Peter's Ramblings: A Day out and a slice of history

About 2 hours from Pattaya, the Ancient City (Muang Boran)is somewhere I had heard about but never visited. Thai descriptions of Tourist Attractions tend to be grossly generous - but this is under played. I've lived here 7 years now and this has to be the best place I've visited.

It's in a large park, broadly shaped to the map of Thailand. Scattered (or actually stuffed) into these 320 acres are over 116 significant historical Thai monuments - roughly positioned correctly in the map.

I spent 3 hours there - and was feeling pretty bad with a cold/flu that has been chasing me around for a few days now - but I only saw about a third of the place and was rushing to see that.

So, I thought I'd just pick one section today. The Dvaravati Period.

This refers both to a culture and a grouping of city-states in the lower plain of the Chao Phraya river. We are in the 6-10 century AD, so Bangkok didn't exist (not even Soi Cowboy). The area we are talking about starts 200 km West of Bangkok and extends as far to the East. The Tai people didn't even live here, they were busy running away from the Chinese up in what is now Southern China.

This civilisation was based around a people known as the 'Mons' and was heavily influenced by India - Bhuddism was here and one of the culture's symbols was the Hindu Circle of Life. Also notice how the Bhudda is sitting - this is typical of this period.

Yesterday I wandered round a Dvaravati style house - and I have to say that they and tha Lanna in the North had, what I would consider the perfect housing style for this climate. A number of small houses, all raised on stilts and clustered around a central courtyard.

The interiors were in beautiful wood - probably Teak, with windows opening into both the courtyard and outside - enabling a air flow. This is somewhere I could spend my time!