River tours of outlying wats

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River tours of outlying wats

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The extensive waterways of Ayutthaya (more than 50km of them) are a pleasant way to see some of the less accessible sights. Long-tailed boats can be taken from the landing pier opposite Chandra Kasem Palace, in the northeast corner of the town. During the dry season, it is not possible to circle the down the Pasak River and round as far as Wat Chai Wattanaram on the Chao Phraya River. The following wats can also be visited by road.

Situated close to the junction of the Pasak and Chao Phraya rivers, Wat Phanan Choeng is the first wat to be reached by boat, travelling clockwise from the Chandra Kasemir pier. The 19-m-high seated Buddha image in the viharn (immediately behind the bot) is mentioned in a chronicles as having been made in 1324, some 26 years before Ayutthaya become the capital. It is likely that the wat was founded at the same time, making it the oldest in Ayutthaya. The Buddha is made of brick , plaster and is gilded. This image is said to have wept tears when Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767.

Wat Chai Wattanaram sits on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, to the west of the city. A decapitated Buddha sits overlooking the river in front of the ruins while the large central prang is surrounded by two rows f smaller chedis and prang-like chedis, arranged on the cardinal and sub-cardinal points of the cloister that surrounds the central structure. The wat was built by King Prasat Thong (1639-1656) in honor of his mother and the complex has a Khmer quality about it. Relatively few tours of Ayutthaya include Wat Chai Wattanaram on their itineraries, which is a great shame as this is a marvelous site. It is also possibly the best restored of all the monasteries, avoiding the rather cack-handed over-restoration that mars some of the other sites.

North of here is Wat Kasatthirat. This wat represents the end of a river tour unless the Old Lopburi River is navigable in which case Wat Na Phramane can also be reached, returning, full circle, to the Chandra Kasem pier.

Most of the guesthouse will run river tours on long-tailed boats. You can expect to pay somewhere between B200-B300 per person for a two-hour tour.

San Pedro Cathedral

Lying 11km south outside the city, this was the site of the original Portuguese settlement in Ayutthaya, dating from 1511. At one point as many as 3000 Portuguese and their mixed-blood offspring were living here, although with the sacking of Ayutthaya by the Burmese in 1764 the community was abandoned. Since the mid-1980s the Fine Art Department, which financial support form Portugal, has been excavating the site and the cathedral itself is now fully restored. It was opened to the public in 1955.