Ayutthaya (or Ancient Thailand)

Our last stop in Thailand was Ayutthaya.  About 75 km north of Bangkok, it was the capital of Siam for over 400 years and had a population of over one million people in the 1700's (one of the largest cities in the world at that time) before it was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767.  Nowadays it has a population of about 55,000 which is downright small compared to its own past, but it has a pleasant smaller town feel and a lot of awesome ruins from it old days remain. They're a cool counterpoint to the newer temples we had seen so far.  We also stayed at a great guesthouse with some very helpful people which always makes life easier.  Shout out to Mary and Richard from Washington who we had a nice dinner with on our last night.

Wat Maha That

The famous Buddha head in the tree at Wat Maha That.

Wat Ratchaburana

More of Wat Ratchaburana

The center of Ayutthaya is actually an island as it is surrounded by rivers.  We took this boat around the island and stopped at a few temples along the way.

This is Panan Choeng which is a bit newer than some of the other temples in the city.  The Buddha is massive.  Look at how small I look compared to it.

Chrissy reclining with the Buddha at Phuttkai Sawan.  The reclining Buddhas are cool, they are supposed to dispel evil.  You have to walk through several areas of the temple here and through a small door into a garden to get here.  We probably would have missed it if our guesthouse hadn't explained how to get there first.

This shot of Wat Chai Wattanaram at sunset is awesome.  Props to Chrissy's camera work on this one.  This place is sometimes called "mini Angkor Wat" and having now been to Angkor Wat (we'll come to that in a bit) I think this might be cooler even if it is smaller.

Closer up on Wat Chai Wattanaram, another place where a person in the picture really helps explain the scale.  This tower (or prang) is really cool.  You can climb the steps and go in the door here and in the other temples but it always smells terrible (I mean really bad) and there isn't a ton to see.

Wat Sri Sanphet and its three Chedis.

A different view further away.

We played cribbage in Kkun Phaen's residence which is an old Thai style house where the governer used to live.  Chrissy had run off ten of the last eleven games to tie me in the overall standings, but I won here to keep the lead.  As of now, I am holding on to a one game lead.  The games recently have been closer and a bit more dramatic as Chrissy tries to take the lead for the first time in the trip.

Wat Phra Ram.  Again look how small I am.

Wat Tummikarat which is surrounded by lion statues.  There were also a whole bunch of chicken statues in a shrine nearby.

This is a Garuda statue in the Chao Sam Phraya museum.  Like the musuems in Turkey that had a lot of things recovered from the Roman ruins, this museum had lots of interesting finds from the temples.

Overall, Thailand was awesome.  The food is amazing and cheap. The beer is good.  The people were friendly and compared to Turkey (and Cambodia, we'll get there) the shop owners and restaurants were not agressive at all.  They always started with "Hello" and called Chrissy "Madam."  We definitely could have spent more time there as we didn't make it to the south.  I would have been interested in seeing a muay thai match, too.  Most importantly, though, it's an easy place to be which is as we travel we're learning can be high praise.

Chiang Mai Mountain Biking

Our last day in Chiang Mai we went mountain biking.  It is something neither of us had done before but we wanted to do more outside, so we signed up for a class that was said to be for "motivated beginners."  You certainly have to be motivated for the  bumpy ride.  We did both make it through unscathed, albeit with a few close calls, but it felt pretty challenging for beginners.  Still, the instructor did a decent job at figuring out skill level along the way even if he kept telling me to go over to the right where the path was easier when it all looked and felt completely the same to me.  The worst part is actually the nausea inducing windy ride up the mountain before you even start.

Here we are all padded up.

Looking back during a break.

Chrissy on her bike.

Oh yeah, the scenery up in the mountains was pretty good too.

The Bo Sang Umbrella Festival

Jim had read in one of our guide books, and I had read in our in flight  magazine that the Bo Sang Umbrella Festival would be happening the same weekend we would be in Chaing Mai. The festival  was about a 9 km songthaeu ride out of town, and we decided to take our chances. We were not dissapointed. 

Bo Sang is where all the painted paper and silk umbrellas  come from, and the festival is an opportunity  to put that on display in full vibrant color. 

Behind us, you can see several examples in all colors and sizes

The best part of our visit was by far the parade. It had a marching band, with this young drum majorette  at the head 

And floats with children dressed in traditional costume. I managed to capture  a pretty excellent  nose picker in this shot 

And no parade  would be complete without floats

That were so tall, each float had a guy with a tall stick to push those pesky power lines out of the way

The theme  of this year's  festival was we are one Asean. As such, there was one float for every Asean country,

Accompanied  by adults  also in traditional dress of that country

Thailand was the last country  float, and they brought out the white elephant for the occasion.

