Ayutthaya

From our guesthouse in Kanchanaburi, we headed to the bus station. It was a bit of a longer walk than either of us anticipated and though it was still morning, it was late morning and quite hot. By the time we got to the train station we were red in the face and drenched in sweat. Once we figured out the which bus we needed to take, we sat down next to our friendly driver. She was incredibly helpful and actually fanned both of us as she laughed at how hot we were. :)

After about three and a half hours of riding on two different buses, we arrived in Ayutthaya. Luckily our guesthouse was only about 200 meters from the 'bus terminal.' We checked in and signed up for an evening sunset boat ride around the old city of Ayutthaya.

This is a large sitting Buddha we saw in the first of the three temples that we stopped by on our boat ride, Wat Chaiwatthanaram.

Just a photo us heading to the second temple, Wat Phutthai Sawan.

So far we have been to four different temples that have sitting Buddhas forming a square around the main temple complex. We also saw this in some the more famous ruins of Ayutthaya from when the Burmese sacked and destroyed most of the city during the 18th century.

Here is the big finale of our boat ride. The sunset over Wat Phanan Choeng. It was absolutely beautiful and as great as this photo turned out, it does not do justice to the colors and contrast between the sky, sun and the ruins.

The next morning we headed to Wat Mahathat with our new friend, Meran. This is the complex that is famous for Buddha's head being embedded within the roots of a banyan tree. These ruins are designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and each year there is a festival to celebrate the ruins but unfortunately we left a day before the festivities began :(

Again, here was once a line if sitting Buddhas. The contrast between this and the intact Buddhas from Wat Phutthai Sawan, is quite astounding.

I snapped a few photos of Jenna and Meran biking through Phra Ram historical park. It was a great ride!