With the arrival of Paul, we made a spontaneous decision to make a trip north of Bangkok, to visit the ruins of Thailand's ancient capital Ayutthaya. A 70KM trip took 3 hours in the shaky third-class train, which felt even longer in those rock-solid, right-angled wooden seats. Though the contrast in comfort made our arrival celebratory.The train station offers storage services for backpacks. A lightened load gave us the necessary mobility to maximize our exposure to the wonders of Ayutthaya.
The best way to tour Ayutthaya is by bicycle, you can rent one of these transportation mechanisms across the train station for 40 baht a day (US $1.30) - unlimited mileage, zero gasoline consumption, environmentally friendly, so why not? The rental shop will even provide you with a set of locks so you can make appropriate stops without worrying about loss or theft. A ferry took Paul and I and our bicycles across the river and into the town of Ayutthaya. And there we were, free to wonder in this magnificent town.
I stood on the edge of the platform, stunned. Perhaps it was the thunder or the lightning or the fearless rain that awakened the Ancient Wonder, as time relapsed and history brought alive. Visions engineered and self-assembled in my head. I felt the wealth and the glory of the kingdom that once were. I pictured the vibrant colours of the court. I visualized the power of the commons, erecting the palaces and the temples, layering the walls and the courtyard, stone by stone, brick by brick. Pride and power lifted Thailand to its height. This was the center of South-East Asia, where I stood.
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Yet in front of me lies pieces from the past: dulled-shine, weathered-rocks, fractured-braces, featureless-sculptures, aggregating to a fictitious-reality and a palpable-dream. All the life left are that of the wild dogs - sniffing, searching.
Ayutthaya collapsed under the prowess of the Burmese in 1767.
Even the great f
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