Headless Buddhas and Heady Fun in Ayutthaya

Our travelling correspondent Babeth Lolarga writes about outside Bangkok:

"Ayutthaya is beautiful," writes Melinda de Jesus in an email from Istanbul after I asked her what places not to miss in our short five-day visit to Thailand during the Holy Week. "It is an hour's drive away," she continues, "and I would recommend a tour that will give you the whole day. I always try to include this in people's itinerary as it is just so rich with sites from different periods. There are two temple sites that are my favorites, but I do not have the names with me now. Tours usually include a lunch."

Ayutthaya it is, high on our Easter Sunday itinerary. After another breakfast buffet at the Marriott Resort Spa's where I stuff myself to my gills with cholesterol-rich soft rolls, crisp bacon and salted cheese omelette, I join our party of 11 in an airconditioned bus equipped with a "happy room," a toilet at the back.

I consider this trip an honest-to-goodness vacation on my part, not another busman's holiday where I copiously jot down notes as I usually do during trips out of town and out of the country. The only time I write down anything is the train station stop that leads to the harbor where we take a connecting barge to our hotel. Ah, those luxury barges that we hope the Pasig would have someday under a more enlightened and progressive President! The crewman on board gives us, the tired shoppers, cold ginger-scented towelettes to wipe our brows, neck and arms with followed by cold bottles of mineral water.

Our amiable guide to the Ayutthaya Historical Park points out during the hour-long trip the highrises along the countryside as the new homes of the poor. We notice very few billboards along the way, but many Thai flags fly from even home-based poles.

From the literature my partner purchases, I learn that Ayutthaya is Thailand's former capital and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At our first stop at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, the digital cameras are whipped out and the members of the Fernandez clan walk on a carpet of green grass strewn with fragrant fragipani. We are aghast at the rows of headless Buddhas—hacked by antique hunters for greedy collectors in the days when there was no security. There is a tall stupa where a few of the Buddha's ashes are housed and the intrepid among us negotiate the steep stairs. When they reach the top, they let out a proud whoop.

The child in me thrills at the visit to the elephant farm (I am, after all, referred to fondly by a niece as Tita Elephant or Phant for short because of my size). I pet a year-old elephant baby tailing its mother wherever it goes. Off we go to the elephant palace and kraal for the ride of my life on a lumbering mammoth. It is like being in a sea-tossed ship, I tell my partner, and the plus is the ride lasts no more than 20 minutes. He purchases for 300 bahts each all our photos of our first ever elephant ride from the commercial photographer.

Lunch is another buffet at the Krungsri River Hotel with the kids settling for familiar pasta with tomato sauce instead of the spicy hot tom yum gong and other Thai specialties. Some settle for generous servings of sushi. I don't forego the Thai equivalent of our halo-halo complete with kaong, kamote, gabi, gelatin, crushed ice topped with sweetened coconut milk. Our guide reminds us to bring some bread to feed the striped catfish during the cruise along Pasak River. Behind one grand pagoda, the fat fish jumped all over, catching the bits of bread thrown their way.

We make a stopover at St. Joseph Church built in 1666. It is painted a yummy caramel, and I think of the famous caramel cake that has made a modest bakery in Quezon City famous. The church is empty, and we each choose our own pew and quiet ourselves, the visit taking the place of Sunday mass.

The rest of the cruise gives us a view of riverside life among ordinary Thais. The children, especially the boys, are no different from their Philippine counterparts somersaulting naked into the river.

It is with light hearts that we leave Ayutthaya for Bangkok again and its myriad, more sophisticated stimulants