Visited the town of Ayuthaya Thursday and Friday. This was the capital of Thailand for 417 years, from the 14th century until it was conquered by the Burmese in 1767. What remains are some pretty fantastic ruins of temples and palaces. I didn't get to see all of them, but what I did see was pretty mind-blowing! What really struck me was how accessible all these ruins were. I mean, they just let you climb pretty much all over them. Some spots are roped off, but a lot of the ropes are broken and people just go wherever with no supervision. Makes me wonder how well preserved everything will stay...

A Buddha head that at some point fell off and over time, became encased in--of all things--a Bodhi tree. I think he looks pretty content with his predicament.

Wat Ratchaburana. I actually climbed down inside of the main prang into the crypt. More on that later...

I totally fit in with the locals here.

The main prang of Wat Ratchaburana. Stairs lead up inside and then down to the crypt, where, after it was looted in 1957, they discovered ancient murals on the walls.

Stairs leading down into the crypt. Just looking down into that blackness made my heart race. You can't even see the bottom--it goes way deeper than you can see here. But of course, I couldn't just turn back...

Climbed down into the dark. Seriously thought I was going to pee myself. All I could think of were all the Indiana Jones movies where someone's face melts off because they touched some holy relic. I took a quick picture of each wall and the ceiling (this is one of the walls) and got the hell out of there. There was seriously a really weird buzzing noise down there that I swear to god was getting louder and weirder the longer I tarried. Don't make fun of me. It was fricken scary. I thought it odd that I could just go right down there and be close enough to touch these things. You'd think they would protect them better, right? Seems a shame...

Eventually I recovered from my fear and enjoyed an audio tour of Wat Phra Si Sanphet

Wat Mahathat at night. It was supposed to be all lit up, but I guess someone forgot to flip the switch that night. Just after taking this picture a god-damned stray dog snuck up and scared the crap out of me. You all would have had a good laugh, I'm sure.