Weekend in Bangkok- temples, Ayutthaya, and floating market

Hello all!
I spent this past weekend in Bangkok with 8 other girls in my study abroad program! It was a HOT, busy, exhausting weekend.
We left Friday after our classes and headed to the airport! After a quick flight from Chiang Mai, we arrived in Bangkok around 8:30pm. I promptly spotted the Krispy Kreme in the airport and treated myself to a donut! It was great! The first thing I noticed when we stepped outside the airport was how hot and humid it was. Chiang Mai has definitely been hot lately- high nineties daily. But it was nowhere near as humid as Bangkok was. 5 of us piled into a taxi and headed to our hostel for the night.

We went to bed pretty early because we were planning on getting up early to site see in the morning. I can't even describe the heat and humidity in Bangkok it is unlike anything I have ever experienced. It was high 90s and the humidity was about 80%. We were sweating while we were standing still! It was insane. Because we knew the weather would be very hot as the day went on we got an early start. We left our hostel around 7:30, got breakfast and headed out for the day! Our first stop was Wat Pho. This temple is famous because it has the worlds largest reclining Buddha.

Our group!

Then we took a ferry across the river to check out War Arun. It is the temple of the dawn because it is named after the Hindu god Aruna who is personified as the rising sun. The first light of the morning reflects off of the temple making it pearly and iridescent.

Next, we hopped back on the ferry to go back to the other side of the river to check out the Grand Palace. This was quite an experience. Because it was a weekend near Chinese New Year it was packed full of Chinese tourists. Originally we had planned to start our day at the Grand Palace and we arrived and a man told us to come back in the afternoon because all of the Chinese tour buses had just arrived and there were probably 40,000 people inside. We didn't really believe that many people could be inside at a time, but we would later find out it was possible. So we left to check out Wat Pho and Wat Arun and came back later.
By the time we got back it was about 2 o'clock and VERY hot. We made out way into the palace with about 30,000 other tourists who had the same idea. We were herded like cattle around the paths of the palace. It was so hot and crowded you couldn't even stop to take in all the beautiful things around you. It was so overwhelming, but I am glad that we did it. I was so ready to get out though!

Inside the main temple was the famous and very sacred Emerald Buddha, but you were not allowed to take pictures inside, unfortunately. After the Grand Palace, we headed back to our hostel. We were all so beyond ready to take a shower and a nap after a long day! Later we headed out to Khao San road which is known to be the spot where backpackers hang out. We got some food and did a bit of shopping!
Sunday, Nicole, Tara, and I had booked a tour to Ayuthaya because we didn't have class on Monday so we got to stay an extra day while everyone else went back on Sunday night.
Ayutthaya was honestly the highlight of my whole trip to Bangkok, it was on my bucket list and I am so glad we made time to do it. We were picked up at our hostel at 6:30- talk about an early morning!
We really didn't know the itinerary of our day, all we knew was that we were going to Ayyuthaya. We stopped first at a palace- I honestly don't even remember the name. We choose to get coffee instead of explore because we didn't have much time.

Next, we made our first stop at Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is very similar to Sukhothai that I had visited a couple weeks earlier. Ayutthaya actually replaced Sukhothai as the capital of Siam from 1351-1767 when it was destroyed and vandalized by the Burmese in 1767. The Burmese cut off all the heads of the Buddha statues. In the 16th century, it was one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the East. Ayutthaya was abandoned until about 1950 when it was restored by the Department of Fine Art of Thailand. It is now declared a UNESCO world heritage site.

 It is also home to Wat Mahathat, which is famous for the Buddha head that is entwined in a tree. I had seen this picture on Pinterest a couple years ago before I had even thought of studying abroad in Thailand and I wanted to see it in person.
No one knows for sure how the Buddha's head ended up in the tree roots, one theory says that the tree grew around the Buddha head. Another says that a thief moved the head away from the temple to hide it because he tried to take it out of the temple walls and he couldn't. So he left the head by the temple wall where the tree grew around it.

The head was a lot smaller then I had pictured, but still super cool!
Then we went to see the original reclining Buddha that the one we saw in Bangkok was made as a copy of!

We rode a big tour bus around all day. We took a boat back that had a super delicious lunch buffet with Thai food and french fries! I was so busy stuffing my face I didn't even get a picture!
After we returned from our tour we went downtown to check out some of the shopping that Bangkok is known for. There was an abundance of crazy stores including a hello kitty cafe and store that was super cute! They also hada a bobba tea ATM that my tea/coffee obsessed friend Tara had to check out!

Monday was our final day in Bangkok- and another early morning! We went to one of the famous floating markets. The only thing I bought was coconut ice cream, but it was a really cool experience. The vendors were pretty aggressive- they would literally pull you in with a hook if you glanced at their merchandise for more than a second.

how adorable is she?

We arrived back in Chiang Mai around 9:30 on Monday night. It was a very busy weekend, but I think we got to do and see a lot of really cool things! Bangkok was really not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting it to be a little bit wilder based on all of the things you see in the movies etc. but it really was not wild or as crowded as I was expecting!
Next week, we have midterms. I honestly can't believe my time in Thailand is halfway over. It is going by way faster then I could have ever imagined!

Aubrey :)