Ayuthaya

Ayuthaya was the capital of the kingdom that makes up present day Thailand and more for 5 centuries before it fell, violently, to the Burmese in 1767. A short period after that, king Rama I regained control of the kingdom and moved the capital to Bangkok where it has been ever since. Abut hays is about an hour and a half north of Bangkok and many of the temple ruins can still be seen. Unfortunately most of the Budda statues have been destroyed and/or stolen and melted for their value. Our impression is that the Burmese were Hindu and did not respect Budda like the people of this kingdom did. I admit though we could have done a better history lesson before coming over.  It wasn't taking over as a colony but did trade with many western countries.

Anyway, Ayuthaya is incredibly interesting. The Grand Palace and surrounding buildings were leveled and only their foundations remain but the palace temple as well as some of the larger temples were  partially reconstructed so you can see a small glimps into what they once were. You'll see one temple that looks similar to famous Angkor Wat in present day Cambodia. That was the common architecture style of Khmer which was the period before that of Ayuthaya and seen more whe nthe capital was in Sukothai - our next post. The rest of the temples are laid out and have similar structures to present day Buddhist temples. The Buddha statuesw without heads is very eery but even more so is the head of a Buddha tangled in tree roots of a Bondhi tree (the type of tree Buddha was under when he found enlightenment so very common around temples).

Continuation of food - the Thais love fruit smoothies - though unlike st home they don't add any sugar or other "stuff"....just blended fruit and ice. SO DELICIOUS in the heat. We've had pineapple, banann, strawberry/banana, strawberry/pineapple and watermelon but our absolute favorite was kiwi: