Ayuthaya

Upon leaving Cambodia, my impromptu travel buddy and I parted ways and I headed North. I spent my first night in Ayuthaya, Thailand. Ayuthaya was the old capitol city, and has a scattering of ancient temples throughout the fairly modern city. Apparently I came down pretty hard from the highs of Cambodia, because I found myself a bit depressed in Ayuthaya. I no longer had a buddy to hangout with, I was the only person in my guest house, and the town was pretty much dead. The thing is, it was actually quite a lovely place. Walking around the extensive park lands, you see local Thai people exercising, kids riding bicycles, and the ancient temples are not too shabby! My mood was such that I decided to get out of town as soon as possible the next day, to skip Sukhothai, another former capitol, and head straight to the mountain town of Chiang Mai in the far North. Looking back at my photos now, I don't think I gave Ayuthaya enough credit at the time.

Before entering a temple, you must remove your shoes and put them on the racks (or 'lacks' in this case). (p.s. clicking on any photo will allow you to see an enlarged version, should that interest you)

To honor the Buddha, and gain merit, practitioners can purchase gold leaf and apply it to Buddha statues. In this case, they weren't very well adhered and were blowing in the wind.