TODAY WAS A BLUE DAY

AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND

Temperature: 29 degrees celcius

Track of the day: Don't wanna miss a thing, Aerosmith

"Today is a blue day in Thailand," says our Ayutthaya tour guide James as we pass a vendor selling blue flowers on the street. In Thailand every day has a colour and friday is blue, saturday is violet, sunday is red, monday is yellow, tuesday is  pink, wednesday is green and thursday is orange. The king, who is very highly revered amongst the Thai people was born on a monday which means yellow is a particularly special colour here. 

Meandering along the manicured walkways of the kings summer palace on the way to Ayutthaya, Alecs and I still can't believe we are her e. "It still fells like a 

dream," Alecs says to me as we pass an elephant shaped hedge. "I know, can you imagine having this place all to yourself?," I reply gesturing to t

he beautifully large grounds of the summer palace. We spend close to two hours walking around the palace climbing it's many lookout points and watching school children in crisp white uniforms being taught about the palace under the shade of a large gnarly mango tree. Beads of s

weat drip down our faces as the sun rises to the centre of the sky and

 beats down on us like an oven. Before long we are back in the air

 conditioned bus on our way to the ruins of the former Thai capital Ayutthaya which was destroyed by the Burmese many years ago but has been under constant restoration since King Rama IV. We ar

rive at the ruins 45 minutes after leaving the Summer Palace and are amazed at the vast size of the area. The temples, which were mostly created as a monument to Buddha and to the Royal family spanned such a large area one would need several days to see e

verything. First stop was Wat Phra Si San Phet which was just stunning. Everywhere we turned there was a new ruin  to see and a new photo to take. A lack of ropes and gates allowed us to climb to temple tops and see the city in all it's glory. Alecs and I could have spent days wandering around the ruins and were happy to hear from our tour guide that the ruins of Angkor Wat make these seem like nothing. "They say you can die after seeing Angkor Wat," says our guide, "because once you have seen Angkor Wat you're life is complete and you can die peacefuly," he says. After Wat Phra  Si San Phet we head to another temple where the group splits into those who want to ride elephants and those who want to see more ruins. Knowing that these elephants could be treated better and that we are heading to an elephant camp for a 2-day training course with rescued elephants made the decision an easy one for us - more temples please! We were sure glad we chose the temples because these ones at Wat Mahathat were even more impressive than the ones before. "I cannot imagine how amazing these would have been at their peak," Alecs says gesturing to three large temples side by side that were to house the Royal families ashes. We both stand in awe at the sights before us and take a moments breath before the swarms of tourist crowd the view. "We go see reclining buddha now," says James, our guide as he herds us onto the bus. The reclining buddha is huge and draped in orange tarps for robes. "The Thai people love dogs," says James, "but they have dogs who have puppies and they cannot take care of them anymore. So, the Thai people bring the dogs to the temple because Bu

ddhists believe in loving all creatures, so the stray dogs are taken care of at the temples." Alecs nudges me in the side and grins knowing that this makes me very happy. As Alecs is taking pictures of the reclining buddha in all it's glory I am watching two small puppies chew on a large bone with plenty of meat still on it and I can't help but love the Thai people!!!

1 hour after the reclining buddha we board a cruise ship on the river back to Bangkok. We are fed a delicious buffet of seafood and thai cu

isine including Tom Yum Soup (spelling?). Afterwards we head up to the deck to soak in some rays and watch the river life in full swing. We brush up on our Thai using our lonely planet language guide and learn key phrases such as yes, no, please, thank you and excuse me - all of which have become very useful, as has the wai. Wai is a common gesture in Thailand where you put your hands in a prayer position below your chin and bow your head. This is done when saying sorry, thank you, please and just to say hello if you want to be very respectful. 

A quick rehydration and catnap back at the hotel room and we are out the door in search of Paragon shopping mall. This was to be our first encounter with Bangkok's superior Skytrain, but it will not be our last. The skytrain is only a block from 

our hotel and we quickly learned to manouver the busy side streets. The train is efficient, clean and beats the Calgary LRT in every way imaginable. "Why,"says Alecs as we board the skytrain at Chong Nonsi station, "why can't we do it right back home, look how many more people can fit and how much more efficient the layout is." I nod as another wave of people board the train all headed for the same stop -Siam. We arrive at the station with plenty of time to spare and are rewarded with an ultra modern shoppers paradise that even has Alecs seeing stars. Using much restraint we head straight for the movie theater on the top floor and purchase our VIP movie tickets to Underworld 3.  We are seated in the VIP lounge while we wait for the movie to start and are given complimentary drinks and snacks as we sit in our plush sofas and reminisce about the day. Moments before the movie starts we are led into a theater of lazyboy chairs arranged in pods of two. The waiter brings us our drinks and popcorn and we settle into our leather chairs. Shortly after the previews end we stand for the national anthem, but not before I spill all my popcorn trying to fold my seat back down so I can pay my respects to the king. A few minutes later i've cleaned all the popcorn off the floor, full extended my reclining chair, propped the pillow under my head and curled up under a blanket to watch the movie. Only 25 minutes into the movie and I am sound asleep. Alecs wakes me up and then falls asleep himself, and not because the movie was boring but because we were so comfortable you could not help but fall asleep. Now we are back at the hotel for a good nights rest so we can head to Wat Arun and various other temples/palaces and also to the Weekend Market! 

So long for now, we miss everyone at home but are having a great time.

Loved Alecs and Meg in Bangkok