Thailand - Laos Travel: Day 11 - Part 2 - First Time Cycling In Thailand & Visiting Wat Ratchaburana | Trivacker

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Continued from Thailand – Laos Travel: Day 11 – Part 1 – On the Roof of Saifon Hotel & Morning Market. For pre-travel, please refer here.

Just out of the market, we found that we were right on the main road towards the historical center of Ayutthaya. However, the style of travel on a tuktuk is not interesting, let alone too many historical places for us to stop. Coupled with the presence of a large historical area and can not be entered by car or motorcycle.

If you don’t like walking, taking a tuktuk or taxi, you can also take a motorcycle tuktuk here.

Then we continued to walk along the corridors of these shophouses and I started to get the idea to rent a bike that was much cheaper, healthier and easier to stop happily at any place we wanted to stop.

Throughout the shophouses, there are also bag and shoe shops. Ideal for a stopover if you want to temporarily replace existing shoes that may be damaged.

Various types of bags are available here, also ideal as a place to replace existing bags that may be lost, dropped, stolen or damaged.

This is the shape of the three-wheeled tuktuk we rode last night to Ayutthaya Night Market. It is shaped like a dolphin. Actually, from afar, Tatie already saw it because it was very cute and felt like wanted to be photographed next to this tuktuk.

Each city in Thailand has its own unique tuktuk design. They are free to choose their shape of tuktuk according to the acceptance and suitability of the locals.

While walking, we suddenly came across a bicycle rental shop.

This shop is actually a travel agency that also sells flight tickets, trains and so on.

Bicycle rental is cheap, only THB50 for a day. The shop owner also gave us a free map for cycling around Ayutthaya. The map covers the historic areas here.

At first, I suggested that Aqif just sits on the back, cling on and we would belt him with a special rope we brought. But it turns out that my method is incorrect, a bit stupid and dangerous. I almost wanted to cancel the bike rental but already paid.

GPS location of the bike shop: 14.359683, 100.577294

I took a long time to think to solve this problem. Suddenly the shop owner gave me a special seat for children that could be mounted on the front for free. Apparently, the chair is always available in the shop but I also wonder why the shop owner didn’t want to offer it to us at first. It doesn’t matter if there is a rental charge, even THB100.

Maybe she only used it especially for her children because the majority of tourists here are adults and most of those who bring children are more comfortable riding a tuktuk or taxi only.

Initially, Aqif’s chair was mounted on Tatie’s bike. I just pretended as if I carried Aqif.

Then we arrived at the first historic place which is Wat Ratchaburana.

This wat is among the largest in its area in Ayutthaya. The gate is a bit interesting and a lot of information like a map is displayed outside the door.

We park the bikes in the place provided. I forgot to tell you that the owner of the bicycle shop did lend us a bicycle key chain for free. For those who rent in groups of 2 or 3 bicycles, only one key chain is provided. It’s just as easy as bridging all the bikes nearby and inserting a chain between the rims for all three bikes. I also tied it to an iron bar at the place I visited if it was provided.

A search on Google Maps shown “Ratchaburana” instead of “Ratcha Burana”.

GPS location for Wat Ratchaburana.

The ceiling of the gate is still solid.

We visited the exterior first. After all, many are taking pictures inside there. In all these blog entries, if I mention Wat it means temple. So, most of the historical places that exist in Lopburi and Ayutthaya are just Wats even though many Wats exist here.

Not like our country. A mosque can represent the use of the whole town.

The interior of the Wat area. Many monuments have collapsed or may have been broken during ancient wars.

The view on the right.

And we went back to the building earlier because there were fewer tourists there.

On the inside, do you see a woman wearing a hijab? Earlier, she and his friend greeted us and asked if there was a good hotel to stay here. Apparently they have just arrived here and have not checked in any hotel yet. Maybe their bags were kept somewhere else.

Since I was so disgusted as a result of not being reciprocated with a smile while in Hat Yai by people from my own country, so when talking to them, I also seemed to be arrogant when speaking. When I think about it, why do I imitate the arrogance of those in Hat Yai. I’m not them. If I’m arrogant, it means I already belong to their group.

For the two women who chatted with us here, I apologize a lot.

When life is happy, we are arrogant. When life becomes difficult, we will find our own people abroad! That’s disgusting.

Freestyle in many ways as if this place is ours.

This is the ‘Prang’ which represents the gods. A Prang is only for one god’s name and in it is usually placed a statue of the god.

This is also a stupa that is still intact. Unlike elsewhere, it can be said to have lost shape due to collapse.

This cloister is a low-type wall or wall that surrounds the Prang or stupa. It has two layers. But in this area, it has been partially destroyed.

This is Prang at the back of the building. It looks like a door or a square hole intended to place a statue of a god inside.

Black rocks adjacent to a stupa.

These are the black rocks but most of them have been destroyed. It forms a statue of a Buddha deity who is cross-legged and meditating. The head, body, hands or feet may be stolen or destroyed by certain parties.

A statue of a Buddha that has completely collapsed.

This is another Prang here. I enjoyed seeing the top of Prang carved with various types of religious art. This is a sacred monument of the Buddha, so of course, the carvings were made sincerely to get the blessings of the gods by his followers at that time.

There is an entrance but we did not go up. There are many tourists there.

Just taking pictures outside as proof of ever setting foot here.

Among the remnants of the original laterite stone here.

More carvings are found here.

Overall, Wat Ratchaburana is run by an organization from Germany to conserve this place.

The form of a stupa at a closer distance. Look at the construction made as if from a modern-day brick, stacked one by one to the top. Maybe thousands of bricks were used.

Suddenly a group of tourists near the Prang had come down, we approached and took pictures here. See above, there is a statue of the god Buddha.

I was pictured here because I was excited about this type of laterite block which is much older. Almost the same was used in the city of A-Famosa in Melaka.

Climb up the stairs of Prang to enjoy the panorama here. It is a stupa that has been destroyed.

Looking to the left, the stupa also collapsed.

I noticed one thing which was the arrangement of the stupas which were built in parallel and numbered four in all and faced the statue of the Buddha deity in Prang behind us.

Before going down, I took a closer look at Prang. This is an allusion to the levels of spirituality in doing good deeds by Buddhists. The deed of worship from the lowest level (the lowest bricks) to the top and attains Nirvana or has ‘become’ the Buddha himself.

The most perfect stupa! The door of the hole is free for the Buddhist believers to go in and out intending to meditate in it without any interruption. However, there may be a certain level of Buddhist believers who can enter referring to their respective spiritual achievements.