What We've Been Up to the Last Few Days

The short version is:

And

The longer version is that we made our way to Cambodia, stopping in Ayuthaya and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand.  Ayuthaya is an ancient capital of the Thai Kingdom and as such the city is rife with remnants and ruins of old temples and a palace built by former kings.  We toured the temple complex via foot and bicycle over the course of two days, making sure to stop by as many 7-11's (one of America's greatest imports to SE Asia - always air-conditioned and surprisingly true to the original even down to the machine warming "hot dogs" that are probably as old as the ancient city) along the way.  The temples served as a good warm-up to the majestic/sprawling/awesome complex at Angkor Wat (more on that in a later post).  Our guest-house at Ayuthaya boasted a "warm atmospear" and sported a friendly owner who, when he was not busy fixing one plumbing issue or another, was happy to chat about the city, the country, and anything else you brought up.  One interesting topic of discussion was the flooding from last year's rainy season.  Most of Ayuthaya was under multiple feet of water, and the damage took 5 months to repair.

From Ayuthaya we took the train to Pak Chong, the nearest town to Khao Yai National Park.  We spent 2 days in the area touring attractions in and around the park.  We found Khoa Yai to be eerily reminiscent of Yosemite (flora and fauna excluded) in the sense that both "natural parks" contain a well-developed road infrastructure and many shops, bathrooms, and lodging options within park grounds.  Our day in Khao Yai was spent "trekking" (a 4-hour nature walk) - where we spotted hornbills, gibbons, monkeys, and more insects than Rachel cared to see, saw two waterfalls - although they were not as exciting as they would be during the rainy season, and scouted for wild elephants - a spectacular success as we stumbled across two herds eating, playing in the mud, and doing other things that elephants do when they are not in the zoo or the circus.  We also took another tour outside of the park to see an underground bat cave/Buddhist temple, witness 2 million (!!) bats leaving a cave for their evening meal, and take a nighttime swim in some natural springs.  The distance of the park from BKK (only about a 4 hour train ride) was belied by the stark change in climate and surroundings.  It wasn't just that the temperature in Khao Yai was cooler (which it was by a few degrees), it was more so that the sweltering heat and humidity make more sense when you are surrounded by a jungle instead of busy intersections and high-rises.

As if the short and long version weren't enough, here is a bit of our photo travelogue from Ayuthaya/Khao Yai:

Our Tour Group Listening to Bats Flying Out of Cave

Rach Atop a Praang in a Temple in Ayuthaya

19 Meter Tall Buddah in Ayuthaya - Tallest Buddah in Thailand

Waterline from Flooding in Ayuthaya - See Color Change in Door for Water Level

Herds of Wild Elephants

Avi With a Scorpion on His Arm

Street Food Update:  Ayuthaya wasn't remarkable in terms of street cuisine, but we did enjoy some delicious grilled bananas in sugar syrup and mini-pancake-like-things that came in taro and coconut flavor:

One type of food that Ayuthaya displayed prominently was mystery meat on a stick.  Although we did not partake in any of these delicacies, we thought it was worthwhile to document:

That's all for now, we will try to post something about Cambodia (so far it's awesome) in the near future.