Déjà vu should be a Thai word

And I'm done with Bangkok, I was there for too long but I achieved what I set out to do there, eat a lot of sea food, wake up with 4 hangovers and find a job. So now I can be exactly where I want to be, in the garden of Baan Eve my favourite guesthouse, in my favourite city... ancient Ayyuthuya. H and I spent 2 nights here in the late March of last year where we met good people, seriously chilled in the paradise-style garden with banana trees and outrageously large but equally friendly doggies.

Ayyutuya was established as a trading city and Buddhist strong point by King U Thong in the 14th century and displays breath-taking ancient Siamese culture. By the end of the century it had grown into one of the largest religious sites of the time and became the capital of the Kingdom and the main envy of the neighboring Burmese. As far as I know the fighting continued on and off until the Burmese finally conquered the river-island city in the 17th Century, the temples and palaces where ransacked and burnt leaving this a city of ruins where all the heads of the buddhas are no more, either buried in the ground and later found or sold around the area, many taken over the boarder. The history is interesting but it brings nothing to me compared to the general atmosphere of the city... they are beautiful temples, the burning of the city has definitely added something that the temples of south-east Asia don't share: desertion, loss of faith in both a kingdom and the sector of Buddhism still very much alive today here in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia: Theravada, the teaching of the Elders. Theraveda Buddhism is an older vehicle of the religion, it is now dwarfed by the more popular Mahayana vehicle, this is the sect that was established in India and now is practiced widely in Nepal, Tibet (although Tibetan Buddhist is almost entirely dominant and distinct now, or was :( ), China, Mongolia, parts of Japan and Korea and The West. The differences between the two, other than the obvious designs of temples and statues, I'm not so sure about. But what I do know is that Mahayana has a lot of focus on the Bodhisattvayana tradition, that a man can give up the goal of attaining enlightenment to forever aid the development of man-kind in endless life cycles of teachings and selflessness. The Dalai Lama is of course the most well now Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokitesvara. Thus an idea is born very much akin to Western spiritual traditions, someone else is there to help you achieve spiritual peace whereas, as far as I understand, with Theraveda you're own your own buddy!

It's interesting I think, and theologically you can see the logic in why Mahayana is more popular than its stricter older brother. Buddhists are essentially athiests, not in the antithiest Richard 'I'm a prick' Dawkins way, but there is no deity as they're deity is in Nivarna, blissfully unaware of and unattached to the world of suffering below him. No one to hear their prayers, no one to give guidance outside the writings left behind. With the monks in this part of the world in sometimes either strict reclusion or silence it's easy to imagine how someone not as spiritually evolved as the men in saffron or mustard robes could feel lost, with no direction. As far as I see it the Mahayana vehicle offers more than this, not a world full of suffering which you are to deal with and overcome alone, but a perfect-one, a saint sent back though the cycles of life to give those who listen a nudge in the right direction, a little hope maybe and I like that but still the reclusive seem to build more spectacular pagodas, I guess they had more time on their hands.

So one day is over, and a wonderful day at that. I took a bicycle and with two new friends explored the mystic old city for the second time before stopping for some chow and swapping Thai stories, there are always plenty of them. And now I am chilling, I love the dogs here so much one is called Scooby and he is definitely taller and heavier than me and has the droopiest skin in the world so i just sit and play with that flipflopping it from side to side much to his comfort and I am picking bananas off the tree for an afternoon snack. The rooms are a little pricier, I'm paying 300bht a night which is about £6 but i have a double bed with a bathroom and the rooms are beautifully decorated with myrials, elephant pillow cases and silk blankets. I slept like a baby last night, which probably had something to do with the dinner of soy-fried rice noodles and prawns washed down with a LARGE chang! It's actually wonderful and I am very happy, the weather is no way near as hot as it was in Bangkok and it's a different May from the one we experienced last time. The rain season as I said before has definitely come early and to be honest I'm glad, I like the monsoon provided there is proper sewage systems. The hour-long evening rain cools everything down for the night which is a blessing where you're a cheap bastard and opt for a fan rather than AC! BUT THEN THE MORNINGS! Aw, they're fantastic, a low layer of mist dominates the tropical topography in such a way that the river feels as though its making a break for it, escaping for an hour before melting back into the sodden grass. Rain brings life, and the lake in the centre of the island is wholly different that it was when I knew it last, with water lotuses pushing up and growing out and cranes balancing precariously on the flimsy botanic surface. You want them to fall in, and I'm sure if one waits long enough it would happen... I have many days to spend here before heading down south to start work and I have actually become a closet bird watcher since Nepal, there are no eagles here but my binoculars still can have a field day even though I hope that no pretty ladies walk by, bird watching I think isn't a desirable hobby in young guys but if it came up I'd tell them that at least it's better than a taste for German pornography.

The dog's just ran past a full pelt and the chickens erupted, I wonder how many of them Scooby eats a day, by the look of him I'd say he could put away 5 or so. Yes I'm very glad that my next 3 or 4 nights will be spent here, lazing back with déjà vu of old days past, when I was just a young traveller with no idea of the world, meeting pretty girls and having my breath taken away by glorious homages to the faith so closet in our society. Come to think of it, not much has changed, I can grow facial hair pretty good now though.