Ayutthaya

Yesterday I took an amazing trip with Bim and Nun to Ayutthaya, which served as the Thai capital from the 14th to the 18th century. Almost all of the temples and palaces were burned and destroyed by several Burmese invasions, but the ruins remain incredibly impressive, and definitely give that suggestion of "I am Ozymandias, king of kings ... look on my works, ye mighty, and despair..."
We were especially lucky to be there on the day of the Candle Festival. Hundreds of people had come to these incredible temples to celebrate the holiday, and candles (though not as elaborate as those in Udon) were lit in the doorways and inside all of the temples.
Here are some of the many moments of our day, which was punctuated by heat and a torrential rainstorm (you can see some of the clouds gathering overhead). The golden Buddha you see is the only one that survived the Burmese attacks, as they used this temple as their army base. It's an extremely rare sample of an intact Buddha from the Ayutthaya period (most Buddha images were decapitated, as you can see in some of the pictures, because the heads contained gold).