Thankfully although still feeling exhausted, David was well enough to go out today. This morning we were collected by mini-bus and taken across Bangkok where we transferred to a coach for our tour to Bangkok's ancient capital Ayutthaya. After driving for about an hour we arrived at our first stop - Bang Pa-In Royal Palace or the Summer Palace. The current Queen likes to spend some time here and it is not possible to enter her favourite palace but the King rarely visits. The complex is used for special occasions and banquets.
The palace complex was originally built in 1632 but most of the current buildings were built between 1872 and 1889. Here we walked around the beautiful gardens, crossed the Italian inspired bridges and saw the many buildings, most of which were European in style. King Rama V spent a lot of time touring Europe and when he came back he ordered buildings be built in various European styles; only one building was in traditional Thai style.
We entered the Chinese Mansion where the King used to receive audiences and work. The hand carved wood, gold and Ming Dynasty vases were beautiful. We also had time to see and climb the nearby Sage's Lookout. There was an excellent panoramic view from above.
We had a little time left to explore the grounds. David and the boys went into another building which had the King's chamber, throne room and banquet room before we wandered back through the gardens to our pick up point.
After we left the Summer Palace our next stop was the Ayutthaya Historical Park and Wat Maha That (the Royal temple) - ruins of the old capital Ayutthaya. This was built in the 1350s and Thailand was ruled from here until the Burmese destroyed it in 1767. There are thousands of buddha images all of which have been beheaded. We walked around the park looking at the ruins and listening to fascinating stories about Thai history. The buddha head in the tree was also very interesting to see. The head had not been put there, rather the tree roots had grown around it in that way naturally. There was so much to see and it was incredible to think that we could walk around and on something nearly 700 years old.
We passed other parts of the historical park and traditional Thai houses on our way to Wat Na Phramane.
Wat Na Phramane was beautiful. We were fortunate to see beautiful Buddha's in two temples on this site.
Our final temple for the day was Wat Lokayasutha which has Thailand's third largest reclining Buddha - 37 metres long and 8 metres high.
When we had finished at the reclining Buddha we were driven back towards Bangkok where we boarded a river cruise boat for our cruise back to Bangkok on the Chao Phraya River. On board we had a buffet lunch and got to see the Thai countryside and Bangkok from a new perspective. This was a great way to finish off the sight seeing. Today was the first coach tour we had done this holiday and although we are not fans of this kind of travel and adults may have felt rushed in some places, the pace worked well for the kids.
When we arrived back at the pier we were transferred back to our hotel. It was good to get some respite from the heat and to relax for a while. With David still not felling 100% and needing to sleep we decided to again order room service for dinner. We then went for a swim and spa before heading to bed to get ready for another day of exploring tomorrow.
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