Thailand Tuttle Travel Pack. Jim Algie

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      3 Ayutthaya

      Golden heydays shine on

      Once touted as the most glorious city in the world, Ayutthaya was both the nucleus and the soul of ancient Siam. Only 90 minutes north of Bangkok, the city straddles the crossroads of Southeast Asian history.

      In AD 1350, the capital of a soon-to-be-formidable empire was founded by King Ramathibodi I. His ashes are interred in one of the three massive chedi at Wat Pra Sri San Phet, where the royal palace once stood. Constructed at the behest of Ramathibodi II to house the mortal dust of his father and brother, the chedi stand as monuments to filial devotion.

      It’s difficult to imagine how life was lived way back when cowrie shells were used as currency and people slept with machetes beside their beds, unless you see these slices of ancient Siamese life at the Ayutthaya Historical Study Center and the Chao Phraya Sam Museum. The latter also contains models of the city in its heyday, a Chinese junk, ceremonial swords and jewel-studded elephant trinkets.

      The gold artifacts give off a few glimmers of Ayutthaya’s legend among foreign traders and missionaries as an El Dorado or City of Gold. Discovered in the prang (a stubby Khmer-style tower) of Wat Ratchaburana, the treasures were untouched by the Burmese soldiers who razed, pillaged and left the city a smoldering cremation ground in 1767. They made off with so much gold, in fact, that Thai history books claim the streets were littered with glittering fragments of the metal.

      Rent a bicycle to explore the historical park or see the ruins on the back of a lumbering elephant helmed by a mahout in a costume of glimmering red and gold silk. Charter a long-tail boat over at the pier by the Chandra Kasem Palace (another museum with gold treasures) and explore the three rivers that form a natural moat around the city. En route there are stops at major temples like Wat Phutthaisawan, which has a large reclining Buddha image meant to symbolize his passage into nirvana.

      From the river, you can also see a monument to Queen Suriyothai, the tragic 16th-century heroine who disguised herself as a man to ride out on the battlefield where her husband was facing off against the Burmese king in an elephant-back duel. She rode between them, sacrificing her life for her husband’s, while creating a larger-than-death legend and the heroine of Suriyothai, the period piece from 2000 that remains Thailand’s biggest blockbuster.

      The rivers are particularly picturesque around dusk. Then, as the boat speeds towards them, the temples slowly rise out of the smoke-blue distance like little has changed in the past five centuries.

      Opening Times Daily 6.00 am–6.00 pm

      Address Ayutthaya Historical Park

      Getting There Ayutthaya is 76 km north of Bangkok. Trains depart every hour from 4.20 am to 10 pm for 15 baht in third-class non-air con from Hua Lamphong Station, Bangkok

      Contact Office of Ayutthaya Historical Park Tel: +66 (0)3 524 2501, +66 (0)3 524 4570

      Admission Fee 30 baht