We were picked up at 6:45 (whose idea was this?) to visit the Summer Palace as well as a few other historical sites in Ayutthaya. The king, who built the palace in the 1800’s, was heavily influenced by his education and living in Europe. The architecture has a significant European influence. The king also returned to Thailand (Siam at the time) and changed clothing styles. Men changed from sarongs without shirts to westernized pants & shirts at the King’s insistence. He foresaw that eventually Siam had to be integrated with the west and their traditional ways had to change.
Tuk-tuks are also different in this area which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Bangkok. It has been fun to see all of the different versions.
We visited the ruins of the former Siam capital and the original large lying Buddha. (The gold one in Bangkok is a “replica”.) A pleasant 2 hour lunch cruise back along the Chao Phraya River brought us back to Bangkok.
That evening we had what was probably our favorite dinner so far on our journey. We dined at one of the top 10 Bangkok restaurants, Issaya Siamese Club, owned by internationally renowned Thai Chef Ian Kittichai . The food is thai-fusion and the chef uses all fresh herbs from his garden and seasonal ingredients. David had the signature curry lamb shank which was out of this world. Lesley had the salmon. The flavor and combinations were extraordinary. Our meal was finished off with “Broken Balls”, a desert and show all in one.
