For Crystal’s summer holiday we planned an Isaan road trip, through Thailand’s northeast region.
We managed to get an early start, but our plan had been to leave in the late afternoon the day before. A vicious afternoon storm in our neighbourhood dumped a lot of rain and the wind snapped trees in the area around our condo. May as well relax, get a good sleep and go early.
As it ended up, this was a positive thing. We took a bit of a different route, and we spotted an interesting temple near Saraburi on our way to Buriram.
Wat Phra Phuttha Saeng Tham – Thammayut (วัดพระพุทธแสงธรรม-ธรรมยุต) is one that you can’t miss as you’re driving by. A large silver dome, somewhat reminiscent of a UFO is obvious as you drive by. We ended up having to turn around to get to it because we were on the main freeway.
The large silver dome was closed, but one of the nearby temple buildings was open. It was quite spectacular, and worth a visit in itself. The parking lot is huge, and it’s obvious this temple gets a very large number of visitors at times.
I took a few photos of the dome with my drone. I would have taken some video too, but I had an issue I need to sort out later. Note to self: make sure to do ALL updates before using drone.
Seeing this temple is one of the things I really enjoy about road trips in Thailand. You regularly run across spectacular places and objects you had no idea even existed. It’s one reason we are so glad to have a car here. If we stuck to public transport, we’d never know about these things otherwise!
Korat: Buddhist Stone Carvings
After this early stop, we continued on to see the Buddhist Stone Carvings in Nakhon Ratchasima, on the way to Buriram.
I had been here last year, but Crystal wasn’t on that trip. It was a lot rainier this year, and the bugs were worse. Crystal was feasted on by mosquitoes, but they didn’t bother me too much.
We made our way up to the carvings, and it was a humid day, making the hike up a bit more difficult than it would otherwise have been.
I didn’t bring my camera and long lens up there, thinking “I was here last year, so no big deal.” Well, wouldn’t you know it and there were hundreds of butterflies around us up at the carvings. Too late to go back to the car! I did manage some decent photos of a spectacular species of butterfly I’d never seen before.
We made our way back down. It was late afternoon, and we managed to make it to Buriram before 6 pm. It was nice not to have to travel in the dark here.
On to Buriram!
We found London Steak for supper. The food was okay. I had only been here for breakfast before. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Mixue for some ice cream, and met a couple of Filipino English teachers while we were there.
Overall, a pretty good day, with some pleasant surprises, and a pretty good start for the Isaan road trip.
