What a great place! This temple fetishizes Siamese trade with China via junks - the merchant vessels before the advent of coal-burning steamships. Windows in the ordination hall which look like portholes. Boundary-marker stones housed in white cylinders that evoke lighthouses. A stone ship which doubles as a little cemetery. And murals in the main temple which feature some of the gayest scenes I've ever laid eyes on in a Buddhist house of worship. The white-painted walls of the buildings almost glow in the right kind of light. The angles and ovals and tiers, and the fact that this temple is dedicated not just to the creed but to navigation on the high seas and on the Chao Phraya two centuries and so ago -- lovely and fascinating.

Wat Thong Noppakhun has beautiful unique windows that look like portholes from a ship and sema stones that look like little lighthouses. Wonderful whispers to the history of the area when Thailand was a central trading hub between China and India with goods and traders moving to and fro.