Ayutthaya, 76km from Bangkok, was the capital of Thailand for about 400 years--from 1350 to 1767 (when it was finally sacked by invading Burmese armies). In its heyday, Ayutthaya was a metropolis of considerable stature and ranked as one of the world’s most important (and magnificent) cities. Today, all that remains is a series of ruins, which are very much worth a look.
Our Ayutthaya tour had been booked by a friend, and the tour van came to our hotel at 6.45am to pick us up, although it was 8am by the time the half-a-dozen other people on the tour had been picked up. An hour’s drive out of Bangkok brought us to our first stop on the way, the Royal Summer Palace at Bang Pa In. Supposedly inspired by Versailles (I didn't see much of a resemblance, myself), Bang Pa In is dotted with pools of water teeming with turtles and fish. Well-laid out gardens, bushes pruned into animal shapes, and plaster statues of very European figures dot the landscape, and a series of pavilions and mansions stand at intervals along the paths. Among the buildings, there’s a red-and-ochre observatory tower; a huge teak mansion with very European interiors; a splendid Chinese mansion, all red and gold; so on and so forth. Opulent enough, and good for half an hour’s look-around before you hit the road and head for Ayutthaya, past lush green paddy fields, coconut trees and rivers.
Surrounded by three rivers, Ayutthaya’s a massive complex of palaces and chedis (pagodas; Ayutthaya has 55 of them). This city has largely succumbed to the passage of time--brick chedis stand, most of them crumbling, here and there while Buddha statues, their heads lopped off by antique-selling Thais, sit in headless rows. It’s a spooky place, half-overgrown by grass, but a major tourist attraction nevertheless. We were taken on a tour around some of the main chedis and wats (including one with a huge seated gold-plated Buddha; this wat also has a 'money tree'--currency notes stapled together in an interminable strip by devotees. It stands on a pedestal, a huge loose globe of paper, with one end trailing Bahts, and tempting godless greedy-guts like us!).
A peek at a Reclining Buddha (a plaster-coated one), a visit to the Ayutthaya Handicrafts Centre (some lovely work here: Thai silk, silverware, carved wood, enamel and ceramic ware, chopsticks, and tiny flowers crafted out of the pith of the water acacia), and then we were taken down to the bank of the Chao Phraya river, where we got onto a large, comfortable boat for the cruise--with a great lunch included--back to Bangkok. We docked at Bangkok (near the Sheraton hotel) at around 4pm but, Bangkok traffic being what it is, managed to get back to our hotel only at 5.45pm. On the whole, a fulfilling trip.