Feb 5 - Travel to Ayutthata

 Greetings from the Kantary Hotel Ayutthaya where they not only have gorgeous rooms but FREE wifi in public spaces.


Today we drove through more Thai traffic to Ayutthaya, a ruined city of an empire that ruled much of Southeast Asia for almost 400 years between 1350 and 1767.  Although most of the city of more than a million was destroyed, some of the religious buildings remain in atmospheric ruin.  Ayutthaya was the most prosperous capital of Thailand and was friendly toward foreign traders, including Europeans, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the capital. In the sixteenth century, it was described by foreign traders as one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East.

  On the way we stopped at Bang Pa In Royal Palace, which was a summer palace for Thai kings and shows European and Chinese architecture as well as Thai.

We were required to put on sarongs to enter the temple

Except for stomach trials (we may only eat Thai food in the US from now on), we are enjoying ourselves and hope all is well at home