Bang Pa-In Palace

There's nothing left of the Japanese Settlement, so instead, the Japanese government decided to create a Japanese-style park at the location where the Japanese Settlement have been according to the documents of Dutch East India Company. The Ayutthaya Historical Study Centre started a branch here, a museum about Ayutthaya's foreign relations with Japan and other countries. It starts with an interesting film lasting about 15 minutes and then you can explore the museum on your own. Very interesting and gives a good background of the city's history.

A scattering of ruins, highlighted by the Dominican church (วัดโปรตุเกสโดมินิกัน). Inside the church are the excavated remains of members of the settlement. It is kind of an eerie sight, but interesting. The skeletons of those inside the church apparently belong to those who were of higher status within the settlement, like priests. It was said to be the largest community of Westerners after it was settled in the early 1500s. The settlement was destroyed in 1767 after the fall of Ayutthaya.

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) founded in 1602 was the largest and most impressive of the early modern trading companies operating in Asia. The Dutch established their first trading post in Ayutthaya in 1608. By the 1630s the Dutch received land and permission to build a lodge on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. The two-storey brick building was known to the Dutch as de logie and the settlement developed into a separate village. This building was destroyed by the invading Burmese armies in 1767. After being archaeologically excavated, the brick foundation of the building was found and during the celebrations of 400 years of Thai-Dutch relations, Queen Beatrix donated a royal gift to establish an information centre near the site of the Dutch lodge. The Thai Fine Arts Department excavated the site and found many artifacts, such as Chinese porcelain, Dutch pipes, and a coin.

A working monastery south of Ayutthaya. No one knows how old it is, but it existed before Ayutthaya was founded as the capital. It contains a gilded 19 meter high seated Buddha from 1334 CE, called Luang Pho Tho (หลวงพ่อโต) by Thais and Sam Pao Kong (ซำเปากง) by Thai-Chinese, restored several times in history. A small room to the right of the main hall contains a nice collection of Buddha images and the room is painted with many individual unique pictures, in bright colours offset with gold. At the end of the temple, there is a shrine dedicated to Chao Mae Soi Dok Mak (เจ้าหญิงสร้อยดอกหมาก). The temple was visited in 1407 CE by Zheng He.