Chulalongkorn Day/Ayutthaya

October 23rd was the anniversary of the death of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and is a public holiday here in Thailand. So what better thing to do than go to the Ancient City of Ayutthaya and see the ruins. We had a busy day... we went to Bang Pa In Palace, ate lunch along a river, rode elephants, and went to Wat Maha That.
Bang Pa In Palace was stunning. Beautiful greenery everywhere. Since it was this particular holiday there were wreaths of flowers and pictures of the former King placed in his honor. Here our group of "teachers" finally took a group shot! All 15 of us. Aren't we cute? As you can see some of us had to wear scarves, wraps, sweaters, or jackets that would be because here in Thailand you have to cover your shoulders while in palaces and Wats/temples.

Outside of the Palace there were, of course, street vendors(they are everywhere)...they had the most amazing fried bananas. mmmmm. After a very filling lunch (not the bananas but lunch along the river) we went to ride the elephants. You would have thought I was a 5 year old kid, I was sooooo excited. I rode with my friend Jorge. From atop the elephant we had some beautiful views of various ruins. I was on cloud nine, I was so happy.
So before I left Chicago I wrote down to made it a priority to see a particular Buddha image and I knew it was Ayutthaya but not sure where. Since we were a large group I figured it would be hard to venture out to the various Wats to find it. When we entered Wat Maha That, my friend Lauren L. came up to me and told me that the image was here! I almost cried, I was soooooo excited! I immediately left the group and starting roaming the ruins to find it....and I found it!!! Oh how pretty. It's a sandstone Buddha image (head) entangled with a tree. The body is gone, and the sandstone head is entrapped in the roots and lies beneath a Bodhi tree. Amazing!
As I have mentioned before Ayutthaya has some spectacular ruins and these pictures do not do them justice. This was by far my favorite day thus far. I got to do the one thing in Thailand I really wanted to do (ride an elephant) and see the one Buddha image I really wanted to see! YAY!


P.S. I changed the website for pictures, I am now using Google Picasa...it has a pause button...I think this should work better for you. Let me know!