Some pics:

See this statue? It’s a demon holding up part of the chedi and is a character in the “Ramayana.” The tale was adapted and changed somewhat when Rama I and II rewrote it and it became known as the Ramakien. The tales of the Ramakien are similar to those of the Ramayana, though transferred to the topography and culture of Ayutthaya, where the avatar of Phra Narai (the Thai incarnation of Vishnu, who’s also known as Narayan) is reborn as Phra Ram.

The tale is:
Once upon a time there was a giant king (called Tosakan) on the island of Lanka who won a battle against the god Indra and then sought to achieve the rule of the whole world. The gods knew that only a mortal man would be able to stop the invulnerable giant and sent the god Vishnu down to earth.

Vishnu is reincarnated as Prince Rama (Phra Ram), son of the mighty King Tosarot of Ayuthaya. Rama and his faithful brother and friend Lakshman (Phra Lak) become famous heroes and Rama is appointed by his father as successor to the throne of Ayuthaya. When Rama manages to win beautiful and chaste Princess Sita as his wife, their happiness seems complete. However, an envious concubine of King Tosarot convinces him to favor her son and to disinherit Prince Rama. Rama, Sita, and the faithful Lakshman are expelled from the royal palace and have to flee into the jungle where they spend the next fourteen years hidden in a hermitage.

Even in the seclusion of their forest retreat, however, Sita’s beauty does not go unnoticed, and the evil giant King Tosakan decides to lure her way from Rama. He disguises himself as a lovely deer and carries Sita off to Lanka where she is forced to live in his palace. Rama and Lakshman, of course, try to find her and enlist the help of the monkey king Subrik and his white general,Hanuman. Hanuman, by flying through the air to Lanka, finally discovers poor Sita. Supported by Hanuman and an army of monkeys, Rama and his brother reach the coast in front of Lanka and Hanuman builds with his body a causeway to the island.

And the battle starts. When it turns out that Rama and his followers are going to be victorious, however, the evil giant Tosakan manages to sneak out of the palace and takes lovely Sita with him. Again, it is Hanuman who helps: he finds the giant and becomes his confidant. Tosakan trusts him so much that he reveals to Hanuman the secret of his invulnerability. That allows Prince Rama to successfully fight (in an exhausting seven day battle) and finally kill the giant and to win Sita back – although in the beginning he does not believe in Sita’s faithfulness and she must undergo a trial of fire to prove her chastity.

All of them now return to Ayuthaya, where the unlawful king, the son of the envious concubine, resigns and Rama again becomes king. Everybody could be happy now, but Rama is still in doubt about Sita, who is expecting a child. He expels her from the palace and orders his brother Lakshman to have her killed. Lakshman, however, does not obey and brings Sita instead back to the hermit in the jungle where she and Rama spent fourteen years during Rama’s exile. There she gives birth to a son and the hermit, a powerful magician, forms a twin brother of the child and teaches both arts and mystics. Rama hears about the children, and finally recognizes his son. After a final battle with the remaining rebel giants, Rama’s mission is fulfilled and he returns to heaven.

In the other version, Sita kills herself and Rama then realizes that he was wrong to doubt her…Murals depicting this tale are all over the Wat in the Grand Palace. I took a few pics but they don’t really help you unless you know the story. I suppose it’s like seeing the Stations of the Cross in a Catholic church and not understanding why this dude is carrying a cross and what each station depicts.

After a while we were getting too tired and hot to look around at the other buildings. We sat on some steps in the shade and watched people for a while. One part of the complex had a shrine with little buddhas covered in gold that were flaking off, the paint was coming off. People were making offerings, lighting incense, and would then dab the flaking buddha with a tissue and then place the tissue on their head- similar to someone blessing themselves with holy water. It was interesting to watch. I took a few pics of the more chinese looking statues and eventually found myself feeling overheated, tired, and a little dopey. We did see the Emerald Buddha… he’s this tiny statue way up high in a temple, it’s hard to see what he really looks like- it’s all gold and decorations in there. Apparently someone got a pic cause I found this on wikipedia:

Now imagine this brighter, golder, and you’re kneeling. It’s quite the scene. All around the inside there’s murals and gold paint on doorways. It was cool but once again, lots to absorb and take in. I think I missed so much cause it was just too much. You spend your whole life in a place where some buildings are just BORING and the ones that aren’t – are so big ya can’t miss them… and then you go to Thailand and everything is smaller and intricate and amazing.

We ended up punking out and taking a taxi back to our guesthouse. After a small rest and shower – we went and ate a late lunch from one of the street vendors. We had phat thai and it was awesome. The noodles weren’t too soft, the taste was fresh, and a cat came over to us crying for some food. I gave it a few noodles and then some egg but it wasn’t interested in the egg. Then a dog was near us also looking for food. No one seems to “shoo” animals, they ignore them at most. We kind of bummed around for a while then fell asleep till about 8/8:30pm.

We debated whether or not we should get dinner or go back to sleep. In the end we ate at Hemlock. A very good restaurant, in the artsy sort of part of town. We had this appetizer that was tea leaves with things to wrap inside of them – fried coconut shavings, peanuts, lime, dried shrimp, and some other things that I can’t remember right now. I ate the Phat Cee Euw and was happy. We watched a little lizard running around on wall outside, it chased off another lizard and then returned to heating itself under the street light.

Eventually we made our way home through random night markets and what not and went to bed around 11:30pm.