The next day of our trip we left Kanchanaburi for Ayutthaya, the second Siamese capital after Sukhothai for over 400 years, once glorified as the largest city in Southeast Asia.
In the center of the city is the Ayutthaya Historical Park, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our first stop was Wat Chaiwatthanaram
The remains of the temples, monasteries and Buddha images are really amazing.
From here we made our way for a quick lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful water garden, sitting along one of the rivers surrounding Ayutthaya
Our last stop for the day before heading to our next hotel were the ruins at Wat Maha That, the site of a fairly famous Buddha image head.
The crumbled ruins allowed roots of this tree to grow around the images head. It is considered impolite to ever be photographed or sit higher than the image of Buddha; meaning the only was to take a photo in front of this would be sitting on the ground.
While most of the ruins here are very similar to the previous location, they are deteriorating very quickly with some leaning quite a bit.
I think I started to develop an obsession with Thai people working cleaning historic sites, streets and businesses. The crude brooms they used made of palm branch ribs, the sweltering heat and the cover ups to protect them from the sun and elements never stopped them from doing their work.
