A couple of days ago we took a tour to a place about 50 miles north of BKK that I had visited in my first trip to Thailand in 2005. A van ride up there and a boat ride returning. Bang Pa-In is the site of king' palaces from the period when Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam in the 14th-18th centuries. It was extensively restored in the 19th century my Kings Rama IV and V as a summer place.
Ayutthaya was sacked and burned by the Burmese armies in the late 1700's so the capital was moved south to it's present site, Bangkok. It left behind haunting ruins of Ayutthaya and the beautiful grounds of Bang Pa-In which has multiple architectural influences as Rama V traveled extensively.
This is a chinese style pavilion that served as a guesthouse:
A couple of exquisitely decorated items in the Chinese style building:
From there we went up the road a few miles to Ayutthaya where there are extensive ruins from the 400 years it served as the capital of Siam ... from 1350 to 1767.
When the Burmese sacked the place, one of their distinctive actions was to knock the heads off most of the decorative Buddha images:
And one was found later engulfed in a tree:
Among the Buddha images now in Ayyutthaya:
A few other photos of the Ayutthaya grounds:
It was a warm day and we went to the river, boarded our boat and had a nice buffet lunch and sailed 2 hours down the Chao Praya river to BKK.
1 comment:
The climb up the tower at the Summer palace was worth it, I thought. Such beautiful grounds!
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