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Around Ayutthaya

June 2016

Ayutthaya occupies a strategic position surrounded on all sides by rivers. A boat ride around the island reveals the former capital city the way it was meant to be seen. Our ride stopped at several ruined or modern temples across the water from Ayutthaya; it also offered a glimpse of the hustle and bustle of everyday life on the river.

Thailand's old royal capital, Ayutthaya, is on an island surrounded by rivers, so one of the best ways to see it is by boat tour

Multicolored roof tiles, which look from a distance like Legos, are installed on a temple building

A rowing team practices on the river

An unusual (to us) multiheaded Buddha statue

Part of Wat Phanan Choeng, a temple complex originally built in the 1300s by Chinese refugees in Ayutthaya

A 60-foot-high seated Buddha from 1334 in Wat Phanan Choeng

A dog napping on a pile of roofing tiles

A tugboat pulling a row of barges. From the mid-1300s to the mid-1700s, Ayutthaya was a center of commerce and the most important city in Thailand.

People on motorbikes crossing the river on a ferry boat

Rooster statues at Wat Phutthaisawan, a temple originally built in the 1350s

The top of the central tower at Wat Phutthaisawan

View from the river of the ruins of Wat Chaiwatthanaram, built by the Thai king in 1630 to honor his mother

Wat Chaiwatthanaram was modeled on Angkor Wat in Cambodia