Keith's Blog: Checking off Nong Bua Lam Phu

I have decided that I want to visit all 77 province that make up Thailand. I don't count just passing through the province as enough, I need to at least stop and visit one place to count it as being visited. This day's mission was to visit the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu.

I first decided to remove a pin on my map that was in Udon Thani on my way to Nong Bua Lam Phu. I made my way from Nong Khai to Wat Pa Ban Tat (วัดป่าบ้านตาด) in Udon Thani and it is a bit south of the city.

Nong Bua Lam Phu split off from Udon Thai in 1993 and became one of Thailand's newest provinces. Sometimes I don't find a lot in a province that intrest me but there is always at least one temple that is worth seeing in every province.

I had Wat Tham Klong Phen (วัดถ้ำกลองเพล) pinned on google maps and was my first stop in Nong Bua Lam Phu. The only problem was when I showed up at the location on the map there did not appear to be a temple there and only the statue of a monk.

I stood in front of the monk under the rock for a while staring at google maps. Google maps had a picture of a building that I assumed was a temple but it was no where in site. I saw on google maps that there appeared to be a temple on the other side of the village and it seemed to have the same picture of the building so headed in that direction.

I arrived at what I assumed was the temple grounds and there was some type of festival going on. I walked around a bit and even though they had posters of the building that I saw on google maps I could never find it. They had a big cave type of place where people were praying and I found the following building behind the cave but it was still not the building I was expecting.

The following day was a Buddhist holiday in Thailand called Visakha Bucha and I sort of assumed this is why the festival was going on. There were all these stalls with different food and drinks. I had not eating so decide I would get something here. I did not see any prices listed so ask how much for a bowl of noodle soup and was told it was free and all the stalls were free. I enjoyed my free soup and a glass of fruit punch.

I had really given up on finding the building in the pictures but saw a sign for a museum 1.5 kilometers away so drove over there and the museum was the building that I thought was the temple and what I had been looking for.

While driving into the city of Nong Bua Lam Phu I could see a large standing Buddha up on a hill. I came to a road with a Naga body or snake looking thing running the length of the road on each side and I went up. I did not take any pictures from the top but attempted to take a video when riding down. I got a good video of my finger with a little bit of the road so will not be sharing that video.

I made it into the city and found the Somdej Phra Naresuan Maharat Shrine. This shrine sets on the lake and the thing that really stood out is all the rooster statues. It seems to be something to do with getting a wish granted by leaving a rooster statue here. All of my pictues are of all the groups of rooster statues.