Visiting Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital

 

Time to switch this to a travel blog theme.  There is no specific point in describing a weekend outing, and usually I don't, but I wanted to share some pictures, so I will this time.  There's a point I'll cover about Thai versus US culture at the end, that somehow really stood out to me in a modern mall there.

Ayutthaya is the newer of two old capital cities in Thailand, with Sukhothai being the earlier version.  Going back Thailand had changed size and coverage area in the past, as Siam, so that there was also a Northern capital of a different empire earlier on, the Lanna kingdom.

more on this in a Wikipedia page

This trip was barely over 24 hours, so we didn't get around to visiting any museums.  Ayutthaya is an hour and a half drive north of Bangkok, so it's convenient for a short trip.  Eye (my wife) is a trained tour guide, so she would sometimes start in about deeper history, but it was nice for me to just enjoy the surroundings.  We've been there a few times, so I've already heard it, and it doesn't stick.

We checked out a 500 baht a night hotel there when we first arrived, but it was too rough, so we stayed in the last hotel we stayed in there, Ayotayah, which was 890 instead (maybe $25; not bad).  It's especially nice because it's close enough to the temple areas, which are spread out, that you can rent a bike right beside the hotel and bike a few blocks over.  That rental cost 60 baht for one bike and 80 for the other; around $2 each.  It's definitely budget travel.

I'll say a little about the temples but this isn't that sort of post, about providing the history.  The names of those places barely stuck with me while I was in them.

not bad for a $25 hotel room

a bit basic as pools go, but 5 years ago our kids would have loved it

Korean barbecue the night before, or mu kratha, the Thai variation

lots of choices of bikes, and of course the two we picked were a little janky

iconic Buddha statue head in a tree at Wat Mahadat

she is a great travel companion, truly in her element

it was up to 35 C that day, in the upper 90s F

boat noodles are the standard local food, 20 baht for a small bowl

20 baht for a coconut too (60 cents), perfect on a hot day

lots of the biking was around park area spaces and ponds

we did pay respects in a few places

sort of controversial now, many say riding elephants isn't ethical.  after a few centuries of them being domestic working animals it comes down to how the chairs impact them.

Guan Yin; there is some more recent Chinese influence

at the last temple--all in one afternoon, basically--the river was held back by a wall nearby

the raised temple area wouldn't have flooded anyway, but the plain area would have

lights in the trees were just coming on at sunset when they closed

A mall outing, and observation about Thai modern culture

We visited a local mall after the last temple, for dinner.  Malls are pretty common in Bangkok and elsewhere; there were two shopping centers near each other on the way there and back.

The dinner wasn't much, some food court food, and basic fare from a food festival.  That's a good place to pick up Thai snacks or deserts, or Thai sausages, both of which we bought (a custard).  The feel was nice there, informal, comfortable, functional.  There were a couple of people singing on a stage; I suppose that was a nice touch, although it seemed lively enough without it.  

they put grocery stores in malls, making it convenient to eat dinner and grocery shop there

It's hard to describe the feel, why it seems so familiar and comfortable to me.  It's something I've been considering a lot in different ways lately, why Thai cultural context feels at home to me, when I'm an outsider.  I think I've put part of it together.

Thais value social connections, in a way that would have been more familiar to Americans in the 80s and 90s.  Malls are an obvious part of that, but it goes beyond that.  It's easy to miss in that last photo but they do have delivery of all sorts of foods (the Lineman guy on a motorcycle image, center left), and of course online shopping platforms like Amazon (Shopee and Lazada).  But people collect in public spaces, often as families.  I saw two dads playing with little girls, about 8 or 9, at two different times there, reminding me of Kalani loving outings, any outings, and shared time with our family.

Kind of a tangent, but they had even celebrated Halloween at the other mall, which we stopped at the day before:

So malls have people in them, and celebrate "Western" holidays.  I don't think what I really mean is clear yet.

I live in Honolulu part time, however many months a year, and people there really value family connections, other social ties, and outdoor experiences, which are often shared.  They're not isolated in their homes, watching streaming content while ordering food, groceries, and everything else off Amazon.  Some are; I mean that the local culture retains plenty of that older connected feel.

My parents live in rural PA, and I visited DC last year for a week, both a year ago, so transitions in the mainland aren't completely unfamiliar.  I don't want to overstate it; things aren't terrible there, with everyone hiding out at home, avoiding public shootings, crime, and homeless encampments.  But to me the feel isn't quite as relaxed.  Maybe in a rural area it still is; the pace of life is as slow as you want it to be, and going out and taking a walk is a common theme.  People still value family, if they're in a close family.  And it's stunningly beautiful back there, nature and the seasons:

But there's an underlying tension.  People spend a lot of their time online, scrolling to see the status of countless negative diversions, related to the political divide, wars and conflict, crime, economic troubles, and so on.  It's natural to avoid some of that by cutting back on it, and catch up on some streamed content.  

I don't feel unsafe almost anywhere I ever go in the US, even walking by homeless people camps in Honolulu, but themes like that require that you heighten your awareness, and track what might go badly around you.  People wearing ordinary clothes or personal style appearances, like an American flag shirt or blue hair, could trigger feelings about the opposing side of that political divide.  Of course an actual political protest makes that more explicit.  They have those in Bangkok too; there's a semi-permanent one a few blocks from our house.  Maybe Thais bitterly hate "the other side," as is common in the US.  It's my impression that it's not a pervasive a lifestyle input, an identification that ties to a broad set of other themes, but that could be wrong.

I like it that my family are rednecks, that shooting guns and hunting are the fabric of their lives.  One might wonder if racism doesn't go with that, if some people "back there" might hate my kids, for being half Asian.  I'm sure that plenty of people on Oahu don't like me, because I'm white.  Thais don't just set it aside; I'm a complete outsider.  I've never noticed much overt animosity related to that, but it's not entirely positive either.

Somehow through all this I'm claiming that Thais experience the simpler, more socially open, less divided times the US went through in the 80s and 90s.  To be clear I think the political divide back there is largely artificially maintained, a diversion that's fueled by a propaganda based divided media.  Part of that might be as much a conspiracy as it sounds like I'm framing it to be, that it's easier to manage a populace that isn't divided by rich and poor, instead by left and right, even though that is the main division people really experience.  Trump and the Republicans let the government shut down in order to squeeze even more billions out for the benefit of wealthy corporations.  Biden and those before him do more of the same than actually reforming anything, and people don't really notice either.

Then the other parts of "late-stage capitalism" seem to have little to do with a natural end state of that free market based economy.  The crime, shootings, drug epidemics, homelessness; it's part of the wealth divide run amuck, and just as much a natural outcome of cost of living making inputs like a manufacturing base impossible to maintain.