Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom

We had planned on going to Vietnam and Cambodia. Jamlong’s passport expired in 5 months two weeks. However Thai people don’t need a visa to go Vietnam, the travel agent assured us, so we bought the tickets.

The ticket agent at the airport thought differently. She said its true that Thai people don’t need a visa to go to Vietnam but they do need their passport to be good up to 6 months.

We could have gotten the passport fixed but there was a hurricane heading to Vietnam. We took this as a sign and went to Ayutthaya in stead.

Originally founded by King U-Thong in 1350 within a bend of the Chao Phraya river, Ayutthaya was the capital of the Thai kingdom at its mightiest. Conquered and sacked by the Burmese in 1767, today only the ruins of its splendor remain. The modern city was founded a few kilometers further east.
Ayutthaya was originally known as "Ayothaya" which refers to the capital of King Rama (see Ramayana). When King Naresuan the Great defeated the Burmese, he changed the name of the city to "Aytthaya" meaning "the undefeatable city". During the period of Ayutthaya being the Siamese capital for 417 years, 33 kings of different dynasties ruled the kingdom.
The Bowring Treaty (1855), signed by King Mogkhut between Siam and Britain, was the first of its kind and successfully opened up Siam to Western influence and trade.
The ruins of the old capital in the Ayutthaya historical park are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. and have been so since December 1991.