As described in my previous blog post about Koh Pha Ngan Island, the next stop on my 2009 South East Asia Trip was Ayutthaya, the capital city of its province and the second capital of Siam (Sukhothai was the first). The ruins of the old city are preserved in the Ayutthaya historical park which is recognized internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mosquito Bite 1 – Dominique 0

Ayutthaya was the place were  I visited the hospital for the first time on this trip (don’t worry there will be more visits later on). On the train to Ayutthaya I started noticing swelling in my ankle. I had some mosquito bites there and I had scratched the area around the bites (with dirty finger nails probably), so the area had become infected. My friend who hurt herself during musical chairs on Koh Pha Ngan Island was really hurting as well. So our first sight in Ayutthaya was the hospital.

Luckily, Thai hospitals are great – I had experienced one when I was six or seven years old and I had second degree burns on my face due to the standing all day in the sun when I went on holiday to Pattaya with my parents – so I wasn’t concerned at all. The lovely doctor told me to take antibiotics. I’m usually against taking unnecessary medication so I questioned her decision. She informed me that if I wouldn’t take the pills my whole leg could swell up. Point taken… She also told me (and my friend was told the same by another doctor) that I have to keep my leg up for at least two days.

So what was meant to be short stay ended up being a three day stay in a stationary position.

The first two days were mostly spent at the hostel/restaurant/bar Tony’s Place. The fact that we had chosen such an awesome hostel was very lucky because it made our sedentary lifestyle much more enjoyable.

Inner City Sightseeing

The third day we had rented a tuk-tuk (this is one of the only places in Thailand where you can rent a tuk-tuk for a certain amount of time rather than location) for 2.5 hours so we would have time to view a lot of the inner city sights. I think 2.5 hours is exactly right, if it would’ve been longer I think we would’ve been bored.

Wat Phra Mahathat…
As you can imagine the former capital of Thailand has an overkill on temples so I cannot remember them all by heart. The one I thought was most impressive was Wat Phra Mahathat. You’ll find decapitated Buddha statues all around the temple and the heads are scattered around as well. My favourite part of this Wat is the Buddha head in the Banyan tree.

… and others
I would’ve preferred to not mass produce these pictures, but since I didn’t write down exactly where we went it’s quite difficult to find out. All the temples look alike. So in short:

I saw huge Buddha sitting up…

…a massive Buddha lying down…

… Buddha standing up (but I saw him from afar because my ankle wasn’t healed yet)…

… a Buddha with many heads…

… and a square with massive roosters (???)

Now that I am describing the “animal kingdom” of Ayutthaya, I also found a pond full of carps.

Ants 1 – Dominique 0

And because this story wouldn’t have been funny enough with only one incident, I’ll up the stakes and add another one. Let me tell you what happened when we decided not to enter the below temple but to only take pictures from the outside. 

I was backing up and backing up to get the perfect shot on my cheap camera, so without noticing I walked onto a red anthill. I certainly did notice when they started biting! In the wounds of my infected leg of all places! They really dig in when they bite so it’s difficult to beat them off. I must’ve been such a hilarious sight for the tourists and locals standing around the temple. I was jumping up and down and running around the grass, shouting: “Get them off! Get them off!” In the end I managed to get them all off. I wonder how many people have a picture in their photo albums of my antics.

If you see this temple: be careful when you step into the grass.

Conclusion

Ayutthaya is a nice city and it has gorgeous sights. At the time it just could not compete with Angkor Wat, which I saw a week or so before visiting Ayutthaya. Now I realize these two places are completely different and special in their own way. The fact I was walking around with an infected ankle did not help the situation so I left the city without fully appreciating it. I’d like to go back and visit Ayutthaya again and this time I’d also like to make more stops, for example at Kanchanaburi Bridge and Sukhothai and the Khmer temple in Lopburi.