Wat Ko Kaew Ketsadaram (วัดเกาะแก้วเกษฎาราม), located north of Ayutthaya’s historic city island in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, is an active Buddhist temple with roots in the late Ayutthaya Kingdom and significant developments during the Ratanakosin period.
Known as the “Monastery of the Crystal Island,” it reflects the region’s spiritual and cultural heritage, enhanced by its serene setting near the Pa Sak River. The temple’s history intertwines with military campaigns, royal patronage, and early 20th-century conservation efforts, with its mural paintings serving as a key artistic feature preserved under King Rama V’s initiatives.
Wat Ko Kaew Ketsadaram was formally established in 1868 (BE 2411) by Phraya Yamarat, the governor of Korat (modern Nakhon Ratchasima), following his victorious military campaign in Luang Prabang, Laos. Historical accounts suggest Phraya Yamarat rested in the area at Ban Chang Saeng and founded the temple to ...
Port FC vs Rayong FC
Thai League 1 - Matchday 6 - 24 October 2026
PAT Stadium
The Thai League stands as Thailand’s top professional football competition, born in 1996 when the Football Association of Thailand converted the traditional Kor Royal Cup into a proper league format. What began as a modest collection of mostly Bangkok-based and institutional sides gradually expanded through mergers with provincial competitions, adopted full professional licensing standards, and settled into its current sixteen-team structure.
Today the league operates as a double round-robin season that determines the national champion, awards Asian qualification places, and sends the bottom three clubs down to the second division, with Buriram United having claimed the majority of recent titles while provincial teams continue to rise and challenge the established order.
Port FC were established in 1967 under the Port Authority of Thailand. The club enjoyed early success by collecting multiple Kor Royal Cup and Queen’s...
October 23 2026, the State Railway of Thailand operated one of its special steam locomotive services from Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong station to Ayutthaya and back. The trip marks Chulalongkorn Day in honor of King Rama V. Two restored Pacific-class steam locomotives, numbers 824 and 850, pull the train.
They left the Thonburi depot early this morning and reached Hua Lamphong around 6:05 a.m. for an approximate 8:05 a.m. departure. The outbound run arrives in Ayutthaya near 10:20 a.m., giving passengers about six hours to visit the ancient capital’s temples, historical parks, markets, and riverside spots.
Round-trip fares are 350 baht in ordinary third-class fan carriages and 799 baht in air-conditioned OTOP or JR-West coaches, with the higher price including snacks and drinks.
Tickets are available through the SRT D-Ticket system and at stations across the country, though the Ayutthaya steam trips tend to sell out fast.
These steam excursions run six times a year on selected national and royal ...
The Ark Fortress rises as a monumental earthen citadel in the northwestern quarter of Bukhara’s historic center in Uzbekistan, its massive sloping walls of packed clay and brick climbing 16 to 20 meters above the surrounding streets and enclosing nearly 4 hectares of ground. In plan the structure forms an irregular rectangle elongated from west to east, with an outer wall circuit measuring roughly 790 meters.
A ceremonial western gateway framed by twin 18th-century towers and linked by an upper gallery opens onto a long rising ramp that once led visitors through a covered corridor past storerooms and prison cells into the heart of the royal complex.
Inside, the surviving western quarter preserves the 17th-century Juma Mosque with its carved wooden columns, the open Reception and Coronation Court where the last emir was crowned in 1910, administrative chambers once occupied by the kushbegi or prime minister, and several museum galleries that display archaeological finds, coins, weapons, textiles, and ...
