Ayutthaya- The City of Gorgeousness

Waking up early in Bangkok, we jumped on the sky train with our backpacks and took a ride for a few stops to where we read that we could find a ride to Ayutthaya. We finally managed to find the mini-bus going to Ayutthaya and jumped in. We had to pay for a third seat for our luggage, but who can complain when it costs about $6 a piece. It was a cramped 2 hour ride to the north and we didn't feel any better when we were abruptly dropped off on the side of the road not knowing where we were. Nothing a quick tuk tuk ride couldn't fix. We found a really cool, hip little place to stay called Tony's Place in the middle of town.

Ayutthaya is the ancient capital of Siam. For 417 years this city flourished with 33 rulers with several dynasties, dozens of temples and a grand palace till it was overthrown by the Burmese in 1767, leaving the city in ruins.  Like Bangkok, Ayutthaya relied heavily on its many canals and waterways for trade and protection and that is not the only similarity. Bangkok was built with Ayutthaya as its model so the layout and design of many important buildings and temples are almost identical. The only large difference is that most of the ancient city of Ayutthaya have been damaged or abandoned. But for us, we didn't see crumbled stone but rather a beautiful glittering past that we got to admire.

We thought we would start viewing the city by taking a long boat to visit 3 temples on the other side of the river. We thought we got such a great deal because it was again only 6 bucks per person, but we learned real quick that you get what you pay for, and the boat had no room left to take us from the first temple to the second, therefore they just left us on the dock. We missed the entire second temple and got picked up for the third.

All that craziness aside, we really enjoyed the two ruins we did see. The first was Wat Phanan Cheoeng which holds one of the largest gilded Buddha image  in the world called Luang Phor.

 We were very surprised of its size because the statue took up most of the room. The reason why it built so big was so that it could be seen by everyone from every angle on the river. Many of those people in Ancient times were Chinese sailors looking to trade, which is why off to the left of the temple is a Chinese temple with very intricate Chinese symbols and designs. 

Our final stop (after being abandoned by the boat) was Wat Chaiwatthanaram which was very impressive monastery. It was built by the royal command of King Prasat Thong. This place in its time of glory must have been breath taking because we were astonished by its ruins. Just incredible.

Day two we were ready for some more. We rented a motorbike and headed for the Grand Palace or "ancient palace" as people in Thailand say.

 We first visited Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit, one of the royal temples which holds a large bronze cast Buddha. Unfortunately, the Buddha we saw was a reconstruction because the real one had been burned.

 Next to the temple was Wat Phra Si Sanphet which was the most important and outstanding monastery inside the palace. It was used as a residential palace for King Ramathibodi I and then was dedicated as the royal chapel where no monks were allowed to live.

 Back on the motorbike, we stopped by the famous 42 Meter long sleeping Buddha. The statue was placed in front of a ruined monastery call Wat Lokayasutharam. 

Our final stop of the day was Wat Maha That which in ancient times was the residence of the highest Priest in Ayutthaya. 

This place is also famous for having the head of Buddha growing in the roots of a tree. It was really neat.

 All of Ayutthaya was just so beautiful. We were really glad we got a glimpse of the past and to see what ancient Thailand was like.

All our sight seeing made us so exhausted. It was such a hot day out. We cooled off at a nice restaurant on the river while waiting for our night bus to come pick us up. Next up, Chiang Mai for the Festival of Lights!

Bangkok With a Bang

It was time to leave the scenic southern Thailand and trade for paved streets and nonstop traffic of cars and people. After a 10-hour, pretty enjoyable overnight bus later we arrived in Bangkok at 6am. Surprisingly even at that time, the streets are jam packed with cars. We arrived at our hotel that Roy’s friend Geoff recommended to us and took a nice shower to rid ourselves of our lake and bus musk we had going. One thing we have learned is that you always, ALWAYS take advantage of a good shower with excellent water pressure and heat because you never know when you will again! After some breakfast and a quick nap we were ready to go explore the city.

Seeing as we planned on spending only one day in Bangkok, we wanted to hit the major attractions right away. Most famous is the Grand Palace. So we hopped on the subway, switched lines, hopped on a river boat ferry express and made our way. For those who do not know, Bangkok is full of rivers. Some even call it "the Venice of Asia" due to the vast amount of waterways. These rivers were very important because it gave Bangkok protection from its enemies but also gave an invitation to trade with foreigners. Although Bangkok does not heavily rely on these waterways as much anymore, they do still provide a scenic transportation to many places around the area.

