Chedi-Chedi, Prang-Prang

Navigating ancient Ayutthaya, the Venice of the East


Wat Si Sanphet

The diminutive Thai security guard approached me out of the gathering gloom of dusk, the spotlight casting his giant shadow against the illuminated chedi. We close now he politely said, beckoning me towards the exit. It was sadly time to drag myself away from the magical temple courtyard of Buddha statues, broken columns, white-flowering trees, bell-shaped chedis and towering prangs all brightly lit in yellows, oranges and greens. I had just taken my last photograph of the row of three graceful chedis of Phra Si Sanphet, each topped with spires of ever-diminishing discs, that glowed against the now-black sky. The tour parties had long departed; leaving me to watch the sunset paint the sky red behind the technicolour temples in tranquil solitude. I reluctantly headed for the exit, taking one last glance over my shoulder at the multicoloured wonderland before cycling back to my hotel through the historical parkland.


Wat Si Sanphet Sunset

Ayutthaya was founded 700 years ago on an island formed by the confluence of three fast-flowing rivers as the second great royal capital of Siam. Completely encircled by the rivers and criss-crossed with canals, it was aptly dubbed the Venice of the East by the first European explorers to set their eyes on the city in the 1500s. The city was a metropolis capital, religious centre and trading port. Ships regularly visited its riverside wharves from Europe, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, India, Persia, Arabia and China while Siamese ships sailed in the opposite directions across the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. The great Chinese naval captain Zheng visited Ayutthaya in 1407 and made a benefaction to the nearest temple to the portside warehouses. Foreign trading communities lived in specially designated residential quarters where they were allowed to govern themselves and follow their own religions. Ayutthaya flourished for 400 years until sacked by the Burmese army in 1767.


Wat Phra Ram with lotus flowers

The Buddhist Kings of Siam built monumentally beautiful temples, known as wats, to honour their departed fathers. The Burmese destroyed much, decapitating most of the Buddha statues, but the main temple structures survived the flames and hammers. Most of the temples and palaces that remain today are preserved in an historical park of fragrant trees, lotus-filled canals and white-painted bridges that occupies much of the western half of the island. Modern Ayutthaya takes up the remaining half, its streets following the same grid pattern followed by the canals. The city lies on the flat floodplain about an hour and a half drive north of Bangkok.


Buddha head at Wat Matathat

The very centre of the Siamese Kingdom was found under the prang of Wat Matathat, a type of temple that lay at the heart of every major Siamese city and under which lay buried a relic of Buddha. Following archaeological excavations in 1956, the relic has been on display in one of the city museums. Matathat is notable for a fallen Buddha head that has been taken up by the twisted roots of a banyan, a Buddhist holy tree. This growing together of nature and art is seen as very auspicious by Thais and it is sometimes decorated with cloth and offerings to request merit from the Buddha.


Nagas and Garuda of Wat Rathchaburana

Next door to Matathat is Wat Ratchaburana which has the best surviving prang in Ayutthaya rising above the trees. Each temple is laid out as a square and aligned on the compass points. The prang is in the very centre and represents Mount Meru, the holy mountain of the Buddhist heaven. Chedis surround the prang, each representing a cosmic plane. Chedis at the four corners stand for the four human universes of physical being. Ratchaburana’s prang still preserves the stucco relief statues of garudas, nagas and other mythical beasts. Robbers unfortunately dug below the prang and made off with a treasure of royal gold but thankfully two of them were caught and some of the gold objects saved.


Wat Phra Ram sunrise

Across the park, the prang of Wat Phra Ram is reflected in the surrounding canals, and best seen at sunrise or sunset. Next to it is Wat Phra Si Sanphet with its line of three chedis. This was the temple of the Siamese royal family and the adjacent remains of the extensive palace lie in manicured lawns.


Flowers for a King

These four wats comprise the core of ancient Ayutthaya and are easily visited on foot or by bicycle through the historical park. They all become magical lanterns towering into the night sky when the spotlights are turned on at sunset.


Wat Phanan Choeng

Other ruined chedis and walls pop up on the roadside throughout the modern city. Further away and off the island are three major riverside temples. Wat Phanan Choeng, the temple associated with Zheng He, is to the east of the island. Very much an active working temple, it is bustling with devotees praying in the halls decorated with Chinese script and dragons.


Wat Yai Buddhas doing here?

