Down to the River

Upon arriving in Ayutthaya, I really only had the evening to look around, so I decided to take a boat ride to see some of the temples that were further out. Most of Ayutthaya is on an island formed by the confluence of three rivers, which is easily covered on bicycle, but reaching some of the sites off the island takes a little more time.

Below is a picture of our boat, which held approximately 15 people. We were cozy, but it was fun.

We first visited a few modern wats (temples), like the one below, which is Wat Phutthaisawan.

Even though it is a modern wat, the rear courtyard did have an older Khmer-style prang (the tall white tower in the middle.)

The prang was surrounded by dozens of identical Buddha statues in the Subduing Mara pose.

The last stop was what I really wanted to see, Wat Chai Wattanaram. This wat is one of the older, historical wats from the period when the Ayutthaya Kingdom served as the seat of power for the Thai people. This type of older ruin is the real draw for a visit to the area.

They let you climb the central prang, or at least don't yell at you when you do, so I climbed the tall, steep, and narrow steps to the top to get a view of the river. The picture below shows some of the detail of a nearby structure, which is brick covered with concrete decorations that have been almost entirely weathered away.

We arrived back at the market in time for sunset and a thunder storm, the latter disrupting my plans for some night photography. But I instead met a fun group of girls from Ireland and ended up having a relaxing, social evening.