Ruins and night market

We loaded into the vans and drove ~1.5 hrs north of Bangkok to Ayuttayah, the ancient capital that was destroyed by the Burmese in the middle 1700s.  Many ruins of temples of the ancient capital have been preserved and collectively are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We visited two of them today.  Afterwards, we checked into our hotel, then got dinner at the night market in Ayuttayah.

Note to parents and friends:  Thank you very much for posting comments!  I look forward to your comments as much as you look forward to the blog, and because it takes a reasonable effort to do this (usually late night), I will focus on featuring your kids in the pics.  Also, you might not realize that you can click directly on a photo and it will enlarge.

Our first stop was Wat Chai Watannaram.  Loads of school kids were at the temples today.  

Ajarn Mark taking a picture of some of the students

Nat, Dixie, Grace, and Kristen

I don't know what this pose is, but I suspect everyone else does.  I know it's not Charlie's Angels...

In the late 1700s, the Burmese invaded Thailand and destroyed the temples around Ayuttayah, the former capitol of Thailand.  In Buddhist countries, the head is considered sacred and not to be touched.  So by decapitating the Buddha statues, the Burmese committed an even more egregious offense.

Wat Pra Mahatat is one of the most famous because of the Buddha head from a decapitated statue that rolled up against a Bodhi tree.  Over the years, the roots of the tree grew around the head and it has become a sacred artifact resulting from the Burmese invasion in the 1700s.

Grace, Mackenzie, and Nat trying to fix the ruins.

50% of the students posing with a Buddha statue at Wat Pra Mahatat.

The night market in Ayuttayah has lots of strange things available to eat.  Clarke is buying some golf-ball sized compressed shrimp and crab balls (5 baht each).

This lady is making big batches of phad thai (40 baht/plate)

Morgan and I couldn't resist trying these things.  They look like some kind of meat with tentatcles, but since they're on a stick, they must be good (10 baht/stick).

Mmmmm.  The tentacles turned out to be fungus.

Hannah found popcorn.

How about squid on a stick?

These prawns look pretty good, but where's the stick?

Schmidty showing off what she found.  Tom yum soup in her right hand... and INSECTS in her left hand!  Specifically, they are silkworm pupae (I'm an entomologist).

Lyndi is about to pop a cricket in her mouth while Grace looks on with concern.

Mmmmmm.  Creamy....

Morgan wanted to taste one.

AT and Addi had their own bag!

AT also got some fried chicken feet.

Wait a minute!  Those muslim women are cooking roti!  Roti has been a sought after dessert by every class I've brought to Thailand.  It's a sweet crepe-like fried dessert with lots of flavor options.

Mackenzie and Nat got apple and banana rotis with chocolate.  It's safe to say this won't be their last roti...