Texts & pictures: The ancient palace


	Ayuthaya

Discovery of Ayuthaya | The island center | The ancient palace | End of the walk

The ancient palace

A surprising lizard

A lizard hiding in a statue's robe
The three pagodas (chedis)

View of the chedis
A small colorful lizard

A loud but shy bird
Tri Muk building

In the vast ruins of the old palace

Right next to this site is the ancient palace (Wat Phra Si Sanphet), where three white chedis dominate, in a pure Ayuthaya style which is closely associated with Thailand. I'm surprised by a blue lizard with a white stripe and red spots. I had never heard of such an animal. It runs off quickly up a tree and my focus shifts back to the architecture of the site. I'm not particularly thrilled by these ruins, and revert to chasing lizards, observing a lazy dog gobble a fly that disturbed it, and head off beneath the trees in pursuit of noisy but shy blue birds which keep on flying off. Apart from these birds and some Thais in charge of maintaining the site, there is no one in this big greem space which was the ancient palace.