Today, the team took a trip to the ancient city of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Siam (Thailand was Siam before it was Thailand), and at one point Ayutthaya was the biggest city in the world. We started the day with a little shopping, and then headed over to see some sights! First we saw Wat Panan Choeng (or the Golden Buddha). It was a giant sitting Buddha inside a temple.
Next, we saw the ruins of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet Temple.
Next, the team headed to lunch for a much needed meal and AC break. After lunch, Sara, Andres, Maddie, Taylor and Kevan went back to the ruins and continued sight seeing and Reese and I ventured out with some of Thailand 138 searching for our first Thai Massage. We found a place with 5 star reviews and decided to try it out. The massage started by the ladies washing our feet and giving us slippers to change into. Then they handed us a pair of shorts and a shirt to change into. The clothes were quite big and very loose but overall pretty comfortable to lounge around in. Next, we were brought into a dark room with 6 thin twin mattresses laid out on the floor. Each of us was directed to a mattress and the massage began with us on our backs. At first it was pretty similar to a massage in the US with the occasional knee or foot pressed into our leg. As the massage went on, they began to stretch our legs, press their feet into our thighs and use their whole bodies to massage us. Nothing too crazy happened until the end when my masseuse made me sit criss-cross applesauce, interlock my fingers behind my head while she got behind me, put one of her legs in front of my body to keep me in place and twisted my torso all the way around. Overall, we really enjoyed the Thai massages and we really enjoyed the price (250 Baht aka $8 for a 60 minute massage!) The massage was followed by some nice tea before we headed back out into the heat.
While Reese and I were relaxing in the AC getting massaged, the rest of our team was still out in the heat walking around the city. They went to see more ruins- the highlight was this Buddha head that fell off the Buddha statue and the trees grew around it hundreds of years ago.
Around 4 o'clock, the team met back up and headed home. Just like last Saturday, Khem had a party waiting for us at his house. This time, we had a special guest of honor- the cook from our school!
We ate and danced and enjoyed our last Saturday night together as a team! As the party ended, we decided we weren't ready to go home and we invited ourselves into Khem's house for the "after party". We looked through some of Khem's photo albums and then went outside and hung out a little longer as a team before we all turned in for bed.
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