Bang Pa-In Palace and Ayutthaya

After a relatively calm Monday doing things like grocery shopping, we set out for an adventure on Tuesday.  Our main destination was the ruins of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, but along the way we stopped at the Bang Pa-In palace complex.  My favorite building was Phra Thinang (royal residence) Aisawan Thiphya-Art (the divine seat of personal freedom) which was a pavilion in the middle of the water.

Other highlights were the Chinese-style Phra Thinang (royal residence) Wehart Chamrun (heavenly light)

and the observatory Ho (tower) Withun Thasana (sage's lookout), which Vivian and Jeff climbed and barely managed to get down from after a big school group followed them up.

We were eager to get to the ancient ruins, so we basically did a quick walk through, but it was a beautiful place to look around, and it wasn't too far, so we may go back on a day when we have more time to dedicate to it.

After that, we all got back in the van and headed to our first wat.  In my mind, I had envisioned Ayutthaya as one main site, but it's actually a city with ancient ruins scattered all around it.  I'm glad we had the driver, because he knew where he was going and the best order to tackle everything.

The first wat was the most colorful.  There were several trees with multicolored flowers.

The Buddhas also had colorful robes.

It was a hot day, so we used umbrellas as sunshades and added a little more color.

The next wat was Wat Mahathat.  A lot of the towers were leaning precariously to one side or the other.

It's best known for the tree that grows around a Buddha head.

It looked kind of like the Game of Thrones weirwood tree.  It made me wonder if it was George R.R. Martin's inspiration for a tree with a face, or if it was just a coincidence.

One of the most interesting monuments was actually in the park across the street.  After the death of one of the kings, his two oldest sons fought a duel to decide who would succeed him.  They ended up killing each other, so the third son became king and built this monument to commemorate his brothers.  Not sure if they deserved it, but it keeps the story alive.

After two wats, we were ready for some lunch, so we drove down the street to a restaurant called Bann KunPra.  It had tables on the river, so we had a nice view for lunch.

We tried lots of interesting dishes, but we got the biggest kick out of the rice shaped like a turtle.  It's the little things :-)

After fueling up, we went to see our third wat, Wat Phra Si Sanphet.  The three central chedis show up in a lot of Ayutthaya pictures.

Our final stop was Wat Chaiwatthanaram, which we all decided was our favorite.  It was used as an army camp during the Burmese invasion in 1767, and so it was more intact than most of the other ones.

Jeff and Judy got ambitious and decided to climb up the central tower.  About half way up, Judy remembered that she was afraid of heights and came back down, but Jeff made it all the way up.

We were all exhausted on the ride home, but were very happy with our day.

Sampran Riverside and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

My parents and my sister arrived at 2:00am on Friday.  I fed them some fried rice (midnight snack of champions!) and got them settled.  Since they were jet lagged, they got up again fairly early in the morning.  I figured it would be a good day to take them downtown, since everyone was off, so there wouldn't be much traffic.  Sure enough, we flew in.  Since they've all been to Bangkok before, and done all the obligatory touristy things, I took them to Siam Paragon and Central World to experience the extreme shopping that happens in Bangkok.  After visiting the Maserati, Rolls Royce, and Aston Martin stores, we came upon my dad's new favorite luxury car, Mitsuoka.  They're made in Japan, and I have never heard of them before, but they're styled to look like classic cars, which appeals to him.



My sister liked the cars, but I think she enjoyed the colorful dumplings more.

They crashed pretty early, but I think it was a good first day outing.

On Saturday, we piled into a van with a driver and went to Sampran Riverside which is a park about 45 minutes away.  It's known for its roses and its Thai cultural classes and show.  There are also several restaurants and a hotel you can stay at.  We had rooms at the hotel.  On the way there, we made a slight detour to see the Phra Pathom Chedi, which is supposedly the tallest chedi in the world.  It was definitely big.

And it had a really nice courtyard with Buddha statues.

It was a bit off the beaten tourist path, but it was a nice stop.

We go to Sampran Riverside in time for lunch, which we ate looking out over the river.  After lunch, we went to the Thai cultural show, which was basically a mash up of traditional Thai things.  There was Thai music, dancing, boxing (Muay Thai), a wedding ceremony, stick and sword fighting, and more dancing.

The dancing at the end was the best, because they used bamboo sticks for percussion, and then the dancers jumped between the sticks.  It was the scary version of double dutch.

After the cultural show, we saw some elephant dancing.

Then we had quiet hang out time until dinner.  It was so lovely outside, that we tried to sit next to the water for dinner.

We didn't last very long though, because the bugs were out in force, so we retreated to indoor dining.

After dinner, we found a pool table, and Judy and Jeff played a round of pool, while Vivian hopped around the table excitedly.

The next morning we packed ourselves back up and got in the van to head to the floating market at Damnoen Saduak.  Our driver took us to a boat rental place a bit down the river, and the six of us piled into one of the long tail boats.  The first part of the ride was through a fairly wide canal that looked like the water equivalent of a residential neighborhood.

The weather was perfect, so everyone enjoyed the first part of the ride.  Then we came to a coconut sugar stall where the driver let us off for a quick taste.

It was kind of salty, sweet.  The rest of the stall was souvenirs at three times the price you would pay if you knew where to shop in Bangkok.  That was my first indication that this was a complete tourist trap.

When we got closer to the market area, there were a few floating vendors, mostly for food.

But most of the market was souvenir stalls set up along the river that we floated by on our boat.  The vendors had long hooks, and if you showed an interest in what they were selling, they would hook you towards them.  

