I woke up pretty early yesterday for I had arranged to go on a one day trip to Ayuthaya, the capital of Siam between 1350 and 1767. The purpose of this trip was to visit temples and temple ruins, most of which Khmer-style. My personal favourite was Wat Phra Mahathat, a temple where you can also see the head of a Buddha embedded among a tree's roots.
I must say that I don't know much about the Khmer people but I do know that they really knew how to build temples. I say this because I was walking around in the middle of ruins and was still extremely impressed by the incredible works of architecture. I am sure that it would have been amazing to have seen it all before the Burmese invasion.
At the end of the trip, we all started saying goodbye when, all of a sudden, I hear a girl asking me if I was Portuguese - in Portuguese! I was so happy to have met a Portuguese in Thailand that we have quickly arranged to go for an ice cream.
Denise is a lovely girl from Algarve, who is currently living in Sweden with Rasmus, her husband. They got married a couple of months ago and, shortly after the wedding, they managed to do one of the coolest things ever - they hopped on a Harley Davidson and rode all the way from Sweden to the South of Portugal.
While we were having dinner, we met Charlie, a backpacker from France, who has been on the road for the last five months and is now looking forward to going to Burma. It didn't take much for all of us to be sitting around a table sharing beers. Unfortunately, I was so tired that I didn't last very long; fortunately, I met them for breakfast earlier today and, if all goes well, I will still meet Denise and Rasmus later on when the time comes to hop on the bus.
I am really happy to have been to Ayuthaya - and not just because it gave me the opportunity to see incredible temples and temple ruins.
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