Ayutthaya

March 24. Ayatthaya was the capitol before Bangkok.  It was invaded by Burma.  When they invaded they took the gold from the Budda statues and cut off the heads to show their dominance.

The current King is Rama the 9th. One of the previous kings was born in Boston during a time when people were protesting the monarchy.  Another of the Rama kings was murdered.  We heard the entire history of the Rama's.  The king is ceremonial, like the queen of England. I had an interesting experience today.  During lunch at a tourist restaurant one of the people on our bus asked me when we were leaving.  When I told him I didn't know he realized that I wasn't the tour guide.  He said to his friend that he got confused because I was oriental. It was a little strange since the guide had a full head of black hair, was about 50 and was wearing different clothes.  A lot of cruisers would not be able to travel indepentently.

Summer palace called Bang Pa.

We got to drive around in golf carts.

Ayatthaya

This Budda head was cut off and a tree grew around it.

When we were riding the driver dropped his stick.  He said something to the elephant and it picked up the stick with his trunk.