Ayutthaya: The Capitol of Siam

Hi Everyone!

Again, so so much to report! We had the most amazing weekend visiting the ancient capitol of Siam, the city of Ayutthaya. After taking a couple days to explore our new home, Dan Chang, and the area around where we live, we decided to take advantage of our long weekend and take a vacation from our vacation. One of our new friends, Ben, and our coordinator, Dick, drove us there on Friday morning, which was very much appreciated as it meant not having to figure out the buses.

We got there and were dropped off at our hotel, which was run by a couple Thai sisters who were so sweet and had the most amazing stories (one has her PhD in air pollution science and the other was a model who worked all over the world, they were great). We then headed out to see some wats-which were exactly wat I imagined, and more. (We were cracking each other up with endless wat jokes. "Wat did you say?" Easily entertained, clearly.) It felt like, and again, I am super lame for saying this, but it was totally tomb raider/indiana jones style. Just these huge complexes build in the 1300's, in the city's hay day, falling apart, with vines growing out of them and bricks filling them in to keep them upright. Please check out our pictures here words just cannot do them justice. It was similar to the feeling I had when I saw Stonehenge, there was just so much history (and mystery!) in the wat complexes. There were tons of Buddha statues everywhere, but 95% of them were headless. Buddha heads were almost always adorned with precious stones and gold; thus, over the centuries the Burmese or looters took most of them. Surely most of the heads were taken in 1767 when the city was destroyed by the Burmese army, but luckily not everything was destroyed.

Later that afternoon Graham and I relaxed in our hotel to escape the heat, then headed out for a walk in the park and checked out more wats. It was a magical night, with a gorgeous full moon and everything, and it was so cool to see the wats lit up at night. They were magnificent. One of the ladies at the hotel suggested a restaurant right on the water's edge for dinner that we walked to after a stroll through the park, but sadly the entire restaurant was flooded.

That night and over the next couple of days we saw a lot of the flooding that we have been hearing so much about, and it was very hard to see. A lot of peoples' homes have been flooded and entire cities. But, as the land of smiles seems to do, people are carrying on in a really inspiring way. I saw a ton of kids splashing around in their living rooms, swimming with their blow up tube in 4' deep water. On the bus ride home today we went through a badly flooded city, and the market was still going on! Everyone was wearing sandals and didn't seem to mind walked in a foot or two of water....so crazy! I felt really badly, I have never seen such bad flooding. But people really don't seem to mind too much, even though it hasn't flooded like this in 15 years. Well, as the Thai would say, mai pen rai (no problem).

Anyways, I'm sorry for the tangent. But we had a great dinner etc etc and the next day woke up early to see some more wats before it got too hot to see any wats. (See? Wat jokes can't be beat!) We walked to see the 17 meter tall sitting Buddha, one of the largest Buddha images in Thailand, and watched some worshipers for a few minutes, which was very beautiful. The market right next to the modern wat which housed the large Buddha was hopping and we checked that out for a while, then hired a tuk-tuk to drive us to a few places that would have been difficult to walk to in the heat. Our driver, Manong, was very chatty and kind, and took us to our favorite wat of them all, a mini Angor Wat.

It was such a beautiful day and we just tried to soak up the amazing places we were going to as much as possible. I kept dumbly muttering "Whoa" every other step I took. Each wat was just so unique and incredible. Whoa. Wow. You get what I mean, but my goodness!

We also got to check out the huge reclining Buddha, the surrounding areas, and another modern wat. It was cool to see what the ancient wats must have looked like when they were still being used. All the Buddhas still had heads, and there were monks walking around and lots of incense burning, and beautiful music playing. One of the buildings had a huge Buddha in it that was covered in bat guano, and I was thrilled to scare some of them with my umbrella and hear them chirp and watch them fly to new roosting/hanging places. 

The rest of the day we just explored the city and various wats, and the next morning we headed back home for a swim in the river and another adventure-meal. We stumbled upon a Korean food place where we could choose and cook our own food. I was thrilled-all the cabbage, cilantro, bok choy, mushrooms, eggs, tofu and peanuts a girl could eat, but Graham was a bit underwhelmed because they did not have any chicken. It has been a bit hard to be a vegetarian here. I don't want to be annoying or difficult, but I really do not feel comfortable eating anything that used to be alive. I have had to make a few exceptions, but I always feel just horrible afterwards. I want to experience the culture and I don't want to cause frustration to Graham or anyone around me, but it has been hard. So, I was so happy to find this restaurant! And, AND, it was a buffet and there was all you could eat ice cream too.  But not just regular ice cream, Thai ice cream. It was awesome.

A few other side notes...It is so exciting to experience a new culture, but there are some things that are just different, and difficult to get used to. One is all of the stay animals. There are many fewer strays here than in other developing countries I have been to, (because of the Buddhist belief in karma and the fact that the King loves dogs, and everyone loves the King) but there is still a lot of obvious suffering and it is really difficult to see. I have decided that I am going to buy some dog food and carry a few bags around with me, so when I see a dog, instead of just feeling sad and frustrated at the situation, I can give him/her some food. But then again, stray dogs and cats do eat some wildlife and their populations need to be curbed. I am going to look into if there is a vet in town and how much it costs to spay/neuter stray animals. Even if I could help out one or two...we'll see. So, I am trying to be creative and active and am searching for ways to help the poor little guys and girls. They are all so adorable and innocent, it makes my heart hurt to see them starving and wandering the streets.

Another aspect of the culture that I have experienced, and this is just my opinion from my own limited perspective, is the role of women here. Now, of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but it is just very different, and a bit hard to understand. There was a lot of obvious prostitution in Bangkok, most notably by very young girls, and...I don't know. I don't want to offend anyone so I am going to stop here, but I am trying to find a way to experience a new culture all the way on the other side of the world from where I grew up. I want to soak it up and not be judgmental, I want to learn from it and take back some of the many amazing aspects of Thai culture-and there are a LOT of great things. But there are also things that I am unsure of, and have a need to at least attempt to make a change when I see something I perceive as wrong. So, I am trying to walk that thin line. Ben and Dick were saying, and I really liked how they put it, that a different "yard stick" is used here, that the way things are viewed/measured here is just different than in California, and that I have to leave behind my old assumptions and judgments. This makes a lot of sense to me and I have been mulling it over thinking about how to best move forward. It has been an interesting thought process. If you have any tips or ideas please feel free to share them, I would love to learn from others who might have felt similarly!

On that note, I am going to get my lesson plan ready for my first day of teaching tomorrow. Graham is passed out next to me, the heat has knocked that poor guy out!

As always, love to you all, and I hope everyone is doing great!

Natalie (and sleeping Graham!)