Day 2

Today we traveled down south to the Ancient City.  It is a 320 acre plot with reproductions of all of the important buildings of Thailand. So in one day, you can take in countless key temples and architecture, some of which no longer exist anymore.  It was absolutely beautiful.

First, however, we had to get some food so we had energy.  So off to the street vendors we went.  We were able to get breakfast for about $0.60.  Yummy steaming noodles.  I was really looking forward to a little bit lighter breakfast so I had fruit and just stole a couple of bites from Jed.  They make things pretty spicy in Thailand but my hubby likes them extra spicy so he is always adding extra stuff to it.  I have to grab my bites quick before I cannot eat it anymore.

After eating it was time to grab our Uber and head down South.  As we drove we hit traffic, and more traffic, and even more traffic. Well, remember my pea sized bladder?  The increasing pressure and slowness of traffic was making it clear that I had to have a pit stop.  Now how to let our driver know what our wishes were.  Jerame was sitting shotgun and starts to type into Google translate.  First bathroom and shows it to him. He seems like he might understand.  Then Jerame puts in, "I peed in your back seat" that didn't translate well so he switched it to "I urinated in your back seat" that did the trick and he started laughing and saying ok ok.  It still felt like a long time until a place was spotted and we could pull over.  It was a fast food restaurant shopping center place.  So I run into the food place and I am searching for the bathroom toilet sign and not seeing it.  Feeling very stressed I run out into the shopping area and start looking again.  I am just about to try and ask someone when I see it.  WHEW, feeling much better we are able to start back on our journey again.  In Thailand all of their signs for the bathroom say Toilet, so if you try and ask for a bathroom you will get a blank stare but if you say toilet that usually will do the trick.

We got our tickets and decided that renting a golf cart was the way for us.  They have bikes you can use for free but we our trip would have plenty of walking already.  

 As you can see from the picture there are A LOT of bikes.  That is because we chose to go to Thailand during the rainy season which lasts through the end of October.  We went the middle of October. We chose to go then for a few reasons, the flight was a killer price and it would be less busy and we got better deals.  As you can see we were not wrong, it was dead!.  There were a few people around, but you wouldn't be able to tell that from our pictures.  If we would have gone in November all these bikes would have been in use, plus they have open tour buses within the park you can ride around on.  We much preferred the calmness of virtually having the place to ourselves.

Check out the headsets we have on, they tell us all about each area you visit.  However the music and voice on it made us want to fall asleep and we opted for reading signs and just using our eyes.

In Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road, their steering wheels are on the right side of the car and they drive on the left side of the road.  However, their golf carts still have the wheel on the left but your still suppose to drive on the right. That was a little bit confusing occasionally when we met up with one of those tour buses and we were coming at it in their lane.

Jerame checking out the bell

Jerame taking a picture of us from the bell tower

The boys cannot help but monkey around wherever we go!

All of these pictures were from the free area right before you go through to the area where you have to show your ticket.  So pretty!

This would have been a nobleman's home.  Jed and Jerame, like guests of the ancient host, are waiting in the courtyard for tea and figuring out how to politely decline.  Trust me declining tea is no easy task, we ran into that objective for real a few times after massages.

Here we have the Ayutthaya Temple which stood between 19th-24th BE.  

 Lunch time!  We didn't get quite as good of prices here in the touristy area but still darn good compared to back in the US.

Jed considered this had but decided it would be too hard to get back, plus he hadn't seen that many natives wearing them.  I bought a purse and even bartered.  The purse to the left was for 200 Baht and the purse to the right 250.  This one had no price on it.  So I asked them how much and they said 250.  I pointed to the other purses and said but these are only 200 and they are same size.  She let me have it for the 200 baht, so that is about $5.50.  I think it is supper cute and the perfect size.  My teenagers have had me carrying a huge purse that carries everything but the kitchen sink for the last year so I was ready for something smaller.

Back to more sites after lunch and some shopping.  Here I am showing how tall I really am in one of the archways.

The Legend of Horses flying over waterfalls.  Thai people see great beauty and power in animals.   

 Check out the american looking peasant in the Peasant museum.  Is the peasant stealing a bike?

This one scared the guys and they were not sticking around to learn more about it.

The water lizards are here in this park too.  Anywhere green and lush that has water you will find these guys.

The flag flies at half mast because their King died last night.  He ruled for over 70 years and was very beloved by the people.  It has put the Nation in mourning.

This is a recreation of the reclining Buddha which is a statue that represents Buddha lying down.  It represents historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the parinivana.  

Here we have a baby elephant.  Isn't it cute.  My sister in law Amy loves elephants and we thought of her often while in Thailand as the elephant is an important figure in Thai society.  The Thai Elephant is the official national symbol of Thailand.

In this shot you can see one of the tour buses I talked about earlier. Most of the people who came seemed to do this.  It was a free option.  To rent the golf cart it was 300 baht ($9.00) an hour.  The picture below also shows part of the Authong which stood between 17th-20th BE

Check out the vegetables growing down from the vines.  Incredible that they don't just drop off with how heavy they are.

I was constantly trying to get Jerame to put himself in awkward or risky positions that could potentially get him wet just for the sake of a picture.  He was a good sport and did it pretty much every time.

 Walk like an Egyptian I mean elephant.

We spent many hours checking out the Siamese Art and craftsmanship of the Ancient City which spanned pre-historical to 25th BE.  One of the main reasons for the Ancient City was to collect cultural and art work of Thailand to be a learning source, for the Thai people.  So they would not forget their heritage. It was time to go and we went out to the street to find a ride home.  It was taking awhile to get an Uber in our area so we took a little stroll down the street a bit.  

Time to head back and go meet up with some friends of Jerame and Thảo's for dinner at their place.  With the King's death a lot of things shut down so we just had dinner at their place and I am so glad we did.  We couldn't ask for a better view of the city than from their apartment.  First a cool sign on the way.

Just amazing!  Check it out, so beautiful.  It was a perfect evening and we must really be getting use to the air here because it felt perfect.  Maybe because we were outside all day and now were were up on top of the world looking down and it was twilight. 

We spent several hours with Elijah and Duong and their three kids. They have been living in Thailand for several years.  He works for the state department.  They are a wonderful family and it was such a pleasure to get to share a meal with them and get to know them.

DAY 2 = Success!!