We arrived to the entrance of the Grand Palace and saw many fascinating gold spires and mirrored roofs poking out from the other side of the wall. We were very excited to go inside but had to wait due to the fact that Roy was underdressed wearing shorts and a tank top. Luckily the palace provides free clothes for tourists with this issue. So after a quick change we were ready to go!

We entered the palace and were in awe, being surrounded by so much gold, delicate art, and beautiful buildings. You did not know where to look first. It was like walking into a golden dream!....with hundreds of tourists.

The Grand Palace was established in 1782 by King Rama I. The large wall surrounding the Palace has the largest painted mural of the story Ramayana. (If you have been reading along, we watched a dance in Bali based on this story!) 

These beautiful walls encompass the royal residences, libraries full of ancient writings, temples, chedis that obtain Buddha relics and government halls. Each King following King Rama either added an additional building or added embellishment to the existing buildings already there. Although none of the royal family lives in the palace today, many important figures have stayed a few nights as guests such as President Clinton and the Queen of England.

One of the most famous parts of the palace is the temple of the Emerald Buddha where people come from all over Thailand to pay respect. The Emerald Buddha which is in fact made out of jade was mysteriously found in Chiang Rai (Northern Thailand) encased in plaster in 1434. There it was transferred to Chiang Mai where it sat until 1552 when it was transferred to Laos. It was 22 years later when it was finally brought it back to Thailand, inside of the palace. It currently sits on a golden pedestal where people can pay respects to Buddha and his teachings.

Next to the beautiful palace were a few important government buildings still used today for banquets and some important meetings.

After the palace, we thought we would check out the Museum of Siam to learn more about the history of Thailand. We were so thrilled that we arrived at 4:01pm due to the free admission after 4pm. Hurray! The Museum, which is advertised as a "discovery museum" was very informative and interactive. We read lots of facts, played games, watched movies, and reenactments all about the beginnings of Siam to modern day Thailand. We learned lots about Bangkok and even more about the ancient Capital Ayutthaya that we planned on seeing the next day.

Outside of the museum we walked right into an Indie music festival. There were many small booths selling music, and artsy items as well as a few food stalls that stood around a huge mass of people who were listening to live music. It was a really cool vibe.

We would have stayed longer, but we had to go to the train station to buy tickets to Chiang Mai. After about an hour on the sky train, and an hour taxi ride in the opposite direction of where we needed to go, we found out that the train was still out of service due to construction and maintenance on the rails. Supposedly there has been frequent derailments in the previous months so they finally realized it was time to make some improvements. We would have to take a bus. We wish we had known that before our two hour journey! With all this running around, we were exhausted and decided to pass on going to the night market to the north. We ate lots of Indian food down the street from our hotel and then hit the pillow for Ayutthaya in the morning.

Khao Sok National Park

A 3-hour mini bus ride north, and we found ourselves in Khao Sok National Park, Thailand’s first established and 3^rd largest national park covering 2,168 square kilometers.  Like everywhere we have visited on this trip, we didn’t make reservations at a place prior to arriving. As many travelers will agree here, it’s always best to see what you are paying for before you actually reserve the room. Often times its possible to negotiate a better price as well. Our Go-to procedure begins with reading our Lonely Planet travel guidebook, researching the net, travel blogs, online reviews, and of course recommended places from friends.

Anyways, we found a place called Our Jungle House on Trip Advisor and it turned out to be a true gem! When we arrived we were blown away with the unique accommodation styles of tree houses and bungalows with an awesome location in the rainforest. We couldn’t resist and had to “splurge” opting for one of the nice tree houses for $45/night. Our most expensive accommodation yet, and ironically the most basic. After speaking with the friendly owner from Monterey CA, and reading some info on the place, we learned that Our Jungle House takes every effort to minimize its environmental impact and to give back to the area in many ways.  Much of their profits are invested back into the community and conservation of the park. They leave 80% of their land undeveloped and use natural materials to build the few accommodations they do have. These materials, as well as the employees, food, and supplies for the restaurant are all sourced locally. Power use is minimized meaning the rooms do not have air conditioning, hot water or TVs. Another rarity from this part of the world we saw was that they actively reduce, reuse, and recycle. We haven’t turned into complete Green Freaks all of a sudden, but it is encouraging to see people taking a proactive approach in these parts as it has been sad to see the negative effects of globalization and tourism in many of the overexploited places.

