Fourth stop: Wat Maha That Temple
We then arrived at the last “official” stop of our historical tour thru Ayutthaya – the Wat Maha That temple. Compared to the previous temple, Wat Chai Watthanaram, this place feels a LOT more subdued, serene and calm. Maybe it’s just the welcoming afternoon breeze that arrived. Maybe it’s the atmosphere or something. But I’d say I like it here a lot more. It’s conducive for a beautiful late afternoon walkabout.
It felt a lot more like a park. The previous one still felt like an in-progress restoration with a lack of greenery and trees. But I digress. Going inside, the usual helpful things for tourists greeted us. And we went for another helpful sheltered area while our tour guide bought tickets.
Our tour guide noted that the tickets seemed to be “not checked”, as if it was something that was expected but not really enforced. But we still paid it out of respect. Maintaining these places need funding, and skimping out on it as a tourist was shameful. I’d pay twice if I could.
The main attraction in this place by far is the iconic Buddha statue head that had a tree’s roots grow around it for maybe centuries. It’s definitely picturesque. So much so, that it’s the most pictured spot in maybe all of Ayutthaya.
The rest of the place itself was impressive too. From what our tour guide Visan told us, this place was a “royal temple” – one of the oldest and most historically significant temples in all of ancient Ayutthaya, as it housed a “holy relic” of the Buddha. It is literally the reason for its name – “The Monastery of the Great Relic”. The place became like the ancient Ayutthaya equivalent of the Vatican’s main basilica.
After a brief history explanation, our tour guide allotted us another 45 minutes or so to tour the area and take pictures. This time he stressed the time importance, which I’ll detail later. And as I did not see any gift shop of note earlier, I can just concentrate on photos. Place was selfie heaven too, so a lot of costumed people there as well.
After a good chunk of time snapping a lot of pictures to last me a while, I went back to the ticket area where our tour guide was waiting. I had to buy another water bottle as my throat was very parched.
The sun was nearly down and the afternoon breeze kept coming and it was cool and refreshing. So after accounting for everybody, our tour guide then said while we were done with temple-hopping, we have one more place to go to, one that we opted in on the Klook tour signup. And best of all, it’s just across the street. So we walked with gleeful anticipation. It’s also Asian road rules here – no stop light, cross when you safely can. Time for stuff, then. Chop chop.
Water bottle count: 6
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
Leave a comment