Ancient Siam is a part of Bangkok that is filled with buildings from the time when Thailand was a part of Siam, and not Thailand. Truthfully, there was a few older buildings (like the actual ancient ones) but for the most part there were newer buildings that were based on the design of the older ones. It was really hot out, and I was starting to get grumpy, but I didn't let that deter us from having a grand old time.
Our first stop within Ancient Siam was at what they call "The Floating Market." Behind me in this picture is a few boats that are being pulled into the market area. The one closest to me is carrying pots, but I couldn't tell you what the other ones are carrying. There were lots of different vendors here, selling a variety of things such as food, clothing, and other little trinkets.
The Icecream Stall. This is the first stop that we made while checking out the market. Due to the heat, my host mom and I decided that it was a good time for icecream, so thats what we had. Icecream here is different from Canada, but its still good. In Canada, you would put chocolate sauce on it, but here it is more like fruits and veggies that have been soaking in sugar, so its slightly healthier. Or at least thats the story I plan on sticking to. :D My icecream had chunks of coconut, and some other Thai fruit, that I can't remember the name of.
This is just a glimpse of the floating market. It was extremely big, and we only walked around a little of it. I did see a lot of cool things that were being sold, but nothing really caught my eye and said "Buy me! Buy me!". There were a few little boys swimming in the water, but I didn't think that I would attempt that because it didn't really look....clean. There are a lot of art students that come here and draw what they see. When we were at this section, I saw at least 10 students drawing, and the drawings were really good. I wanted to steal them, but I didn't think that the artists would have appreciated that very much.
Here are four different boats all selling different things. The boat that is farthest to the left is selling a variety of meats such as hotdogs, meat balls, and other little foods like that. They would be cooked up and then served to you (I didn't eat them here, but I have had them in my home town, and its pretty good. Spicy, but not so spicy that I couldn't handle it.) The lady next to here (second in from the left) is selling water and coke. They vendors kind of work together to make a living, or at least thats how it seems. The person that is third from the left, I'm not totally sure what she is selling, but I do know that it is some type of soup. And the final person is selling fruit. If I have placing mixed up, I apologize, but sometimes I forget how I am supposed to describe pictures.
Just another view of the floating market.
A closer up shot of the boats you can see in the background of my first picture. As you can tell in this picture, there is no one driving the boat, and I think that it is just there for show, so that you can see how the goods are brought into the market. I didn't realize that there was no driver at first, so I apologize for giving you misinformation up above.
The Grand Hall of Wat Maha That, Sukhothai.
The next three pictures are of The Grand Hall of Wat Maha That, Sukhothai. This is one of the ancient buildings that I told you about earlier. It is in the Old Sukhothai Kingdom, and is composed of eleven large rooms. It is believed that there is also a niche behind the pedestal in which a bronze Buddha image, named Phra Sri Sakya Munt was seated. Nearby there are the statues of four Buddha images in four distictive gestures which are known as Phra Si Iriyabot. The statues show unique characteristics of the distinguished art in casting the images in Sukhothai, and other areas.
This is me and a one of the statues that they were talking about. The Buddha will have its yellow robe changed at the different times of the year, showing the different seasons. I don't have any pictures of the other statues, but they were pretty cool to look at.
A long view of the statue, and one of the eleven rooms. There used to be a roof, but over time, the roof kind of dissappeared, but for the most part this area is still in pretty good shape.
A picture of the Buddha, without me being in the picture. The people you can see in the picture are art students who are drawing. Behind the big statue is where this supposed niche containing the bronze Buddha lies.
What Chong Kham, Lampang.
According to the traditions of the Shan or Tai Yai, who lived in Northern Thailand, most of the temples in the community were often named "Wat Chong Kham". The cerremonial quarters and monks' living quarters at Wat Chong Kham are combined within one building. Wat Chong Kham displayed at Ancient Siam is an unusually old Shan or Tai Yai temple complex. The unique style is rarely seen today. Consequently, the original building that once stood in Ngao in Lampang, has been acquired from the Monestary.
So as you can tell this is one of the rebuilt temples.
This is a look at the outer portion of the building. I thought it was a good shot where you can see the different tiers of the roof, and the shape. The buildings main colors were red, dark brown, and gold. I went in here and prayed to the Buddha, and it was pretty cool. This is one of the prettiest buildings I have ever seen, and I enjoyed spending time in it.
A side view from across the river of the building. Not much to say about it, but it was a pretty cool little building.
This is a shot of the area where you can go and pray. The little area you can see it just the right side of the praying area, there is also a left side that is almost identical to the picture here, but there is another Buddha image, and then the center is a bigger Buddha image, and slightly more intricate.
Another view of this section of the temple. It shows more of the intricate woodwork that went into these temples.
The Pavillion of the Enlightened.
This place literally took my breath away. It was so majestical and beautiful, I don't know how to describe it. Pictures honestly do not do this place justice.
Okay, so Mahayana Buddhist respects a wide spectrum of ethical and spiritual values. Religious teaching and training has developed many different strategies for communicating with the faithful. It is called "The Story of the 500 Enlightened." Monks show that people of different backgrounds with different codes of conduct and different merits could all become enlightened and reach Nirvana. I would enlighten you on this story, but I don't actually know it, and the only reason I know of it, is because it was on a sign that talked a little bit about this area.