It is a short distance to the delightful garden temple of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, which is again busy with devotees. Hundreds of Buddha status, each draped on orange sashes, line the four walls of the central courtyard and gaze down impassively in front of the central chedi. Climb up into the chedi and you find seven Buddhas covered in gold leaf and set in niches. Thais come to speak merit requests into small pieces of paper, wipe them on the Buddhas then cast them in to baskets. Gardens of flowering trees and shrubs extend outside the courtyard and make a suitable environment for a giant sculpture of a reclining Buddha to enjoy dappled shade.


Wat Chai Wattanaram

To the west of the island is Wat Chai Wattanaram, which has more chedis surviving around the central prang than any other temple. Visit in the late afternoon to enjoy the breathtaking sunset then stay to watch it also come alight after dark. Two rarely-visited temples to the west of the island contain an ornate Ayutthaya-style Buddha-as-King statue and the only Burmese temple architecture in the city. These off-island temples can be visited by the more adventurous on bicycle, and Thai drivers tend to be relatively considerate, or by Sawngthaew, the small three-wheeled open-sided taxis that buzz around the roads.


One Chedi of three at Wat Si Sanphet

You can visit all the temples independently, which are open from 7.30am to 6.30pm for an entry fee of 20 to 30 baht at each, or join one of the many tours that take you around all of the main wats in one day or the five illuminated wats at night. Most people spend one hot day or an overnight afternoon/morning visiting the temples. But, if you have more time, slow down to take in only two or three temples a day, wander through the historical park and make sure you visit the Historical Study Centre and the Museum to see the gold objects and Buddha relic excavated from below the prangs of Wats Matathat and Ratchaburana.


Golden Buddha

The temples are best seen in early morning and late afternoon when the wats take on an orange hue and their architecture is picked out by the shadows of the low sun. Make sure you stay later at Chai Wattarama or Si Sanphet to savour the vibrant colours when sunset mixes with the illuminated wats. That is the time when the colourful magic visits and you won’t want to return to the black and white world outside.


Reflections on a Wat

Poolside in Ayutthaya

Poolside in Ayutthaya
Originally uploaded by Bill Bevan

What better place to stay when in hot Ayutthaya then a guesthouse with a pool? It is unusual to say the least to find a backpacker-priced guesthouse with a pool.

We found a couple in big, old colonial courtyard houses in Nicaragua but they were both owned by the same people who had installed what amounted to little more than puddles as part of the backpacker luxury package. Very welcome they were too.

The Ayutthaya pool is much bigger, maybe 10 metres in length, and a one-off in town. It is part of the Sherwood Inn, on one of the roads close to the Ayutthaya ancient ruins. Its very presence epitomises the attitude of the guesthouse manager of providing good, friendly service at a budget price. A double room wil set you back just 280 baht, or 5.50 GB pounds before the exchange rate worsens due to the sinking pound.

Not only is there a pool that is long enough to swim lengths, pleasantly short lengths that is, but there is also plenty of space for yoga, reading and enjoying meals from the great kitchenv Add in a poolside balcony, that has almost become Georgia's private workspace as she completes an editorial contract, and the presence of only five rooms and the Sherwood makes for a very relaxing base to explore the ruins.

Buddha on a Mountain

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billbevan/sets/72157608730241568/

While Georgia went to a local hotel pool, I headed off down the still-quiet streets at 7am to visit the Golden Mount, a temple built on top of a large artificial mound founded on a raft comprising thousands of logs. Strangely surrounded by a market and fair ground, including shooting games, the temple mount is an oasis of calm above the noisy city. A spiralling path winds around the outside of the mount to a temple topped with a red draped golden stupa. Early-rising Thais were already praying and offering flowers and incense to the golden Buddhas inside. Others were making more unusual offerings at the stupa. Marker pens were laid out amongst the flowers and incense for people to write messages on the red cloth cloaking the base of the stupa. Most people would write a message, most likely a wish, take a small orange pillow with a folded cut-out cardboard flower, kneel to offer it to the stupa then circle the stupa three or four times. After they finished, they would pin a 20 baht note onto a criss-cross of washing line suspended above head height.

Lady Boys and Tofu...

