Wat Pho Bang Khla

Wat Pho Bang Khla sits on the banks of the Bang Pakong River in Bang Khla district, Chachoengsao, and is known chiefly for the colony of Lyle’s flying foxes (Pteropus lylei) roosting in the riverside trees on its 31-rai grounds — a large fruit bat, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with a published study recording over 6,000 individuals at the site. Entry is free, daily 08:00-17:00.

The temple’s exact founding date isn’t firmly recorded, but local tradition places it in the late Ayutthaya to early Thonburi period, with some accounts holding that King Taksin’s forces used the site as an encampment while campaigning against Burmese forces near the Bang Pakong river mouth. The main hall is a late Ayutthaya-style cruciform building, re-roofed in 1942 and again in 1998 after the original coconut-leaf tiling gave way to more durable materials; eight lime-plaster Buddha images in the Māra-subduing pose stand around its exterior.

The bats themselves are the real draw. During the day they hang in dense clusters from the trees along the riverbank, dark shapes visible against the canopy without needing to search — a zoom lens helps for photos, since the roosts sit high overhead. As the temple is on the Bang Pakong’s tidal stretch rather than open coastline, the river breeze and passing longtail boats add to what’s otherwise a quiet, working village wat rather than a wildlife park built around the colony.

Insider Tip: Combine a visit with Bang Khla floating market a short distance away — both sit in the same small district and make an easy half-day pairing.

Watch out: This is a functioning temple and a wild, protected bat colony, not a managed attraction — there’s no dedicated visitor centre or bat-viewing platform. Keep noise down near the roosting trees; sudden loud sounds can spook thousands of bats into flight at once, which stresses the colony.

If you’ve already seen the flying foxes at Wat Chantaram in Ang Thong, note this is a separate colony at a different temple — Wat Pho Bang Khla is the larger, more established of Thailand’s two well-known Lyle’s flying fox temple roosts.