After ringing in the New Year the next morning we headed up North to the "Old City" Ayutthaya by train. It cost about .45 per person one way and was a great way to see more of the city and a bit of the country on route through open windows.
Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 by King U Thong who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, Ayutthaya kingdom or Siam. By the year 1600 CE the pop. was about 300,000 and by 1700 it had reached 1,000,000, making it one of the world's largest cities at that time. In 1767, the city was destroyed by the Burmese army resulting in the collapse of the kingdom. We toured these ruins and hopefully my pictures will upload to show you. The site is recognized internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