After checking into our tree house we explored the nearby area a bit and walked down to the river to cool off. We spent the evening reading an informative guidebook we purchased on the park called “Waterfalls and Gibbon Calls” and planned our following day’s adventure.

The next morning we found ourselves on a full day hike on one of the park’s main trails. As we walked, we enjoyed listening the local soundtrack of Gibbon Monkeys in the canopy singing to each other. 

We made our way up to one of the waterfalls and spent some time resting below it. In order to reach the base of the waterfall we had to make it across a fast flowing stream with only a few large boulders to assist us. It took a bit of encouragement on Roy’s part to get Siobhan to make the leap but she made it with ease and we continued on.

We made it back to Our Jungle House later that afternoon, drenched in sweat, tired, and our legs about to fall off. We heard about a beautiful lake inside the park with cool little floating raft houses to sleep in, and great hiking close by. We began researching, trying to figure out how to make it out to the houses without having to join a tour group package that seemed a bit expensive for the following day. We’ve found that many of the popular attractions in most of the places we have visited so far are just as easily accessible on your own with only a map, a moto bike, and a sense of adventure. In this case, after figuring out the logistics and crunching numbers, we found that joining the tour group would not only be easier, but cheaper as well.

Not long after the trip to the lake began, we realized that we had made the right choice. Our tour guide was excellent and a bank of local information. After about a one our drive from Our Jungle House, we arrived at Cheo Lan Lake and boarded our boat.

Cheow Lan Lake is a man made reservoir stretching over 165 square km. The Rachabrapah dam was built in 1982 by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and turned out to be detrimental to local wildlife in the river and surrounding forest that is now below a large water mass.

The boat ride to our accommodation called Tone Teuy or substation #4 across the lake took another hour and we enjoyed every moment of it. The scenery here was simply unbelievable. It didn’t take long until we looked at each other and agreed that this was definitely the coolest lake either one of us had ever seen. The water is a milky turquoise blue and there are over 100 islands, most of which having massive limestone cliffs called karsts that jet straight up out of the water, some to over 3000ft. That’s right, 3000 ft. Jaw dropping. There are dead trees poking up through the water all over, making you imagine the sight of the once jungle forest now laying below the surface.

Once we arrived at Tone Teuy, we were shown to our raft house where the two of us would be sleeping later that night. To say that our raft house was rustic and simple would be a very generous description. But this was EXACTLY what we were hoping it would be. 2 days in the wilderness, miles away from cellphone range or electricity. 

Inside there was a single mattress on the floor and a mosquito net. The bathrooms were about 100 yards away on the shore that you would walk down the dock to reach. They did have a small generator that the guides ran for a few hours in the evening to run a few lights, and we were laughing when we saw 3 men carry a TV and a satellite dish out to a long tail boat and power it up using the engine to watch an episode of their favorite show.

Anyways, back to our arrival. We dropped off our bags and changed into our swimwear. We had some time to relax before lunch and our afternoon hike. It was so cool being able to walk out our front door and next step, was a plunge into the warm lake water. So warm in fact that it was hardly refreshing. 

It wasn’t long before Roy had his fins, mask, and snorkel on and was off to explore in the nearby area. He described what he saw was some fish beneath the raft houses, but mostly just mud and a lot more mud with some dead trees mixed in. Everything to be expected I suppose.

We dried off and sat down to eat lunch with the other 15 or so people in our group. The meal was a tasty combination of sweet and sour chicken, fried vegetables, and you guessed it, rice.

After lunch, we boarded our boat again and set off for a nearby trail to hike up to a famous cave in the area. Luckily for us, we arrived just after a rain, meaning the leeches were out in full force! Everyone had the uninvited hitchhikers latched on to a foot, ankle, or leg at some point. These are not water leeches like the species found in some lakes and rivers at home. These are land dwelling leeches, and are generally much smaller than their friends in North America. We read that they actually can smell CO2 expelled by mammals and will wait along paths in the forest that are frequented by animals as well as humans. Every couple of minutes when we looked down to check, it was almost a certainty that we’d have one or two of the little blood suckers slurping down a free meal. By the end of the two-hour hike, Roy had counted at least 15 leeches that he picked off his body!

