Headless Buddhas

Posted by Tina on 12 January, 2015

On Saturday morning, N. once again brought me breakfast, which he’d made at home. After I’d eaten, we decided to go to Chatuchak Market (also known as JJ Market) first, then head out of town to Ayuthaya. I was excited to finally see both of them.

Chatuchak is huge, with both an outside and an inside market. I could easily have gotten lost there. We started on the inside. We were looking for oversize silk Chinese “sleeping” pants that one wears by tying a knot in the middle. N. used to sleep in them when we were together. Now I wanted some for ME and he wanted new ones for himself. When we managed to find them, both of us found the price too expensive. N. promised me that we’d look in Chinatown the following morning. There were many interesting things to see – art, clothing, ethnic crafts, toys, kitchenware, animals, etc. The outdoor part selling animals really amazed me. I saw hedgehogs, stingrays, Siamese fighting fish, eels, little pigs, owls, flying wombats, etc. Naturally, most of the vendors did NOT want me taking photos, but I managed a few. They also didn’t want people touching the animals much. As for my shopping, I bought a couple of Thai silk shirts for men, a pair of Thai kickboxing shorts (for MOI!), a cute 3-part pastel-colored tiffin, a pair of ethnic pants and an ethnic hat. Prices were good, bargaining was allowed and there’s plenty of food, in case you get hungry.

The drive to Ayuthaya seemed to be in the vicinity of an hour. We stopped on the outskirts for lunch. There was an old restaurant with a tin roof and a jumbled, eclectic interior that N. said his family always went to. We ordered tom yom goong and a huge river prawn to share, plus a beer apiece. While waiting for the food to arrive, we could hear the rain beginning to splatter the tin roof. Luckily, by the time we finished eating, the rain had stopped. We went outside the restaurant and down one level to see the river view better. With a few old boats chugging down the river, I felt like I’d stepped back in time.

The first thing we saw in the main part of Ayuthaya were the elephants. N. mentioned that I could ride one, if I wanted, but that he probably wouldn’t. We took some pictures, then HE decided we both should ride, after all! It wasn’t a terribly exciting ride; they just walked around the town a bit. However, when we came close to another elephant with two enthusiastic Thai girls, they handed their cameras over to our mahout to take their picture (with their mahout). We did the same! They were posing and laughing, but we just looked natural. Our elephant’s name was Tang Mo, which means watermelon in Thai. The mahout was asking N. where I was from, how the weather was in California and so forth, so N. was our translator!

Then we were off to see the temples. Apparently, there are several temple sites. We only had time to see a couple of them before it got dark. Ayuthaya was founded in the 1300’s, but was crushed by the Burmese army in the 1700’s. At the second site, every Buddha had been beheaded, which bothered N. immensely; he commented about it several times. However, the second site had the famous Buddha head that’s in the tree; not sure if the tree had grown around it or exactly what had happened. I loved the temples in Ayuthaya, though. N. wanted to show me one where there was fishing or that was by the river or something. Since it would be getting dark soon, he said he’d have to show me next time.

The drive back to Bangkok wasn’t too bad, but the traffic inside the city was relatively slow, as usual. When we got to my apartment, N. came up for a little bit. I’d wanted him to stay longer so that we could possibly have dinner together – either at a restaurant or bringing something up to the apartment from the food vendors downstairs. He was worried about the curfew, though. I’d completely forgotten that Bangkok was currently under martial law! I mentioned being out somewhat late myself and not seeing any military presence. He said that people driving cars were supposed to be home by 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. I agreed it was probably best he leave so as not to get stuck in the traffic and risk any trouble.

The rest of my evening was spent partially packing for my departure the next day.