Ayutthaya was once the capital of the Kingdom of Siam. Established in the 1300’s, it was eventually sacked and burned by the Burmese in the 1700’s, after which time the kingdom moved the capital to Thonburi, which grew to become the Bangkok we know and love today.

Considering Ayutthaya is such a significant place, it remains a relatively small city consisting of many, many ruins. There are no large tower blocks or shopping malls and it really benefits from that. The city has a small town feel and the people are really friendly. Although it’s a major tourist destination, it didn’t feel crowded, maintaining that small city feel.

You’d be forgiven for thinking each temple site was the same as the next, but each one has a different character, so I’ll be covering each place in separate posts.

The first place we visited was Wat Phra Si Sanphet, and we found it by accident. We were actually looking for a market and were directed to Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit. There’s a good amount of free parking here, but the Viharn wasn’t up to much, and unless you wanted wooden souvenirs or elephant pants, neither was the market.

It’s a short walk from the Viharn to Si Sanphet, once you find the entrance. The entry price is 10 baht for Thai and 50 baht for farang. You can also get a multi-site ticket for 220 baht (farang price), which gives you access to all the sites, but they didn’t tell us about that until after we visited our fourth site!

Like all the sites, you’ll find tourists wearing traditional Thai costume and taking lots of photos. Not as well organised as Wat Arun, there were no photographers jostling for position here and people were taking their own photos. That said, not many people were ‘dressed up’ at Si Sanphet.

Si Sanphet’s main focus are the Stupas, which are really a small part of what was once a massive temple back in the day. My favourite part though was the broken buddha statue. Made up of thin bricks, it was amazing to see the many curves and shapes they were able to form. A real work of craftsmanship.

Although not as grand as some of the other ruins, Wat Phra Si Sanphet is probably the most significant of them since it was located in the Grand Palace and served as the royal chapel, the palace eventually becoming a monastery and the largest temple in the city. Now it gets overshadowed by the other, ‘more spectacular’ sites.

All in all, it was a nice, quiet – accidental – introduction to the many temples of Ayutthaya.