Ayutthaya, the Ancient Thai Capital

Talk about Thailand and most of us would already dream for the exotic beaches, scuba diving, night life or the golden pagodas. Without actually visiting Thailand I felt like experiencing all of these repeatedly through my friends’ FB albums. But we always tend to prefer a soulful, serene vista or a secret hideout over a crowded destination! So a sudden long weekend plan for Thailand made us think beyond the touristy places. That is when I learnt about Ayutthaya, the ancient Thai capital! Without giving a second thought we included this UNESCO site in our bucket-list.

Exploring the ruins of Ayutthaya was like a whole new way of knowing Thailand. People who visited Hampi (in India) might also find a lot of similarities like the rise and fall of a prosperous Empire, scattered patterns of numerous ruins and close vicinity of a river. Dating back to 1350, the outside world used to praise this Thai Kingdom as one of the flourishing Empires of East! It was based in the valley of mighty Chao Phraya River. But the time never flows in same way! The city fell in 1767 after the Burmese invasion followed by a Chinese attack. A glorious kingdom got destroyed in war!

At today’s date only the remains of the erstwhile glory can be seen in mysterious temple ruins and relics

Our sojourn towards the former Thai capital started from Hua Lamphong, the main station of today’s Thai Capital. When possible it is good to ditch the luxury of private AC cars and roam like a local. Not only you can explore a new country in grass root level but also it shows your little, nice gesture towards the environment.

Before the train arrived, we saw a fascinating practice by the locals. The station’s loud-speakers started playing the Thai National song. Every single passenger including the cleaning staffs stood up to show respect; the mothers also made their little, naughty fellows stand still until the music ended!

Waiting at Hua Lamphong Station which serves over 130 trains and approx 60K passengers every day

We boarded the train with many other locals and a few British bag packers. As we settled with the seats the diesel engine whistled past the long stretch of city area. For one last time, I glanced through all the notes and routes which I had penned down during my initial research. Ayutthaya is one of the less known sites, so we could not expect to see a professional guide right after getting down. A bit of self-study helps here to comfortably enjoy the grandeur and the historic significance of the place!

Wat Mahathat Temple Ruins were registered as a national historic site by the Fine Arts Department on 8 March 1935

Wat Mahathat Temple Ruins were registered as a national historic site by the Fine Arts Department on 8 March 1935. The main prang (a tall tower) fell apart in 1911 during the reign of King Rama VI.

After getting down from the train we had to cross a small river by a local ferry and reach at the main island of ruins. Exploring Ayuthhaya on foot is not recommended because of the year-long severe hot weather. Hiring a local tuktuk is a better idea. Within every kilometer we could visit multiple ruins. It took about 5 hours and we were done with the main sites.

Wat Mahathat, built even before Ayutthaya became the capital, was the religious center with many relics of the Buddha

What we could see in most of these sites were just the vigorously ruined shrines and broken Buddha statues, surrounded by nature!

Ancient Buddha Head, nestled within the tree roots for years after the Burmese attack and destruction

Every time I visit any ruins it makes me wonder how human greed can just destroy the finest creations of another human! However, nature has its own rules. I loved how the tree roots simply grew around the Buddha face for past 250 years and secured this eternal smile!

Apart from the main temples some less popular sites like Wat Worachettharam also offered us interesting visuals in different layers

At many places, we could see the same bell shaped stupas which we noticed in Yogjakarta and Myanmar.

Wat Ratchaburana prang still has intriguing stucco work though it was again looted in 20th century.

The life of Buddha is portrayed in the mural paintings on the inner walls.

The main prang (a tall tower)
Wat Phra Si Sanphet temple, the largest of all, was used only for royal religious ceremonies.

It is said that the attackers had set fire to this temple and melted the 343 kilograms of golden Buddha statue that took about 3 years to get built!

The 37-meter long and 8-meter high reclining Buddha of Wat Lokaya Sutha looked so peaceful as the shadowy patterns of a tree confined it within a natural frame.

All the majestic ruins of this ancient city are probably Thailand’s best kept secrets. After the war and devastation, Thai capital shifted to Bangkok and Ayutthaya was abandoned only to get slowly claimed by the jungles. History thrived in the lap of nature.

Treasures and relics, recovered during the restoration, are now kept in Chao Sam Phraya National Museum.

It is a good idea to start as early as possible for Ayutthaya so that most temples could be covered before the unforgiving Sun takes its full form. Last but not the least, there is an option for taking Elephant ride around the temples. My sincere request for all the travelers is to avoid this one. You will get myriads of other alternatives to make the trip memorable; there is no pride in promoting captive wild life tourism. Please read details here to know how the elephants are domesticated and what could be the consequences.

Penang Diary – For the Street Lovers

Penang, an island in Malaysia, was founded as a trade hub by the British East India Company back in 18th century. Although it got a place in the global map long before by the Chinese explorers.