...never let you down.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billbevan/sets/72157608730241568/

It is great to be back in Bangkok again. The city reaches out with an instant warm welcome unsurpassed by any other major capital we have yet been to. It starts at the airport with the gentle smiles and easily given directions from courteous staff and continues on the quite airport express bus into the city centre that cruises along empty four-lane highways - at least until it meets the clogged arteries of dowtown. The easy welcome carries on in the reception desks of the backpacker hotels as you are handed keys to check out the rooms, but most of all the pleasant feeling of arrival is everywhere on the streets. This is due to two major cultural Thai traits. Thais don't rush and they eat on the streets. Every Thanon and Soi is lined with eateries, offering cheap stir-fries, fresh chilled fruit that varies from the recognisable pineapple and melon to the more Asian exotica that is the aptly named Dragon Fruit and the pungent Durian.

In our first two days here we have done some of our favourite activities in Bangkok. After checking in to the cheap but very clean Bella Bella Guesthouse in Banlampu, the first thing we did was to grab some fresh stir-fried food from a street vendor. We found a stall specialising in vegetarian food, so we didn’t have to hover over the dried shrimps and say no repeatedly until we had received the food without their liberal application, while enjoying fantastically cooked and delicious tofu with garlic, fried vegetables with tofu and spicy salad with tofu. Next door was a smoothie bar run by two lady boys. All around were pot plants on the street. We then took a ferry down the river to get a cool breeze and away from the traffic noise and followed that with a Thai massage in a tranquil garden. Georgia then called into a 7-11 for an ice lolly. That finished the evening, and a stretch of 32 hours flying without sleep, perfectly. We were in bed after 9pm, jetlag beating.

The next day, Friday 7th, we visited the Royal Barges Museum, a floating delight of sparkling gold leaf, coloured glass and ornate wood carving. There are four graceful boats still kept to in immaculate condition to carry the royal family along the river for major ceremonies. The bowhead of each is carved into a mythical being that carried one of Brahma or Vishnu in Indian epics, including a multi-headed serpent-like Naga, a garuda and a bird. The walk to the museum was along narrow alleys between houses given a glimpse of how Bangkok may have been 50 years ago before the rise of concrete and futuristic skyscrapers. We went on the river again then had a failed evening of shopping and drinking, the mall had closed by the time we got there, the skybar enforced a no sandle dress code. We made up for it with a beer under a tree back on the street of or guest house.

Stottie Welcome to Newcastle

P_DSC_6805_1
Originally uploaded by Bill Bevan

Which other airport boasts a Greggs the Bakers next to the Check-In desks? Every airport should have one so that pasties, buns and stotties are available the minute you land or for a last taste of Britain before flying. I was tempted to take a stottie to show off our ethnic cultural food to Thais but the added weight would have put my bags over the weight allowance. They will have to wait another time. Even better were the normal highstreet prices, infact a cheese and onion pastie here was 10p cheaper than Sheffield city centre. Tea was good but the coffee was reportedly washing-up water standard.

Miraflor

24th - 25th February.


Miraflor

The bus had just 36km to crawl up into the mountains from Esteli. We got to it a little before departure time at 6am, led there by our hostel night guard, to find it already packed but with enough room for us to find two seats together. Two hours later, after slugging it up an unmade dirt road that climbed steeply higher and higher, we reached La Pila, the location of our homestay.

We were welcomed at La Pila with breakfast, the mother of the family spotting us get off the bus and hastily frying us some gallo pinto, eggs and plantains. Though our homestay was booked, there is no way the office in Esteli can contact the homestay family so she keeps an eye on the bus for gringos. La Pila is a group of farmhouses scattered across the hillsides. Families grow beans, maize and coffee, and raise cows and chickens.


Homestay Family

Unknown until we get off the bus, our guide for the day had been on the bus too. Her lack of communication rarely changed throughout the whole tour. She sadly gave a solid impression of boredom and irritation the whole time.


Flying Orchid

The Miraflor area gets its name from a German NGO volunteer who came up with the name as a 'brand' to build a a community tourism project around. He thought there were lots of flowers people would like to come and see - hence Miraflor - view the flower. We did see some flowers but would not say the area could be particularly noted for its flora. Perhaps another time of year. That is except for the Orchid Orphanage, a small area of woodland with orchids rescued from dead trees killed by a hurricane a few years back.





On our way to the Orphanage we passed through woodlands thick with epophytes called Old Man's Beard that hang in thick, grey droves from branches.


Tree Beard

The tour ended with a visit to a beautiful little waterfall which Georgia braved. The water was far too cold for me.


