Spirit City: Ayutthaya

One of the most memorable parts of my visit to Thailand is my trip to Ayutthaya, the country's capital until 1767. It was restored in 1969 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991, after its unique history of 35 kings ruling the kingdom since 1350.

The place was extremely beautiful and reeked of culture and history, something I've been craving for since I started travelling. It's mostly composed of ruined buildings, walls, temples, and this one structure that resembled a pyramid that almost moved me to tears.

My mother and brother didn't accompany me on the trip as they preferred to go to the Chatuchak market. I went alone and joined a group of girls, who were to my surprise, Filipino. They're best friends who decided to go to Bangkok for their graduation and I was immensely impressed at the thought of young girls choosing to go to Ayutthaya instead of commercial-oriented places aka malls. They were really nice and welcomed me to the group. In fact, we have some common friends! I'm friends with two of them on Facebook and we're talking about getting together in Manila.

I like going on trips alone. It makes me appreciate the beauty of the place, item, or experience all the more and I was able to soak in the old wonders of Thailand.

We went on a day trip so we got to visit other sites, such as the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, a vast complex used by kings for leisure and entertainment. It houses mansions and towers done in various architectural styles from Italian to Chinese. We roamed the palace in a golf cart and being an architecture fanatic, it was a bit schizophrenic seeing different movements in one location. It was pretty much like walking around The Bund in Shanghai.

We also got to visit Wat Chaimongkol, home to some of the most majestic temples I've seen on my entire trip. There were smaller temples with different methods of attaining good luck. Our first stroke was getting a proactive tour guide (a little too much, if you ask me) who eagerly explained the steps in the rituals. At the rate we performed, we're bound to be the luckiest people in the world.

A day trip to Ayutthaya shouldn't be missed!