The streets

Penang was never in my wish list until I browsed some photos over the internet and came to know about the project Mirrors George Town. It was by the famous street artist Ernest Zacharevic. I and my shutter-bug husband both like street murals as they help to form interesting compositions for street photography. Little did I know that this place is a paradise for street arts and has been categorized as UNESCO World Heritage site! It’s neither so far nor so costly from Singapore, our current residence. Unless you have intention to cover street arts as well as all touristy sites in one trip, just a weekend is okay. We did not have to spend hours for planning. One of my colleagues already visited Penang and another colleague’s hometown itself is Penang. So got enough information already over the coffee breaks at office.  We just chose a random weekend as the long weekends are too costly to plan in South east Asia.

We kept this trip strictly for ‘street arts, the old jetty and local food’. A day before the trip, I had to buy a 18-55/ 2.8 lens to avoid any ‘domestic violence’ over one 18-55 in our collection..(Chuckles!) As expected, I did not have to touch any wider or longer focal length at all as ‘Street’ was our main objective for this trip.

Boy on a Bike
Street mural of a boy on a bike, watching the traffic passing by. Lebuh Ah Quee street

After landing at airport, we took a UBER as suggested by my colleague. That was really a cheaper and convenient option to directly reach to our hotel door at Georgetown. Well, now that I took this name let me brief about it. Georgetown was one of the oldest British settlements in South East Asia and was a hub of the nearby commercial districts. You can still find those 18th century colonial buildings all over the place. Some of them still have those broken sign boards of old trading centers but many have been converted to hotels. Our small hotel was also inside one of those buildings. Over all, to our Bong eyes the architectures and the lanes resembled not like the ‘Glittering Malaysia’, we typically see in calendars. Rather we found many similarities with some North Kolkata old roads and gullies. I am sure that has to be due to the East India Company effect!

Anyways, after dumping our bag packs our hungry souls ran for food and we ended up in a local shop where they serve soup in big bigger biggest Chinese porcelain bowls . The biggest one is so big that the serving guy himself could take a dip inside it . haha. But the teriyaki chicken and creamy chicken mayo soup were superb in taste and filling as well. Then we took a map for the street art trail and headed with our gears. It is actually a good decision to collect a hard-copy of the map or download available maps from net. Otherwise you may end up visiting same gully multiple times instead of exploring different streets. That afternoon and next day morning we covered street arts.

These art works are not as ancient as the British rulers or the historic Chinese sailor.  These were created in 2012 by Ernest Zacharevic who is also leaving his brush marks in many other cities all over the world. But when in Penang, you will just get overwhelmed by the number of arts, he created in the old walls and even on the abandoned shop doors. Some paintings are also supported by real props to give a more lively perspective.

Step by Step lane

 

Children on a bi-cycle at Lebuh Armenian

Many iron arts are also scattered around the city to show you old Penang days

The Old Clan Jetties

In the day-1 evening, it started lightning. We walked towards the jetty, expecting a stormy weather already. It was a pretty thrilling experience with wind so strong while we survived under an old shade. That was probably a rest place for the fishermen. The rattling sounds, the rolling chairs, the swinging plants, crazy waves in the backwaters created almost a movie scene in that old clan jetty. I was sitting on a thick wooden stem and my Indian soul was so badly missing a cup of ‘cutting chai’.

An old lady walking on the jetty in rains

These 100 years old jetties are actually fishermen’s village. Six jetties are owned by 6 Chinese clans and have rows of old or renovated wooden houses. From the outlook of every house, it was easy to guess that the locals are very much religious. Some small and serene temples are also there, facing towards the sea.

 

A small temple near the Chew jetty

 

After the storm, the temples were lit up with red Chinese lanterns and few people came to place incandescent sticks on a metal bowl. Chew jetty among them is most touristy and local folks built up a flea market on the pathway. We pretty much liked the jetty area and went again next day afternoon. That was a dry weather and we spent the blue hour on the most photogenic jetty.

Local flea market on Chew Jetty

 

An old Chinese house on the jetty

 

The busy flea market on Chew jetty
One of the jetties in Blue hour

 

One of the clan jetty on the serene coastal area, Butterworth area is visible at the horizon.

The Festival

Finally there comes the most unexpected event. On the Day-2, post lunch we headed towards Lorong Chulia to explore some more street arts, that time the streets around our hotel was quiet and normal like the other day. But we returned only to see a fully different look. The otherwise quiet streets were packed with pop-up food stalls with specialty street foods; plus dragon and lion dancers, doing processions in different lanes. Without knowing the occasion we almost jumped into the vibrant ocean of crowds, tasted various street food and crazy drinks, walked with the dragon dancers and also watched a traditional dance performance. Later we came to know that was the last day of Lunar New Year in Penang. This festival is known to be one of the biggest celebrations in Malaysia.

The traditional dance on the street for Lunar New Year

Overall our Penang trip was very interesting. We purposely avoided the over hyped Penang hill and the upward train as it becomes too crowded on weekends and many including our uber driver told that the streets would be more interesting. In fact it was a pleasant surprise that we enjoyed the vibrant Lunar New Year fest around George Town!