Second stop: Wat Yai Chaimongkhon
Now we were in the second part of our historical tour – the ruins of an ancient temple. It’s called Wat Yai Chaimongkhon.
It’s a number of close ruins with a reclining Buddha and a big chedi (pagoda). From the car park, the main pagoda stick out of the background. A big structure indeed. The trees and the greenery helps with cooling down the place.
Our guide Visan detailed a lot of the complex’s history. It had many names before, and at a certain history point a king had it renamed to its final name – “The Great Temple of Auspicious Victory”. But much later on, the temple was sacked by Burmese armies in 1700’s and left deserted. The restoration only started in the 1950’s, and was reestablished as a monastery at maybe around the same time.
Its main chedi is very big and visible from a long distance. It was the one I saw first from the car window when we were near the place.
Visan then guided us towards the main pagoda, and allotted us the remainder of the hour – around 45 minutes until 2PM or so – to ourselves. We were to meet up at the carpark where our vehicle was waiting. So off we went.
Walking around the complex, you can feel in the presence that this ancient place used to be a reverential worshipping place, a real monastery. Fortunately, even with the passage of time, the structures needed for the restoration survived for the most part. That big chedi looks impressive from the base of the stairs.
Climbing the chairs up the main pagoda was a great experience in itself. Walking up the stairs and seeing a building that dates back many centuries, touching the old walls, seeing the inside of the pagoda as well… wait, scratch that last one.
The inside of the pagoda had a large hole. So naturally, it became a coin tossing pit. Just to let a peso travel far, I dropped the only Philippine coin I brought with me on the trip – a 2015 1-peso coin. I found while I was prepping the bag the day before that it still had a peso coin inside it the whole time. I did use the bag last December as my bag when I went to SM Fairview, so some coins might’ve clung on when I emptied the bag. So I kept it with me on the trip. Felt that this time, it’s leaving the bag. So down it went.
The stairs and the floor of the main chamber had these red tiles, likely put in during the restoration for tourism purposes. I do have some opinions on it, but in the end, I fully understand why. The original untouched stairs and flooring might’ve been not conducive for walking. Accidents might have happened in the name of authenticity, and not a sticking point a tourism-dependent place might want to have. So proper usable stairs are welcome.
I walked around some more, snapping up a lot more pictures, until I looked at my timer and it said I had 15 minutes to go. So I did two things I wanted to do there. One, look for exclusive stuff to buy that’s sold there. I bought two small figurines in the temple’s gift shop. And then outside near the carpark, another ice cold bottle of water and two fridge magnets, one of which had Ayutthaya on it. Then with 5 minutes to go, I went to the vehicle.
I was the first one back. So I chilled out for a bit until Visan came. After a couple of other tour mates came in, he handed out a local snack of a rolled pancake stuffed with fried coconut shavings that he bought from a vendor just outside the complex, and opened an icebox and doled out an icy-cold towelette pack. Man, those towelettes were godsends in those sweltering afternoons. I tore open the pack right away and put the towelette on my forehead. Refreshing. Used it soon after to wipe off some of the dust and sweat off my face and neck.
After everyone made it back in the vehicle maybe 5 minutes before the assumed target of 2.30PM, we soon went to the next stop a short drive away.
Water bottle count: 4
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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