May 06, 2007-Ayutthaya

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Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is the ancient capital of Thailand, the original “City of Siam”, which was once great and is still majestic even in ruins. In the 1600’s ships from European powers sailed up the Chao Phraya River, past the guns at Samut Prakhan, past the sleepy little water village of Bangkok and deep into the kingdom of Thailand. They anchored their ships off the bustling riverside town of temples and broad avenues and whose many tall golden and white spires rose mysteriously behind the merchant warehouses and shops along the riverfront. In 1650 Siam was ruled by an undefeated King who commanded armies mounted on elephants, and it had twice the population of London and was more than twice as exotic and mysterious.

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Ruins


Siam impressed the Europeans in 1650. It impresses us today.

We drove to Ayutthaya one weekend on a quest, sort of an “art project”. We wanted to see the temples and other ruins, but most of all we wanted to photograph some of the Buddha’s which are there in order to have some images we could use to make some art for our living room. There are paintings of Buddha’s available in Bangkok which we rather like but we didn’t want to pay the going rate for one of these. We got the idea that we’d make our own piece of art. It would take just the right Buddha, some time on Photoshop followed by a trip to the printer and the frame shop. Well, we’re not sure it saved any money, but it would be fun. You can see the result on the previous post.

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Thailand

Siam


Fred & Judy, Bangkok

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