It turned out that our boat driver was actually selling things himself, the flower chains that people use to bless their houses, cars, etc.  We had one at the front of our boat.

So even though we didn't want to buy anything, we moved pretty slowly while he stopped to sell his flowers.  Eventually we got to the main part, which was like a Bangkok traffic jam, but with boats instead of cars.

It was an interesting experience, but we all agreed that our favorite part was the boat ride through the residential canals.  On the way back, we stopped to feed some fish near a wat, and we had a lot of fun throwing in the food and watching them all splash around for it.  It wasn't what I had expected, but I'm glad we did it.

Happy New Year in Pattaya

New Year's Eve is a big deal in Bangkok, but with a six year old and an almost one year old, we don't have a lot of party options.  I was reading different vacation recommendations, and read one about New Years at the beach in Pattaya watching fireworks from the hotel room.  That seemed like a perfect solution.  The kids could go to sleep at a reasonable hour (and so could we, if we wanted to), and then we could all wake up to watch fireworks from the comfort of our hotel balcony.  Plus, Pattaya is a quick two hour drive away on a major highway, so it's easy to get to with a car full of baby gear.

The trick was finding a hotel where we were certain of a good view from the hotel room, and we weren't being charged an arm and a leg for the privilege.  With some travel agent help, we settled on the Royal Cliff Resort, and we were very happy with our view.  Google can combine these into a big panorama shot.  Here is our view in chunks from right to left.

And here's the combo.

On New Year's Eve there were all kinds of fireworks and floating lanterns coming from the far right, which is where the town is.

Our hotel shot fireworks from the area of the middle picture, which was almost alarmingly close, and there was a big Mardi Gras themed party with a live band near the infinity pool on the left.

So the New Years part of the plan worked out great.  The best part though was that the rest of the vacation (the other 47 hours and 59 minutes) was equally successful.

One of the draws for this resort was their kids' club called Funtasea.  We had shown Vivian pictures, and she was so excited, she wanted to go and play as soon as we checked in.

It was a really fun set up, with slides, climbing areas, toys, bean bag chairs, movies, and iPads.  The best part was that there were other kids there who were up for all kinds of games.  We did have to pay a little extra (200 baht or $6.50 for four hours), but it was well worth it.  While Vivi enjoyed the kids' club, Jeff, Elena, and I enjoyed the view and the breeze from one of the restaurants and then went up to the room to enjoy the balcony.  

Eventually we ordered Vivian spaghetti with tomato sauce from room service for dinner, and then extricated her from the kids' club, fed her, and headed off to the infinity pool for a sunset swim.

It was fabulous.

The next day, Vivian wanted to go right back to the kids' club, but we convinced her to have some family time first.  We went for a walk and explored the resort a bit.

On our walk, we found another pool that looked like a lot of fun, but when we came back in swim gear, we were told that only people staying at one of the fancier hotels could use that pool.  We were a bit irked, but decided to let it go, and go back to our own big pool.  

Jeff and Vivian had a great time swimming around and playing games of their own invention.  Elena was all suited up and ready for her first pool adventure.

Unfortunately, the water was quite chilly, and she didn't like it, so we spent most of our pool time sitting on the loungers, playing with the towels and smiling and waving and Jeff and Vivi.  

We'll try again when it's hot outside instead of just warm.

Once Vivian was cleaned up from pool time, she went straight back to the kids' club.  Right next to the kids' club were a couple displays from a 3D art show called Art in Paradise.  It's set up so that you can put yourself in the painting.

 We had some fun with it :-)

After dropping Vivi off,  Jeff and I took Elena exploring and found another beach.

We also found a perfect lunch spot.

The view was great, there was a cool breeze, and Elena fell asleep, so we stayed there for two hours.  Eventually we retrieved Vivian and fed her too.  She admired the para-sailors and decided that she wanted to try it when she got bigger.

Then we all went back to the room for what was supposed to be quiet rest time, but instead of napping, Elena decided to make friends with the lamp.

Eventually it got dark, and Vivian insisted on putting on her fancy New Year's dress.  Luckily, it's comfortable, because she ended up sleeping in it too.

Around 8pm, the live band started up.  They actually had good song selections, but the singers they had were not quite up for it.  For example, one of the most painful was their version of Fun.'s "We Are Young".  The singer just couldn't do it, not that most of us can, but most of us also know better than to try in public.  We decided to give them A for effort and C for execution.

Everyone else fell asleep by 9pm, but I stayed up reading, and at about 11pm Jeff woke back up.  He and I sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the show.  Just before midnight, I woke Vivian up.  She was definitely out of it, but made her way to the balcony.  The fireworks started up the coast before midnight.  Our hotel did a countdown from the stage, and then fire works shot off almost right in front of our room.  It was beautiful, but LOUD.  Vivian stayed on the balcony for a while with her hands over her ears, and then she went back inside to watch from behind the sound barrier of the sliding glass door.  The fireworks were so loud, they woke Elena up too, so I bounced between the balcony and checking on the girls.  

It was a bit crazy, but I think everyone except for Elena really enjoyed it.

We slept in the next morning, and slowly made our way downstairs to eat breakfast outside on the terrace near the pool.  After breakfast, we walked down to the infinity pool for one last lounge.

After soaking up some sun, we packed everything back in the car and got on the road.  Luckily, we knew how to get home, because this is is a typical highway sign.  

That summarizes the driving experience in Thailand.

Our final verdict on Pattaya: the town is crummy, the beach is meh, but the resort was fun and relaxing, and it was easy to get to.  If we want a quick beach getaway, we could go there again.  We have several other beach destinations to try out first though.  It's a tough life ;-)