Sam Phraya beach on the east coast of Thailand gets its name from 3 of the Thai kings from the Ayutthaya area that visitors the beach, the most famous was king Naresuan. It’s part of the Sam Roi Yot National Park.
While the highlights of Sam Roi Yot are all found at least a few hundred metres inland, the area also has a handful of low-key beaches that are fine for an hour or two of lounging. At all of them, the water is not particularly clear and a very shallow approach means you'll need to wade for a while before swimming becomes possible.
Sam Phraya beach is a small and secluded stretch of sand with a small restaurant, coffeeshop and campground. Owing to a lack of outcrops, it tends to be windier, with slightly heavier surf than Phraya Nakhon and Laem Sala (though nothing that could be surfed). Sam Phraya is a fine spot for a picnic on the way down to Khao Daeng viewpoint, but otherwise not worth going out of the way for but worth a stop if you are exploring the area and are ...
Wat Na Phra Men stands on the northern bank opposite the old royal palace and is the only major temple in Ayutthaya that largely escaped destruction in 1767. Its principal image, Phra Phuttha Nimit Wichit Maramoli Sri Sanphet Borom Trilokkanat, is a large gilded bronze Buddha in royal attire seated in the subduing Mara posture, measuring about six meters high. The image is regarded as one of the finest surviving crowned Buddhas from the late Ayutthaya period.
Wat Nang Kui is a quiet riverside temple south of the main island, founded in 1587 by a wealthy woman named Nang Kui. Its best-known image is Luang Pho Yim, a gilded teak Buddha in the subduing Mara posture whose gentle smiling face gives it its name. Local legend says the statue floated down the Chao Phraya River and came to rest near the temple, where it has been venerated for roughly four centuries.
Wat Sala Poon Worawihan, a second-class royal temple on the northern bank of the old Lopburi River, houses the distinctive Luang Pho Khan Lai....
Wat Pa Klang Thung, whose name translates as Forest Monastery in the Middle of the Field, stands as a quiet Theravada Buddhist temple on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River in Pathum Thani Province.
Roughly fifty kilometers north of Bangkok, the temple occupies about thirteen acres of land and reflects the layered cultural history of riverside communities that once included Mon refugees from lower Burma.
Situated between the former capital of Ayutthaya and the modern capital of Bangkok, it remains a modest yet historically rich place of worship under the Maha Nikaya order.
The temple is believed to have taken shape around 1842 during the reign of King Rama III. It began as Wat Pa Tai. Later a neighboring monastery called Wat Klang Thung rose along a nearby canal, and over time the two were joined under the single name that endures today.
The older ordination hall, a masonry building of simple open plan with a tiled roof free of the usual decorative finials, still carries the architectural spirit of ...
Khlong Rahaeng Old Market, also known as the 100-Year Rahaeng Market, lies quietly along both banks of the Rahaeng Canal where it meets Khlong Phra Udom in Pathum Thani.
Long rows of wooden shophouses stretch parallel to the water, their weathered fronts and simple two-story forms still recalling the time when boats and a local railway made this stretch of canal a busy trading post.
The settlement began in the early twentieth century when Teochew Chinese merchants arrived and built modest single-story wooden shops that also served as homes. By 1917 the market already appeared on maps amid surrounding rice fields. The canal itself gave the place its name: in the dry season the waterway cracked and fissured, so locals called it Khlong Rahaeng.
Goods moved by boat taxi between Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and Pathum Thani, while rice, fruit, and other farm produce changed hands at the water’s edge. A rice mill once stood at the rear of the market. The private Bang Bua Thong railway, which terminated near ...
