At the end of the little street stands the temple King Taksin the great spent much time meditating and conducting spiritual ceremony prior going into wars, Wat Hong Ratanaram or Wat Hong as the local refers to.
Before the invention of cars, people of Siam travelled by boats through canals and rivers throughout the country. In long distance travelling, we Siamese even had a culture of singing songs (Pleng rue) เพลงเรือ composing only the lyrics fresh out of the head to go with the standard rhythm by men and women to pass the time with fun.
At that time all the front of houses, temples, markets were by the river or canal side, until there were cars and roads. So in many old places you can still see the front of the temples are at the canal or river side as oppose to the car entrance on the road side.
Wat Hong is one of the old temples that the front of the temple is at the canal side, we can see the little pier by the canal. Walking towards the back side of the temple, is where the holy water pond is.
At the back of the temple where the sanctuary (Vihara) houses the golden buddha statue from the late Sukhothai period originally encased in cement and accidently cracked open to find the golden buddha statue underneath. One of our grandmothers from our father’s side, Khun Nueng Xuto, and her family, who at the time were supporting the temple for their Buddhist activities, then helped supporting the building of the Vihara to house the accidently found Golden buddha. The family members of our Khun Ya (grandmother) Nueng, then have had their bones after the cremation in the wall of this Vihara as remembrance of their good deeds.
From Wat Hong, a very short walk to the left is to Wat Arun, the most well known landmark of Thonburi.
