 1350 – 1767 it was the capital of Thailand until the naughty Burmese razed it to the ground after a siege of some 14 months, resulting in the Thai (or ‘Siam’ as it was called then) capital moving south, eventually ending up in Bangkok. Before this move, Ayutthaya’s population stood at around 1 million which made it one of the largest cities in the world of the day. Nowadays, the population is a mere 53,000 although there are app 800k+ Thais living in the surrounding province.
The ruins of the old city are located on an island between 3 rivers and full of the remnants of temples, monasteries and statues. Our small hotel was also on this island. And that’s when our troubles started! Granted that it’s still the rainy season so one can expect a few downpours here and there so it didn’t even cross my mind to worry about the rivers’ water levels when booking a hotel. Our chosen spot looked lovely from the photo with a garden leading on to one of the rivers. The reality was that when we arrived, said garden was close to being part of the river!
And by the next morning, it was!
Luckily, though, we had been assigned a room on the first floor
so we decided to be very ‘British’, keep calm and carry on, borrow some umbrellas, hire one of the strange looking, local Tuk Tuk’s and go sightseeing.
Despite the continuing rain, it was well worth it. There are the ruins of over 40 temples on this small island city, some dating back more than 500 years,
all of which give a very clear idea of what an amazing place this must have been in its heyday.
Everything was built on a grand scale, all at a time of no computer engineering, no excavators or any kind of mechanical equipment. Just human resource-
one of whom, with a sense of humour or history, embedded a Buddha image in this tree!
Or maybe this was done at a later date. Nobody seems to know!
In the afternoon, we headed for the river (or it could have been somebody’s back garden!) where we found someone willing to take us for a trip up/down the swollen river.
Boarding our chosen craft was a bit hazardous as the normal gangway was submerged but we made it
and set off at a leisurely pace, passing some of the local flora and fauna
plus further evidence of the flooding
from which this Roman Catholic church (a rare site in this mainly Buddhist country) was well protected.
All was calm and sedate until we met 4 rather aggressive looking tugboats heading downstream
pulling 3 or 4 enormous barges filled to the brim, we were told, with rice, sugar and molasses from further up country
and with another tug at the rear to nudge the barges around corners! All in all, an impressive site and one to be enjoyed if you didn’t mind the wash these vessels left behind them!
Without getting much wetter, we made it back to our hotel, passing a local elephant transportation service on the way.
In the morning of our check out, the river levels were even higher so the enterprising hotel staff commandeered one boat for our luggage
and one for us to ferry us to our car which had, luckily, been parked on higher ground.
All in all, an eventful -and I must say enjoyable- couple of days, despite the conditions. I would definitely like to visit Ayutthaya again and even stay in the same hotel – but definitely not in the rainy season!
Until we dry out!
R
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