ayuthaya and lop buri trip report

This weekend we traveled to the former Siamese capital of Ayuthaya and to Lop Buri. We traveled to Ayuthaya via train. It turned out to be a pretty cheap trip, what with the train ride costing 15 baht and all (that is less than $0.50 US). We arrived in Ayuthaya, ferried across the river, then, using or trusty Lonely Planet, found a place to stay. we actually paid 1300 baht for a guesthouse for ourselves (WITH AC!). However, we had quite the crew of 12 people and so... that's less than $3.00 a person. The crew was made up of: Tyler, Vanessa, Sophia, Jessica, Catherine, Skyler, Thomas, Julia, Brenda, Peggy, Meagan, and myself. We traveled September 1-2, 2007 (Year 2550 on the Buddhist calender).


We rented bicycles to travel around Ayuthaya, which turned out to be one of the best decisions we made all trip. For 30 baht (less than $1.00) we cruised around town and saw the hundreds of ruins that blanket the city.
Here's a video (not really notable except for the fact that someone pointed out that it looks like I am floating. yes I videotaped this myself!).

The ruins were so beautiful and numerous it was hard to get a photo without some in the picture! We explored the Ayuthaya Historical Park (highly recommended!), and biked around town to Wat Thammikarat, Wat Phra Mahathat, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Mongkhon Bophit, Wat Na Phra Meru, and Wat Ratburana. Ayuthaya Historical Park is now named an Unesco World Heritage sight. The ruins are fantastic! I wish my crumby photography did them justice!

A very sacred Buddha, overgrown by a Banyan:

Beheaded Buddhas:

One nice thing about traveling to this area was how much nicer the Thai's got as you are a farang farther and farther from Bangkok. It is nice to kmnow we are a little more "special" farther out. As we road in our sawngthaew (you know, those 2-bench trucks we always seem to find ourselves riding in?), we had many people on the highway wave to us from their cars and trucks, or they had their kids wave. We even had a girl in a taxi blow us a kiss! (Okay, it helps that we had the dashing Tyler on the back, being most visible).

Anyway, we took our sawngthaew to Lop Buri and as we were walking to see the local wildlife, we were confronted with some a little quicker than anticipated...

Yes, thats a full-size human foot, and a huge spider (this one is for you, mom). I put in a ruler on this picture, so you can better judge its size:

We walked a couple more feet, and all hell broke loose. Lop Buri is famous for its ruins... oh, and its MONKEYS! They were EVERYWHERE, literally swinging from power lines, jumping into cars, everywhere. It was insanity. It was just like the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz were set loose and were running amuck. One jumped on my back, only to FIGHT ANOTHER MONKE... ON MY BACK. Any trip that ends with a monkey fight on your back is a good trip. We went to the ruins, where I felt a lot more like Indiana Jones than myself. Imagine, ancient ruins crawling with monkeys! Its every kids' dream!

Here's a monkey not listening to directions. (yeah, I know I held the camera wrong!)

I learned a lot about monkeys on this trip. For instance, they love to bite skulls.

Here's a priceless video'o'monkeys. Yes, I suggest locking your bag if you go here!

Also, monkeys are intense. Its hard to hang out with monkeys for more than a couple hours. They are exhausting.

Anyway, there are the highlights from the trip! Hope you enjoyed!

Oh, lastly, Tyler and I thought we would cover all of our bases for protection when we went to the monkeys. So here is his St. Christopher amulet and my Buddhist Yan. Warning, they do not protect from monkey skull-bites.