elephant ride in ayutthaya - whee! (one of the rare moments
markie and i are actually in a photo together during this trip)

(Junnie’s post over at Memento about nostalgia set me off on a trip down memory lane. His question (in part) was: “Is there any part of your blog that you always tend to go back to or anything that makes you feel good reading over and over?” and my immediate answer to that is my Travel category, where I keep the memories of some of my best adventures. However, when I visited that section of my blog, I couldn’t find an entry about the trip and honeymoon the hubby and I took in Thailand, one of our most memorable adventures ever. Fortunately, we kept a journal of our trip and I was able to lift off details from there for a “retrospective” blog entry. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I did writing it and reminiscing about that wonderful time. )

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Markie and I left behind our busy lives for a few days and “escaped” to Thailand for our honeymoon and Valentine’s Day celebration on February 13, 2003. Because it was just the two of us and we forgot to bring a tripod, we had to take turns taking photos of each other. That was an “amateur traveler” lesson we will never forget (or commit ever again). But that aside, we had a great time in timeless, romantic Thailand!

We arrived in Bangkok close to midnight on a Thursday. After we checked in to our hotel, we walked around the block and decided to eat at a street-side food stall. Yummy noodles! We bought some soda at a nearby 7-11 to go with our food. Turns out there are a lot of 7-11s in Bangkok, you could find them in almost every street corner, they are as ubiquitous as the sari sari stores in the Philippines. We actually saw more than twenty 7-11 stores during our city tour the next day!

On Friday we went to see the Four-Faced Buddha, the Golden Buddha, and the Reclining Buddha. Of them, the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho was the most impressive, measuring 46 meters (about 138 feet) long and 15 meters (45 feet) high! Covered in gold leaf with feet decorated with mother-of-pearl, it’s definitely an awe-inspiring sight.

my head is smaller than the pads of the statue’s toes!

markie posing at the statue’s feet

We walked around the other parts of the temple that did not have a lot of tourists, and Markie was able to take a couple of nice photos:

o f f e r i n g s

r e f l e c t i o n s

We wanted to go to Ayutthaya the next day, but the tour package (by bus) at the travel agency we visited cost 1,000 Baht per person! Good thing we had brought a copy of Lonely Planet: Thailand, where we found out that a round-trip bus ticket to Ayutthaya and back to Bangkok only costs 45 Baht per person, and entrance fees to the Ayutthaya historical park cost only 30 Baht per person - a grand total of only 150 Baht! Even including the taxi fare from our hotel to the bus station and back, as well as snacks, Lonely Planet saved us around 1700 Baht - which we used mostly for shopping. Thank you, Lonely Planet!

Ayutthaya was the ancient capital of the nation of Siam, which covers about the same territory as modern-day Thailand. It was invaded and destroyed by Burmese armies in 1765. Today, the ruins of Ayutthaya invoke both a feeling of awe at the accomplishments of an ancient culture, and a nostalgia of a golden age long gone.

Markie took some more great photos while we strolled around the Ayutthaya Historical Park:

one of the huge buddha statue heads separated from
its body, at the Ayutthaya ruins

restoration work at the ruins

meditating monks at the Ayutthaya historical park

Our next stop was the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Kraal, located a few minutes away from the historical park. That was where the first picture in this post was taken, when we rode an elephant for about 20 minutes. It was a bit scary to be sitting on top of a huge moving animal, swaying side to side more than 12 feet above the ground. But our elephant trainer and “driver” reassured us this was a very safe routine, and he even stopped at one of the food stalls along the way to get a snack for him and his elephant!

Before we even got on, we were also assured that the elephants were treated very humanely and that riding them would not harm them. We were also told that a portion of the 400 Baht (per person) ride ticket would go towards projects that would help ensure a sustainable future for these loveable and precious animals.

hugging my new pachyderm friend

And what’s a trip to Bangkok without shopping in Chatuchak Weekend Market? After our long but highly satisfying trip to Ayutthaya, Markie and I went back to Bangkok and headed straight to Chatuchak. We made sure to buy pasalubong here, including several pairs of nice chopsticks, silk bags and blouses, silk cloth, and screen tees with interesting designs. And even though we were very tired, we still haggled our hearts out. And because we came near closing time, the merchants gave us very good deals, some more than half the asking price! I think some of them just wanted to close up for the day, and gave us a good price so that we’d go away and let them wrap up. But they were still very gracious about the whole thing, and the experience was very enjoyable.

We capped off this wonderful day with a lovely dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, which was one of the many invaluable tips our friend TNG had given us about travelling in Thailand, where she frequently travelled on business. By this time, Markie and I were both too tired to take pictures; instead we simply relaxed and enjoyed the delicious food under the stars, while small boats sailed by serenely in the calm waters of the Chao Phraya River.

Ah, Thailand. It was such a beautiful, romantic, fun experience for the hubby and me - a wonderful honeymoon to start off our marriage. Thailand will always have a special place in my heart, and I hope to go back there someday.

Posted under Travel