Wandering on New Year's Day

We had to see the rest of the historical park of Kamphaeng Phet so we actually organized a tuk tuk to get us to the site since it was beyond the town precincts. I'm glad we did - it is quite warm and we would have been much more uncomfortable if we'd walked. Don't you love the elegant vehicle with the liveried chauffeur?

The park entrance had quite the sign. It certainly is a significant site and has been honoured with a Unesco World Heritage designation. That's the Unesco sign on the right. 

And since it was New Year's Day, can we claim to be part of the annual bird count? This is a Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo. We saw more than one. 

But of course we came for the ruined Wats, didn't we, and the few Buddha figures left. This seated Buddha has a certain Easter Island look about him because of the weathering. 

The temples are indeed ruins - the buildings were made of laterite blocks which were then covered in stucco. The Buddhas too are created in the same way. 

This Second Buddha is even more Easter Island I think. The seated posture is very common. 

Another temple was ringed with Elephants standing guard. Little is left, but these do have some decoration remaining. 

This picture will give you a better sense of scale perhaps.  I had climbed up to a level below a chedi around which people would have walked, counterclockwise, to do their devotions. 

The base of a chedi. A tall narrow spire would have completed this tower. 

A standing guardian and a lion were placed at each entrance. 

Here you can see the extent of one of the buildings - perhaps a prayer hall.

There was an information centre on the grounds which we found late in the morning.  This figure is actually Hindu, Siva, and was Found in Kamphaeng Phet, placed there by a ruler around the 13th century. 

And here another standing Buddha, a seated one as well as one of the better preserved elephants of the temple ruins. 

The piéce de resistance on this site was this towering standing Buddha which is the only figure of four that would have originally graced this monument. The other three would have been a seated Buddha, a walking Buddha and a reclining one. 

These pillars were inside the hall behind the standing Buddha - you can see how massive these structures were. Originally there would have been roofs too. 

Here's the obligatory food picture. We found a large restaurant just outside the grounds called Fou Rest. On the menu was an item called Crispy Chicken Tendons. I was certain there was a spelling error so ordered the Chicken Tenders. They were indeed crispy, with a coating that included sesame seeds, and they were indeed Chicken Tendons! I really want to know if people actually chew on and swallow these tendons, or, like me, do they merely chew off the delicious coating. Certainly we are now assured that there are many things we discard that others eat. We saw deep fried chicken feet in one night market but didn't buy any to try since, unlike my chicken "tenders" they were obviously feet. 

We walked back to town and stopped for a wonderful iced coffee at a shop on a main drag.  We decided to do carry out and hailed a tuk-tuk driver to get us the rest of the way. One of these days you might even see a picture of me lolling in a tuk-tuk. Note this one has the driver in front. And I assure you there is not enough room for two big Canadian bums on the seat.  I crouched forward and let King Geordie have the lion's share. 

I'm in this picture at least.