Ayutthaya
Yesterday was Dan's birthday, and the team took him to Ayutthaya for the day. Ayutthaya was the capital city of Thailand from 1351-1767, when it was destroyed by a Burmese invasion. Today there are only ruins left; but there are MANY ruins, including some wats and pagodas housing the remains of some of Thailand's kings.
When we arrived there, Tom acted as our tour guide, and Dan interpreted into Spanish for our Latino members.
As I was walking along, I unthinkingly walked up to a Buddha image overgrown by tree roots, and was instantly reprimanded by some park authorities for not getting down on my haunches in order to keep my body from being elevated above the Buddha head. I quickly obliged in order to take the photo below.
We walked through many ancient ruins.
Here's our beautiful, smiling REACH team.:)
Moving on to another section of ruins, we discovered an elephant show taking place.
Below is a video showing people walking under an elephant 3 times, which is supposed to bring good luck or avert bad luck.
Claire took this picture of Raul at the top of some steep steps. Claire is a great photographer, don't you think?
And here's Claire herself! She's not only a great photographer, she's also quite photogenic!
More ruins...
Here's one of my favorite flowering trees; I love the brilliant orange/red hue of the blossoms.
Feel free to check my extended entry for more.
We went to lunch at a floating restaurant right on the river. That was our time to sing happy birthday to Dan and give him our gifts. It was a fun, relaxing time, and the food was delicious.
Note the wording of the sign on the stall door in the ladies restroom.:)
After leaving the restaurant, we took our songtaew to our final destination, an area with yet more ruins, but also with more of a "garden" feel.
One building housing a Buddha image, among other things, was crowded with people bringing their offerings and prayers.
Here people buy little sheets of gold and rub it on the snake image in order to make merit/receive answers to their prayers.
The video below shows in action what the above two photos show.
Just a few more shots of a wat or chedi...
Aida, fellow intern from Ecuador, and I
I think we all had a good day, though we were also all ready to go home and get a nice cool shower and some rest.
NOTE: this will probably be my last blog entry till next week, as tomorrow evening our team heads to Chiang Mai for 4 days. "Talk" to you when we get back!