Ayuttayah ruins

The last two days have been uneventful; we had a free day in Kanchanaburi, and then we took the train back to Bangkok.  But today we loaded into the vans and drove ~1.5 hrs north of Bangkok to Ayuttayah, the ancient capital that was destroyed by the Burmese in the middle 1700s.  Many ruins of temples of the ancient capital have been preserved and collectively are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We visited two of them today.  Afterwards, we checked into our hotel, then got dinner at the night market in Ayuttayah.

At each of our more significant venues, a pair of students gives a couple-minute primer to inform everyone of what we are about to see or experience.  They prepared their comments before leaving the U.S.  Here are Maddie and Sabrina giving us an interpretive session for Wat Cha Wattanaram.

Some of the buddha images and chedis at Wat Cha Wattanaram.

In the late 1700s, the Burmese invaded Thailand and destroyed the temples around Ayuttayah, the former capitol of Thailand.  In Buddhist countries, the head is considered sacred and not to be touched.  So by decapitating the Buddha statues, the Burmese committed an even more egregious offense.

The girls told us to pose like this, but I'm not sure what it means.

Mango smoothies! Mmmm.

We found these steps and it seems like a good place to pose as for a rock album cover.  We've done this in previous years... see who can come up with a good band name based on the covers.

The migraine maidens?

93% of the class.

Trying to fix the ruins?

Wat Pra Mahatat is one of the most famous because of the Buddha head from a decapitated statue that rolled up against a Bodhi tree.  Over the years, the roots of the tree grew around the head and it has become a sacred artifact resulting from the Burmese invasion in the 1700s.

We had lunch at the Lampang Restaurant and Cooper was there to walk around and greet the customers.  He clearly hasn't missed any meals.  He's a good boy.