On Friday Greg and Bonnye had to work, so we hired a driver
(yet another thing we would never do in the US that is supremely affordable
here) for the day to take us out to Ayutthaya (Ah-you-dee-ah), the former capitol of Thailand. The “Seat of Kings,” as it has been called,
the city is full of the ruins of wats (temples) and palaces. A couple key places aside, we couldn’t even
begin to decide which sites to visit. To our grateful surprise, however, our driver
essentially chose for us, simply taking us to places he thought we should
see. Fantastic.
We started at the
Bang Pa-in Palace. This palace isn't actually
a ruin or in Ayutthaya proper. It is a
summer palace first built in the 17th century by King Prasart Thong
on an island in the Chao Phraya River.
Local gossip says…er, I mean a contemporary Dutch merchant reported, that the king was the illegitimate son of
King Ekathotsaraot and a woman he
befriended when he was shipwrecked on Bang Pa-in Island. Whatever the truth, the palace fell into
disrepair after Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese, and was then restored. It is
currently used by the King and Queen as an occasional residence and location
for banquets.
As with a few of the more
important wats and the Grand Palace, there is a dress code for visitors. Women
must wear long skirts and have their shoulders covered. Since we weren’t expecting to visit a working
palace I wasn’t dressed appropriately. Luckily, all such sites are well stocked
with clothing you can borrow during your visit.
The palace and grounds were
beautiful- impeccably cared for and extremely ornate. No austerity here!
As with the ruins in Isan, we were surrounded
by school children who swarmed around Kaia and Tessa. Poor girls- they eventually started running
away from school groups because they couldn’t take it any more.
After Bang Pa-in
Palace, we headed to Wat Phra Chao Phya-thai, The Temple of the Supreme
Patriarch (commonly known as Wat Yai Chai-mongkol and previously known as Wat
Pa Kaeo). [Note: Virtually all the history of the wats I share in this post comes from the writing of Chaiwat
Worachetwarawat] This monastery was built by King U-Thong in 1357.
In 1592, King Naresuen led an army against
the Burmese, who were trying to take over Ayutthaya. The king defeated the Burmese but did not
inflict the losses he wanted to because backup troops didn’t arrive in
time.
Despite his victory, the king
wanted to execute the officers in charge of those troops. Their lives were
spared only when the Patriarch intervened and begged the king to build a
monument to his victory instead.
Religion working for the good.
Hooray!
Part of these ruins include a large, outdoor reclining
Buddha. For a small donation, you may
light incense, pray, and apply a small patch of gold leaf to the Buddha, which
both Kai and Tess did.
After a quick
lunch we headed over to our last site for the day, Wat Mahathat. Construction on the wat began in 1373.
When the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya in 1767,
the wat was burned and left as ruins.
Perhaps the most famous image from Wat Mahathat is a Bodhi tree that has grown completely around a Buddha’s head. While you are allowed to photograph the head, out of respect you must stand (or squat) below its level.
Images of the head are usually close ups, so I expected the head to be larger. Regardless of size, it was still pretty incredible to see.
And, shot of the trip- Kai, Tess, and Michael posing with a monk…because he wanted a photo with the girls.
After Wat
Mahathat, we headed to our last stop for the day- an elephant ride. I had promised the girls they could ride an
elephant as soon as we found out we were going to Thailand. Their cousin had ridden, their aunt and uncle
had ridden, their grandparents had ridden.
And really, who wouldn’t want to ride an elephant? But then I found out that many elephants are
basically tortured into submission and lead horrible lives. Suddenly I was in a no-win situation. Break a promise to the girls (a promise they
had confirmed about a dozen times) or engage in animal abuse.
Great.
So I did some
research to see if I could find a place where the elephant were treated
humanely. I was pretty sure I had succeeded with a place in Ayutthaya that was
an elephant sanctuary committed to rescuing animals.
My worry returned
as soon as we arrived. I had no idea
what a miserable elephant vs a happy elephant looked like. The elephants didn’t look wounded or in
pain. They were eating, so I knew they
weren’t starved the way they are in some places. But it was crowded and there
was trash around, so it didn’t feel great.
After some pretty intense internal moral debate, we decided to let the
girls ride. The mahouts treated the
elephants kindly during the ride, letting them stop to eat and visit with each
other and never using anything other than pressure on the elephants ears to
guide them, which appeased my worry somewhat.
But as I told Michael after, I thought that, if I believed in hell
(which I don’t), this ride might have been the thing to condemn me. I felt much better later when I described the
scene to Bonnye and Greg and, after asking a series of questions, they said
that it actually didn’t sound bad. I’m
still processing, though, that whole internal moral debate and what it means to
make a choice when there is no good choice to make.
As for the girls,
they absolutely loved it and I’m grateful at least for that.
That night, a neighbor’s nanny babysat the girls and Michael, Greg, Bonnye and I had a grown-up night out at a restaurant where a) the food was absurdly fantastic and b) it looked like a movie set (Casablanca, maybe?) inside and a fairy garden outside. I’m serious. My yard will look like that someday. It was dining at its best, and the company was excellent. It has been excellent spending real time with Greg and Bonnye.
I’ll tell you
what, there is nothing like a trip to someplace radically different from your
familiar context and comfort zone to call into question every assumption,
expectation, belief, interpretation and mind-set that you hold. I literally
didn’t know what to make of it: the blatant sex for sale, the people casually
wandering the street as if it wasn’t the most bizarre place in the world, and
most of all the women, chatting with each other, laughing with their friends,
wandering arm in arm, just…..selling themselves. I've never held prostitution to be a "sinful" job but I did think of it as a job of desperation- one more way women without options were exploited. (Human trafficking is another issue altogether, of course. That's not just sinful but also criminal.) I expected it to be seedy and sad and creepy,
and it was cheerful and fun, though also, as you can probably tell, disconcerting and
thought provoking.
Between the
elephants and the pervasive poverty and the prostitution and being an outsider
blatantly observing another culture and people and…..everything else, I feel
like I need a month or nine just to process and reset my moral compass and
re-build my meaning making framework.
Which is, I suppose, one of the purposes of a trip such as this
one. I surely have been stretched and
challenged and made uncomfortable and filled
with awe and wonder and appreciation and gratitude.
All in two
weeks. Thailand does not mess around.
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