Here I am posing with the more traditional style paper umbrella

Both the opening and closing of the festival  was led by these ladies on bicycles. Each representing the Asean countries, these ladies would go on over the weekend to compete for the title of Miss Bo Sang.

Arrrr!

My bag inadvertently makes my t-shirt a very happy pirate.

Thai Cooking

Thai food is delicious so one of the things we really wanted to do while here was take a cooking class.  There are a ton to choose from so we just picked the one our guidebook recommended that also happened to have an office a block from our hostel which was convenient.  Chiang Mai has so many classes, tours, and treks into the mountains and the water that you could spend weeks here doing different things every day, but I'm digressing again.

First, we went to the market and learned about the different kinds of rice (there are a lot) among other things.  Then we drove out to the farm where the class was to take place and learned some about what they grow.  This class seemed somewhat unique in that they take you out of the city to do the cooking which was nice,  After our lessons in rice and herbs and vegetables, it was time to get down to business.

And of course the first order of business is cooking rice.  However, as our teacher explained, it is 2015, and we use a rice cooker.  She did explain how to do it on the stove as well for good measure.

Next it was time for curry paste.  Mince your ingredients...

And then smash the crap out of them with a mortar and pestle until they are paste like.

Setting the curry paste aside we made some tom yum soup which is a classic Thai soup made with lemongrass, kaffir lime, chilis, a bunch of herbs and (the secret ingredient as we found out) a tamarind, chili, shrimp paste.   We have no pictures of the process here, but enjoy Chrissy's finished product.  It was really good.  There are a lot of ingredients in it so it might be a pain to recreate exactly, but if we could get our hands on some of that tamarind chili paste we could get some good use out of it back home.

Here is Chrissy at her station ready to start on her curry.

And, lo and behold, here is her yellow curry...

And my red curry.  These were really good but we could have added more chilis for more spice.  The same goes for the tom yum as well.  When you are not used to how spicy a certain number of chilis are going to be it is hard to guage.  Still, they turned out well.  Making curries from scratch is way too labor intensive though and not something I see us doing at home.

Our stír fries on the other hand were good and would be easy to recreate back home I think.  I made chicken with basil and chilis and Chrissy made chicken with vegetables and cashew nuts.

After we devoured our curries and stir fries, it was time for dessert.  This is mango and sticky rice, a popular dessert you can get at most of the markets.  It is green  because it has been flavored with pandan leaves.  Those are mung bean seeds on top of the rice.  A good dessert, but very sweet.

After dessert it was time for one more dish to bring home for later.  Here I am learning how to fold spring rolls.  The spring roll recipe was actually surprisingly easy and they came out really well.

Here's Chrissy hard at work making pad thai which has way to many ingredients for us to not just order it from our local Thai place when we are back home.

Behold our final dishes.  We left with a nice recipe book and (as it turned out) dinner for that night.

Wat a surprise!

Chaing Mai is the cultural capital of the north and former capital of the Lanna kingdom, before it merged with Siam to become the Thailand  we know today (a simplification of history). It is also one of the few Thai cities with its original moat and city gates relatively  intact, and it boasts a large number of well preserved and function in Wats, or temples.Our first temple visit  was Wat Chedi Luang,  the oldest in the city walls.

Here you can see us making an offering to Buddha, incense, fresh flowers, and a birthday candle for the days of our birth. These offerings are supposed to bring luck.

It was a windy day, so the candle didn't stay lit particularly long, I don't know what that says about our luck prospects.

The temple is quite large, with the traditional  red lacquer ceiling, decorated with gold and zodiac symbols. The banners hanging overhead are also zodiac offerings to the Buddha. It is important to note, when visiting a Wat, shoulders and knees must be covered, no shoes allowed, and you must never show your feet to the Buddha  who always resides at the front of the temple.

And though you pay admission, it's nominal, so a donation  is welcome. Sometimes fun kitsch is an incentive to do so. These monks are actually coin accepting banks. Except that one on the left, what's he doing there?

Most Wats are also guarded by some pretty epic creatures, usually dragons, or nagas, as you can see here.

And lastly, a Wat visiting tip. Above you can see the ruins of the actual Chedi Luang that is the oldest in the city,  ringed by elephants and guard by nagas. I know, you're  thinking  what are all those pictures I just looked at then? They're the front temple complex, this is actually around back. Jim and I actually thought we had seen the whole thing before we saw this, and left the compound to go to the Chaing Mai Arts and Cultural museum, where they had pictures like the one above that let us on to then fact that we hadn't  actually  seen the whole  thing.  So we went back. Moral of the story,  to see the whole Wat, be sure to do a thorough lap. You never know what surprises await.