After a few days of acclimating Chris’s parents to life in Bangkok, we dragged them upriver to Ayutthaya, the former Thai capital, sacked by the Burmese in the late 1700s. The temples and palace buildings are eerie reminders of the teeming city that once was there. And, this being Thailand, there was plenty of good food, too.

pandan pancakes outside one of the temples. These would later be stuffed with candy floss — think cotton candy taco.

The intrepid travelers tackle Ayutthaya

I’d been wanting to go this restaurant in Ayutthaya for a very long time indeed and finally got my chance. It totally lived up to the hype and we ate like marauding Burmese invaders.

wing bean salad

catfish salad

sauce for catfish salad

we asked for the chilis on the side for the tom kha gai

banana blossom salad

fish!

pop documents the meal

This kitty wisely showed up at the end of the meal and scored a fat chunk of fish.

We stopped by a lackluster monkey temple on the way back home. There were a few monkeys, but the best part was this play structure and my favorite monkey playing on it…