This is a picture of some of the buildings within the Pavillion of the Enlightened. It is huge, and there are pathways that go through out the entire place, winding from building to building, creating this majestical area for you to walk through. In each of the different buildings, there were Buddha images, and all of them were different. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the story, but I'm just taking a guess.
A shot from one of the bridges of one of the larger buildings. In this particular building there was at least 30 different Buddha images (and when I say images I mean statues, so I guess I should start calling them statues.) They were all made out of a gold type material, as you can probably tell, the main colors of this pavillion is Gold and green.
Hehe. A picture of me with the Pavillion in the background. It was impossible to get a picture of just me and the temple, without any other people walking through the picture, so you will have to ignore them.
Another picture of the Pavillion.
This is an area with some of the Buddha statues, or they might be monks. I'm not totally sure. I think these ones are monks... Anyways. This particular section of the Pavillion had 18 monks, and they were all situated a hexagonal shape, facing outwards, and sitting in different positions. No monk looked the same, and they were all unique.
Another shot of the Pavillion, but in this one you can see more of the boardwalk, and the temples in the background.
These smaller buildings were everywhere on the board walk, and they had a sitting area, no monks. I'm pretty sure they were there so that you could escape from the heat, and sit in the shade to take in the beauty of the Pavillion.
A shot of one of the main buildings within the Pavillion. It shows a lot of the detail and colors that went into building this place.
And yet another shot of the boardwalk with the buildings in the background.
So the next collection of pictures is one of the last buildings we saw because of two factors. 1. It was insanely hot, and none of us were really in the mood to continue our sightseeing adventure, and 2. we had a six hour drive home and it was starting to get late.
The buildings were situated on top of a mountain (okay it was more like a big hill, but in the heat, it felt like a mountain). My host dad wasn't feeling up to trekking up this hill, so my host mom and I set out on our little trek, and sweated through the entire thing.
This is an example of the stairs that we had to climb, ending with a platform at the end. After about 50 stairs, there would be a little platform where you could take a break (hehe) and look at the temple.
As you got higher up the mountain, the temples got bigger. This one was about 50 feel wide and 20 feet deep. Don't quote me on that, because I stink at figuring out sizes, but it was fairly big. There was a guy who sat in front of this building for 20 minutes, trying to get the perfect shot. It made me laugh.
A picture looking through one of the ends of the temple. You can actually see right through the building to the other side, but it's hard to tell that because as you look further, the size gets smaller. If you can tell, there is a person standing at the very end of the tunnel, but they are very hard to see. I wanted to get a picture of me like that, but I really didn't feel like walking all the way to the other side for a photo. Maybe next time.
This is at the very top of the mountain, with the main temple. You weren't allowed to go in it because of the fact that it's very old, and probably not safe. But it was still pretty cool to see.
A side view of the main temple at the top of the mountain.
Me and the temple. The flag that is flying in the background is the Siam flag, but there is also a Thailand flag that is there, but you just can't see it from the angle that this picture has been taken from.
This is a shot looking down at one of the landings that we took a break at. As you can tell it is pretty big, and this is one of the old temples. I thought it would make a good picture because you could see the temple, as well as the surrounding area of where we were.
A shot of one of the landings. This is the walkway into the temple, you have to go around the building in order to continue on your trek. Surprisingly this was very well taken care of, so it leads me to believe that it is not as old as I originally thought, and that it has been built within the last 200 years, but still it's pretty old.
Looking out from the top of the temple onto the grounds of Ancient Siam. There is a lot of trees and rivers, but from where I was, you couldn't really see any of the other buildings. There are a few, but not too many.
My host mom and one of the little walkways at the temple.
I thought this was a pretty cool picture showing the different walkways that you could go through to get to the other side of the temple. You were allowed to walk through it, but it looked like it would be a tight squeeze for me to make it through, so I didn't try it because I didn't want to get stuck.
The Kings Ships:
In one of the river passages located within Ancient Siam, there were a lot of these long boats. I had to ask what they were, because quite frankly, I had no clue. My host mom then told me that they were the Kings Ships, and the Kings used to sail in them. The King would sit in the middle on a platform, while the other people would sit around them and row. I'm not 100% sure on that because it is a very loose translation. At this point in time, my Thai wasn't very good, and I didn't understand most of what was being said to me.
One of the boats that was floating in the water. They aren't really used anymore, so for the most part they are there for decoration and to show the visitors what they are. In this picture, the boat looks fairly short, but they are decently big.
This is just another shot of one of the Kings boats, showing how long they actually are. I'm not even going to give a guestimate about how long they are because I'd probably be wrong. But they were still really cool to look at.
So that was our time in Ancient Siam. After looking around for a bit longer, we headed back to catch a bus that would bring us back to our truck. I ended up sleeping the entire way back to Surat Thani-all 6 or 7 hours, because I was exhausted. Near the end, I could tell my host dad was getting tired of sitting in a car as well, because we were going pretty fast. Not so fast that I would feel unsafe, but fast enough to know that we had been in a car for too long.
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