AYUTTHAYA

When I went to Ayutthaya, we hired a guide for me and my friends. She was informative and as usual with most Thais, very friendly.  When we were in the car, she mentioned about taking the 'swing'. I had no idea what 'swing' she was talking about, until we reached the other side of the river and saw this 'swing'. A huge swing which ferries passengers from one end of the river to the other. Very traditional and fun too.

Here, we saw an elderly lady selling noodles from her small boat. Another common scene.

Our guide (left), with us sitting the swing.

The swing was owned by the monks at the nearly monastery, here seen operating it manually.  Fees were in a form of donations of any kind, no limit set.

The writting in red was an indication of how high the flood level was recently.

This part of the temple was very interesting as the previous Thai King had allowed a merge of Western architecture and local religion within this compound.

I was told this was an important flower. The flower of the Bodhi tree, where Buddha was supposed to have been born under.

A sundial dating 1878.

This was a Buddhist temple, with Western architechture.

Inside the temple (doesnt it look like a Church to you?), with a local monk blessing visitors.

Donation tree, it's up to visitor to donate for upkeeping of the temples within.

A very friendly monk, giving teachings and blessings to everyone.

A map of Ayutthaya, reminded me much of how Angkor Wat was built..surrounded by water.

Cheers everyone. I'll blog about the ruins of Ayutthaya in the next post :)