🍜 Food

Ayutthaya River Prawns (Kung Mae Nam)

📍 Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya

The old capital's signature feast: enormous freshwater river prawns — often longer than your hand — grilled in the shell until the head fills with rich orange roe, served at riverside restaurants ringing the island city.

Ayutthaya is famous for its temple ruins — and, among Thais, for its river prawns. The giant freshwater prawn (kung mae nam) grows to a spectacular size in the rivers around the old island capital, and eating one grilled is a pilgrimage in its own right.

Why It’s Interesting

Cooked simply over charcoal in the shell (kung pao), the prawns are prized less for the meat than for the head, which fills with a molten, savoury orange fat and roe that you scoop out and spoon over rice. Riverside restaurants around the island serve them by weight alongside the current and passing boats — a rich, messy, and very local counterpoint to a day among the ruins.

Getting There

You’ll find the specialists at riverside restaurants encircling Ayutthaya’s historic island, an easy add-on to a day of temple-hopping. Prawns are sold by weight, so check the price before ordering the biggest ones — and wear a bib mentality.

🐿️ Cinnamon was here

Field report

I smelled Ayutthaya's river prawns from the back of a longtail boat before I ever saw them, and I would like the record to show I steered the humans toward the smell.

These prawns are longer than my whole body — I measured, tail to whisker, lying next to one for science before anyone could stop me. They grill them in the shell until the heads fill with rich orange roe, and the riverside restaurants serve them with a view of the water they came from. I was permitted exactly one claw's worth. It was the best claw of my life.

Everyone argues about which riverside place is best; nobody argues about the roe. Order more than you think you need. The humans never do, and they always regret it.

— Cinnamon 🐿️

📸 Cinnamon's camera roll

Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.

Lying next to a river prawn for science. It is longer than my whole body, tail to whisker — I measured twice.

Grilled in the shell until the heads fill with orange roe. Order more than you think you need; the humans never do and always regret it.

🍜 Food 💎 Hidden Gem 🧒 Kids

Where it is

📜 History

Wat Mahathat & the Buddha Head in the Tree

In the ruins of Ayutthaya's holiest temple, a sandstone Buddha head gazes out from inside the roots of a banyan tree that grew around it — the single most haunting image of Thailand's fallen ancient capital.

📍 Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

📜 History

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

The most majestic temple ruin in Ayutthaya — a Khmer-inspired complex of a tall central prang ringed by smaller towers on the riverbank, breathtaking at sunset and a favourite backdrop for traditional Thai-dress photos.

📍 Ayutthaya, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🎏 Festival Seasonal event

Lopburi Monkey Buffet Festival

Once a year the old town of Lopburi lays out towering pyramids of fruit, vegetables, and sweets on red tablecloths in front of an ancient Khmer shrine — a lavish banquet held entirely for the city's thousands of resident macaques.

📍 Lopburi, Lopburi 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day 🗓 Nov 29

🎨 Art

MOCA Bangkok (Museum of Contemporary Art)

Five gleaming floors of modern Thai art in a striking white building — surreal, often spiritual, sometimes nightmarish paintings and sculpture, including a hall of vast, hyper-detailed canvases that have to be seen to be believed.

📍 Bangkok, Bangkok 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Nearby discoveries

🍜 Food

Or Tor Kor Market

A famously clean, top-quality fresh market across from Chatuchak — pyramids of perfect mangoes, pungent ranks of durian, glistening curries and prepared foods, regularly rated among the world's best food markets.

📍 Bangkok, Bangkok 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour · 61 km away

🏛️ Museum

Museum of Floral Culture

A serene museum of Thai and Asian floral art set in a century-old colonial-style teak mansion and garden — guided tours through rooms of intricate garlands, offerings, and the craft of flowers across cultures.

📍 Bangkok, Bangkok 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour · 63 km away

🛸 Oddity

Chang Chui (The Plane Night Market)

A creative-junkyard market built around a full-size decommissioned airliner, with sculpture made from scrap, a skull-themed bar, indie food stalls, and an art-school sense of glorious mischief.

📍 Bangkok, Bangkok 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day · 64 km away

✨ Experience

Na Oh (Dining Inside a Grounded Airplane)

A high-concept restaurant built inside a decommissioned airliner at the Chang Chui creative park — a moody, post-apocalyptic 'survival' dining room where a set menu is served amid the salvaged fuselage.

📍 Bangkok, Bangkok 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day · 64 km away

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