The cave that we saw was named Seeroo Cave, and was a military command post for a group of communists living in the forest between 1975 and 1982. On October 6^th, 1976, university students in Bangkok protested the military government and were answered with gunfire from helicopters. It was a complete massacre and an unknown number of unarmed people died. Hundreds fled for their lives, most leaving Bangkok all together. 170 of these now labeled “communists” ended up escaping into Khao Sok.

For eight years, they hid in the forest utilizing a couple of these caves for shelter. They were successful at holding back the Thai army as well as the logging companies that wished to log in the Khao Sok area. It is said that these “communists” did more for the conservation and protection of this area and its wildlife than what the National Park does for it today.

Seeroo Cave itself is impressive. It is made up of four passageways that connect into one main cavern, which is the home to hundreds of bats. It was cool to see so many of the little winged mammals sleeping upside down on the ceiling. One of the guides proceeded to scoop the bat guano up off the ground into a bag that she said would be used as fertilizer later. Mmmm! In the walls of the caves, we could clearly see bullet holes from when the Thai army was attacking the communists inside.

We returned to the raft houses and cleaned up for dinner, changing into long pants and applying generous amounts of mosquito repellant. The little winged beasts are relentless in these parts. After dinner we embarked on a night safari tour again on the boat to hopefully catch a glimpse of local wildlife that comes down to the lakeshore at night to have a drink of water or feed. Unfortunately no animals wanted to cooperate but it was enjoyable being out on the water, alone in the dark.

The following morning we set off on another boat safari just after sunrise and this time had the pleasure of seeing deer down by the waters edge, Gibbon monkeys high in the trees, and a variety of new bird species we had never seen before.

We returned back for breakfast and to pack our belongings before we set off on the most exciting part of the trip. A hike to Namtaloo Cave. A river eroded cave that is more like a tunnel, almost 600 yards long with walls anywhere from just a couple feet apart in some sections as wide as 30 feet in others. The river still runs through the cave, and we read some crazy stories about the many people that have died inside it in previous years. During rainy season, the water level can be very high, and it cannot be predicted when it will rapidly rise due to heavy rainfall up in the surrounding mountains. It can be sunny out side of the cave, but it may be down pouring in the upper watershed. We read about one group of tourists in 2007 that were halfway through the cave when a rush of water swept through and left only one survivor, a 21-year-old girl who spent the night clenching to a rock in complete darkness.

Our nerves were eased on the day of our hike knowing that our guide was one of the best and he assured us that the conditions were safe to enter. With just a headlamp and a go pro camera strapped to our heads, we set off into Namtaloo. You must travel through the river the entire way, so you must keep your shoes on as the rocks make for a difficult passage.

It was one of the coolest things we have ever done. Parts of the cave are so narrow and the obstacles so difficult that you are holding onto the walls for balance on each side of you. Throughout the journey we saw many huge cave dwelling spiders. They were the size of grapefruits holding onto the walls so the thought of our hands running into one in the darkness was scary because our headlamps had to be focused on our path in front of us. Multiple sections of the cave had us up to our necks in water and one part included a short swim. Our 3 guides were excellent and assisted everyone along the way. Some passages were quite difficult and only precise footholds would allow you to safely proceed.

We ran into other forms of wildlife in the cave as well. We saw a few big cave toads, small fish in the river, hunter spiders, and of course more bats. The structure inside the cave was awesome. There were many cool formations like stalagmites, stalactites, calcite ponds, and rimstone flow formations. There is even a small waterfall inside. Although we were in a large group, it still felt like an adventure straight out of Indiana Jones or something similar. It took us an hour to traverse through Namtaloo and reach the exit on the other side. Unfortunately the cave was so dark that hardly any images were captured clearly from Roy’s Gopro camera, but it was such an incredible experience that neither one of us will surely ever forget it.

Another 1 ½ hour hike back down to the lake had us back to our boat where we first began. We returned to the raft houses to eat lunch and pick up our bags and we were off for the dock on the other side of the lake.

 We said our goodbyes to our new friends in the group and were dropped off in the nearby town where we could catch an overnight bus to Bangkok. We had a few hours to kill so we walked around and found the local market where we ate some good stall food. Tomorrow we’ll be waking up in Bangkok!