Waterfall


Georgia putting on a brave face

We were soon joined by a group of local chicos from La Pila having a great time.


Chico Splash

After our tour we took ourselves along La Pila's 'high street' a dirt road running along the contour where the traffic comprises the twice-daily bus, a couple of pick-ups and lots of horses. To either side are views up to trees or far across hills goldened with the setting sun, cows in fields, birds singing in trees and chickens or pigs scratching the dirt for dinner. The area is a totality of tranquility and beauty. Along the way we found a long-abandoned Operation Raleigh concrete pre-school.


Seat of Loneliness

Revolutionary Esteli

23rd February 2008



A visit to the Gallery of Heroes and Martyrs of the Revolution, and a conversation with Nina, a Sandinista veteran combatant.

You cannot take this as just another wayside attraction. The gallery is, of course, one of the main ‘things to do’ for tourists visiting Esteli – a purpose-built gallery with things to look at and read, and a history to peruse. The brightly coloured mural adorning two outside walls greets you with a semi-psychedelic invitation to ‘decode’ the faces and figures superimposed one over the other. This is the bright side of the Gallery. Inside is the story of a 64-year people’s struggle against US Imperialism and Fascist dictatorship starting with General Sandino’s uprising against US Marines stationed in Nicaragua to impose US policy and ending with the fizzling out of Reagan’s narcotic and arms funded 1980s Contra War against the victorious Sandinistas who had won the revolution against the dictators in 1979.



The story is illustrated with photographs of those who died fighting and of bands of Sandinista combatants in training or fighting behind barricades.

Over an hour of silent perusal leaves one affected by the bravery, passion and commitment of those who risked and lost their lives to fight oppression. But this is only a tiny part of the story. The faces, the clothes and the biographies of the deceased, as well as poems by one poet, do leave you amazed at how people could gather the bravery to fight the National Guard in the streets. But…there is so much more to know and understand of personal stories.

In steps Nina, getting water to make lunch for other women veterans of the revolution. Eye contact, a smile and an invitation to talk lead quickly on to the discovery of something of what it was like for an individual to live and fight through the 1970s.


Nina in front of photographs of those who lost their lives fighting for freedom. Her two sons are top left and bottom left.

She was a guerrilla from Esteli who was based in the mountains, leaving her two sons and three daughters to oppose the dictator in the town. Her serious expression, strong posture and large, working hands suggest a woman of substance, who has worked hard in the past. As indeed she has; having risked her life, endured danger and lost people close to her for a strongly held cause. She tells us of the three insurrections in town between 1978 and 1979. Of small groups of combatants, the displays mention on insurrection being led by 24 people, being joined by ordinary people in the town to fight the National Guard. Of how her group came down from the nearby mountains to attack National Guard targets based in town. Of how the women of the town helped the combatants by giving secret signals from their houses to invite the Sandinistas in for food and drink, which gave the guerrillas the strength to fight on and on. She talks with passion, eyes alive with memories and desire to teach gringos about the struggle. Of course she had to take up arms. No one could sit back and watch while people around her starved, could not write for want of education or were ill from lack of health care.

She describes the joy when eventually, in September 1979, the Sandinistas defeated the National Guard in Esteli causing Somoza to flee the country. They had won, one of the handful of true people’s revolutions in the world. She twinkles as she tells us how they fired their rifles in the air in celebration while people of all ages came back out on to the streets banging pots and pans. But all around were the bodies of the dead, who they had to bury somewhere with the danger of sporadic firing from the National Guard piercing the streets. When families could identify bodies they reclaimed them, where they couldn’t they buried the dead together in large graves, often under the floors of houses.

Her regrets are that for 16 years following elections right-wing governments kept power and have impoverished the country further. She claims the country is poorer that it was in the 70s, that there is worse education and less land for people. She feels that the days of the struggle were better than today, perhaps the nostalgia of one who fought with others for a cause and had difficulty knowing what her life was about subsequently, especially so given the right-wing governments that followed the eventual end of Reagan’s Contra War. She hopes that the current Sandinista government of Ortega has long enough in power to begin to right the severe problems.

We leave after taking a photograph of her, which she insists is by the photographs of her two sons killed by the National Guard, and many thank yous and hugs. She is clearly pleased there are foreigners who want to learn about the difficulties and ultimate success of the Sandinista revolution.