Just outside of Ayutthaya, the former capitol of Thailand, Wat Na Phranem was essentially untouched when the Burmese sacked and basically destroyed the city in the late 1700’s. The Burmese empire actually attempted to destroy the city at least one time before, but they were defeated when the Thai prince killed the Burmese general in an elephant joust.
Yes, an elephant joust. Where they had big spears and rode on elephants at full speed. And I thought it would be hard to do on a horse…
This photo was taken while on a night tour of the various temples around Ayutthaya set up by the friendly proprietor of Baan Lotus, a quasi-backpacker, just the basic place to stay in town. It’s the kind of place where they ask you to look at the room first, and offer to bug bomb it right off the bat. Still, it was good enough for a night, and the price couldn’t be beat.
The woman that runs Baan Lotus kind of owns the town, it seems. The little tuk-tuk taxis that take one around on the night time, sunset tour all say “Baan Lotus” on them (so they aren’t the generic ones one usually sees everywhere) and even when we did take a regular one to the train station there was a Baan Lotus advertisement in it. I kind of wonder if she has a racket going on.
One thing I’d like to point out of the photo, which I’m rather happy with is the dark structure on the left. At first it might seem like just a strange dark area on the left. But it’s actually part of the temple that was receiving just a bit of light from another source. So look at the image full size and please make me feel better about myself 🙂