We’ve been having such a wonderful time with Pat in town.  It is always so nice to have friends and family around.

On Friday Pat and I drove up to Ayutthaya, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam from 1350 to 1767 until it moved down river to Khrungthep.  Actually it was temporarily located in Thonburi, across the river from Khrungthep, so Khrungthep is the fourth capital. 

We had lunch with our friends Ron and Kari, who after serving as Missionaries here in Thailand for a year are just a few months away from moving to Kenya of all places.  Kari has previously served in Africa and really loves the country.  The restaurant we ate at was beside the Chao Phraya River and we actually ate on a boat moored to the restaurant.  Flooding in Thailand has been bad this year, one of the worst on record, and there are a lot of signs of that flooding still present in Ayutthaya.

One example is the boat we were dining on, below.  In this picture you can see a railing, which was the edge of the riverside dining terrace.  That point was originally about 3 meters – 10 feet – above the normal water line.

We also visited Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, a temple on the southwest side of town that contains the largest chedi or pagoda in Ayutthaya.  It is one of the more beautiful ruins because the temple is very well maintained and has beautiful gardens. 

It is Tawn’s favourite and more historically significant because this is where Tawn took me on my visit to Khrungthep when we met.  Somewhere – I’ll have to look – there is a picture of a boyish-looking Tawn standing on the chedi at this wat.

Right: Pat atop the chedi at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon.

Our visit included a ride on the elephants, a hopelessly touristy but fun thing to do.  Our 24-year old elephant seemed pretty tired – halfway through the 20-minute ride we stopped so she could flap her ears and cool down a bit.

When we arrived back at the loading/unloading platform there was a group of four young Japanese women waiting to board and I think a few of them didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.  So there was a minute or two of shuffling and talking amongst themselves as they figured out who would ride with whom.  One of the Thai ladies working on the platform kept repeating “dozo, dozo” in Japanese – “please, please.”  The other lady on the platform was losing her patience.  So much so that when Pat and I de-boarded and I headed the wrong way, she shouted (literally – you never hear Thais do this) “exit the other way!”  I turned around, smiled and said in very polite Thai, khaw thood khrap – “I’m so sorry.”  Caught by surprise, she responded with mai pen rai, “no problem.”  And then I added, mai suphaap leuy – “not polite at all.”

Below Left: Pat learns how to make merit at the temple by applying gold leaf to statues.   Below Right: The risks of too much application of gold leaf at the temples!

Back in Khrungthep in the evening, we joined Tawn for a light dinner and bottle of sparkling wine a The Deck, one of our favourite restaurants as it sits right on the rive and offers this spectacular view of Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn.

Right: We do a seance-like pose with an artificial-looking but very real Temple of Dawn glowing behind us.

This afternoon, Pat and I will head to the west to Kanchanaburi and explore some of the more mountainous provinces.  This is the same area where I went with my cousins Brad and Silvia in July, so don’t expect a lot of new trails to be blazed.  It will be nice and relaxing and maybe a whole five degrees cooler.