It was a different sort of travel day from Lopburi to my next stop. It was time to turn in this, my third, rental car. So I drove due south past Ayutthaya straight to the Bangkok Airport where I turned in the car then I decided to have a little fun by riding the train back north to Ayutthaya. It was about a 45 minute trip and it cost me a whopping 11 baht (about 33 cents).

The Ayutthaya kingdom was established in 1351 on an island. Yes, Ayutthaya is actually an island formed by the Muang, Lopburi, Pasak, and Chao Phraya Rivers. At the time it was considered to be one of the world’s three great super powers. Today Ayutthaya is just packed with the amazing remnants of its past.

There are six really BIG sites in Ayutthaya that you can see with a combo ticket, but there are dozens of other equally beautiful ruins all over the city. I spent a solid three days on a rented motorbike seeing them all. I started in the center at Wat Ratchaburana. It was built by King Borom Rachathirat II in 1424 for his two brothers who died fighting over the throne. They killed each other and then their little brother was crowned instead. Ha!

You can climb up the main tower and look inside. There’s not much in there on the first floor, but below it is a crypt that goes down three floors. A lot of artifacts and treasures were found in that crypt, mostly gold. Unfortunately, all but the top floor were closed.

Right across the street is Wat Mahathat, built in 1374, which was the real center of the kingdom and the seat of the king. It’s vast!

Ironically, the main tower has collapsed twice in its history. Once during Ayutthayas heyday, they rebuilt it, then it collapsed again in 1911. That thing just didn’t want to stay up. You can see part of it in the pic above on the far right.

There were many many beautiful stupas to see at Wat Mahathat, but the most popular and most photographed attraction is this Buddha head. It fell to the ground sometime after Ayutthayas collapse in 1767 and then the bodhi tree grew up around it. Art and nature collide!

Wat Phra Si San Phet was built in 1448 and was the private royal temple. Apparently, there was once a 50ft standing Buddha statue made of gold here. It was stolen and melted down by the Burmese when they sacked the city in 1767, Ayutthayas ultimate demise.

These three towers are Ayutthayas most iconic view and were the model for Bangkoks royal palace. I’ll be checking that out too in a couple of weeks.

These sites are all really big. In addition to the main towers there are other monuments and buildings scattered all over. It’s pretty overwhelming. This is probably the biggest ancient city I’ve visited in Thailand. Sukhothai is a very close second.

All of these main sites on the island had crypts full of royal treasures and artifacts, not just Wat Ratchaburana. A lot of them are now kept at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum in town. I started my second day with a visit there.

Most of the artifacts are gold, but there’s also a lot of silver, as well as other metals, and lots of precious stones. And they’re all conveniently separated by which site they came from.

And of course, let’s not forget the billions of Buddha’s.

Some of the lesser known sites are just as impressive as the well known ones. They’re also not visited very much so most of the time I had them to myself. Most people come to Ayutthaya as a day trip from Bangkok and just hit the BIG six. I think it’s a shame to miss all of this awesomeness.

I don’t really know much about these smaller sites. I just zipped around on the motorbike taking hundreds of pictures. I’m going to be very busy with pictures when I’m finished here.

There were also several sites that I didn’t even know about. I would be zipping along to the next site I had mapped out and then, BAM! There’s another one! Wat Wora Pho and Wat Thammikarat, seen below, are two great examples of that. I especially liked the stupa at Wat Thammikarat surrounded by lions.

Another one of the big six is Wat Phra Ram. It’s not exactly known when it was built, sometime in the late 14th century, but what is known is that it was built on the cremation site of Ayutthayas very first king, U Thong.

After showering the sticky, sunblocky, sweaty nastiness off of my body and pigging out on green curry, I wondered if maybe Ayutthaya lights up all these temples at night. Sure enough, they do. So I spent an hour or so riding around to a few of them for some night photography. The sites are closed for the night, but through the gates and over the walls, beautiful!

My third day was Monday and I had to start my day with a visit to the immigration office. Thailand doesn’t grant 90 day visas. You can only get a 60 day visa, then extend it for 30 days once here, so that’s how I spent my early morning. Actually the process was pretty painless and now this kid’s legal for another 30 days.

After getting the visa sorted out it was time to explore the sites off the island. Yup, Ayutthaya’s awesomeness extends to the other side of the rivers too. Wat Maheyong is another one of the BIG six. The top of the main chedi obviously fell off and landed on the platform below. You can see it just to the left. It made quite a crater and I imagine must have also made quite a ruckus when it fell.

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon is massive! It was originally built by king U Thong, mentioned before. The big central tower was added by king Naresuan in 1593 after he defeated the Burmese. It’s since been known as the Temple of Auspicious Victory. I believe this is the tallest temple in Ayutthaya, at least it felt that way when I was climbing those steps.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram was built in the early 17th century by king Prasat Thong as a tribute to his mother. It also has the honor of being one of the illustrious BIG six. These off island sites are pretty spread out. That means I get a good breeze riding around to see them. It’s a good thing too because it is bloody hot here! The pineapple smoothie I bought at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon helped a lot too.

Wat Phutthaisuwan marks the spot where King U Thong and his followers lived before building their city on the island. It’s stark white tower is also the only ancient temple in Ayutthaya that wasn’t eventually damaged by the Burmese. I’m not sure why the other ruins on the site were damaged and the tower was saved, but that’s what happened.

I climbed up and went inside the temple, but I didn’t get very far. I got one pic from just inside the doorway, above right. I could hear the bats, I could definitely smell the bats (bleh!), and I could hear and see the poop raining from the ceiling. No thank you! I think those bats ate some bad tacos or something.

Wat Worachet is another one of those temples that wasn’t mentioned anywhere. My GPS trolling found this one. It was well worth the visit though. It’s believed that king Naresuan’s ashes were interred here, but they’re not sure.

And finally, just down the street from my hotel is the Phet Fortress. It’s all that remains of Ayutthaya’s primary line of defense. There’s certainly not much of it. The Burmese really did a number on this city way back in 1767.

The fortress ruins do have a prime location, though. This is the southeast corner of the island where the Pasak and Chao Phraya Rivers meet on their way south to the gulf of Thailand. I was really surprised at how fast the rivers were flowing. I would have stayed here longer, but it really was hot. That sun is so heavy!

That wraps up my visit to Ayutthaya. There are a couple of small ruin sites I’ll be seeing at some future stops, but I think this is the last of the big ancient ruins I’ll be seeing on this trip. In the morning I’ll splurge on another 33 cent train ticket to Bangkok to rent another car so I can head to my next stop. I have about five weeks left in Thailand, so don’t go anywhere…