Off The Beaten Path - Phatthalung : Temple Hopping in Town

Thailand - Phatthalung Saturday, March 03, 2018

Day 2 (Part 3) : Sight Seeing Day

... Continued from [Day 2 – Thale Noi]

As we finished our breakfast, the songthaew driver arrived to pick us up for our temple tour. The usual pick up rate to town costs 450 Baht, so we negotiated with the driver to take us to 4 different temples for a total of 740 Baht (82 Baht per person / SGD3.38 / RM10.69) which he agreed. We visited the following temples in order: Wat Wang > Khao Ok Thalu > Wat Khuha Sawan > Tham Malai.

Our songthaew ride for these few days (photo credit: CK)

Wat Wang

Located in Lam Pam Sub-District, Wat Wang is an important historical site of Phatthalung. The temple was built in the reign of King Rama III by Phraya Phatthalung (Thongkhao). It was once Phattalung’s most important temple, where local rulers pledge allegiances to the kings up in Bangkok, but it fell into disrepair when Phattalung’s capital was moved further west in the early 20th century. Restored in 1969, Wat Wang still has an abandoned feel which adds to the experience.

Glittering chofa finials of Wat Wang's ordination hall

Beautiful Thai architecture

Side view of the ordination hall

Wat means temple while Wang means palace. The temple is named as such since it is only a stone’s throw away from the palace.

Entrance to the ordination hall

The major highlight of Wat Wang is the 108 Buddha statues which lines the balcony around the temple. These buddha statues encircle a striking ordination hall, with glittering chofa finials and a golden image of Erawan, the three-headed elephant of Hindu mythology. Inside the hall, are series of Central Thai-style murals said to have been painted by the same artist who decorated Bangkok’s Wat Phra Kaew.

Buddha statues

There 108 of them

The murals depict important scenes from the Buddha’s enlightenment, when a twisted army of Mara’s demons unsuccessfully tried to disturb his meditation.

Mural in the ordination hall

Wat Wang

Address: Highway 4047 Rd., Khuha Sawan, Muang Phatthalung, Phatthalung 93000 Thailand (on the same route as Khao Ok Thalu)

Opening Hours: Everyday, 8am to 5pm

Admission: Free

A stone’s throw away from Wat Wang are two palaces – Old Palace or Wang Gao and New Palace or Wang Mai. We did not visit the two palaces, but in case you are interested, they are opened every Wednesday to Sunday from 9am to 12pm and 13pm to 4.30pm. The admission is 50 baht per foreigners.

Khao Ok Thalu

At approximately 250-metre, Khao Ok Thalu is the symbol of Phatthalung. It’s so important that it appears on the seal of Phatthalung and is also the town’s major landmark. Not to be missed, this limestone massifs looks like a giant shark’s fin of rock protruding from a jungle-clad body.

Khao Ok Thalu

A statue at the foot of Khao Ok Thalu

Under renovation

We read online that there are two sets of cement stairs, one older which brings us straight to the top, while the other newer stairs meander through a forest monastery before ending at a meditation hermitage for Buddhist nuns. We tried to follow both trails but the newer one was however under renovation during our visit.

Stairs...

...stairs...

...and more stairs

Marked steps at the side of the staircase

The platform

The climb via the older staircase is one that is long and steep climb, and therefore probably not for the faint-hearted. Draped in vines and palms, the steps seem to keep going and going, taunting you with intermittent platforms that look like they might be the end, but are only turning points to more stairs. Having tasked myself to count the total steps of the stairs, I lost count mid-way, but later discovered that the staircase was marked. However, I still managed to forget to look at the final count. (But we did took photo while we were approaching the top and it was then marked 1,059 steps).

View from the platform

The city of Phatthalung

Buddha statue at the top

Our tired face

Before the final flight of stairs, there’s a viewing platform which reveals the view of Phatthalung town surrounded by greeneries. Be sure to make a stop, either on your way up or down to appreciate this beautiful scenery. Right on top, is a wide brick platform perched beside the “crown” of Khao Ok Thalu, a massive hole in the rock that allows you to gaze back down to the distant ground on the south side of the mountain. There is also a Buddha statue on the side of the platform.

The hole of Khao Ok Thalu

Fenced up for security reason

Selfie is a must

Khao Ok Thalu

Address: Highway 4047 Rd., Khuha Sawan, Muang Phatthalung, Phatthalung 93000 Thailand (on the same route as Wat Wang)

Operating hours: Everyday, time unknown

Admission: Free

Wat Khuhasawan

Yet another important temple in Phatthalung, Wat Khuha Sawan occupies quite a large compound, with many interesting things to look at. Lies in the center of the compound is an ordination hall, decorated with glittering chofa finial (like that of Wat Wang).

Wat Khuha Sawan

Ordination hall

Typical Thai roof

Monk statue in a hall

Another hall

Wat Khuha Sawan was built in the Ayutthaya period and was later upgraded to be the first royal temple in the province. Buddha statues are enshrined along the wall, and there’s a large reclining Buddha statue and another in a sitting posture. The cave walls and entrance are full of initials of many kings and royal family members, Kings Rama V and Rama VII both visited the cave. Unfortunately, it was raining during the time of our visit, and we left in a hurry, not having enough time to look for the cave entrance.

Cave and chedi

Instead, all we did was merely looking around the place, where we saw the ordination hall and a bell-shaped chedi with a huge monk statue within. On the right-hand side of the compound, lies a stairway which led us further into the woods, but after following the path for some time, it seemed to bring us to nowhere and hence, we turned back to look around the other side of the compound.

Banyan tree with roots draping down

Chedi underneath a limestone outcrop

We were looking for a buddha statue underneath a bodhi tree, but to no avail. Instead, we stumbled across a small chedi beneath a limestone outcrop, where outside are the roots of banyan trees draping down from the wall of the limestone and a big head statue lies on the ground. We noticed some food offering on the ground, which we think could be from the monks.

Big head statue

Close up

Thanks CK for this photo

Wat Khuha Sawan

Address: 248 Thanon Ramade, Tambon Khuha Sawan, Amphoe Muang Phatthalung, Chang Wat Phatthalung 93000, Thailand

Operating hours: Everyday, 8am to 4pm

Admission: Free

Tham Malai

Further away from town, Tham Malai is a temple-cave. To get into Tham Malai, one has to descend by stairs which takes you deep into a very dark, dimly lit cave. Home to bats, the cave is kinda creepy and stinky. In fact, we made it only halfway down the cave and turned back.

Tham Malai cave

Walk out from the cave and follow the asphalt road to the chedi uphill

A pagoda-like large Chedi

Good weather after the rain

Climbed up to the Chedi to get a good view

Apart from the cave, there is also a large chedi on the hill. Compared to Khao Ok Thalu, it was a leisure walk up to the chedi, where you can get a magnificent view of Phatthalung on its viewing platform.

Looking out from the Chedi

Paddyfield

The colour of nature

Khao Ok Thalu?

Another view

Statue carving on the Chedi

A photo in front of the Chedi (credit: CK)

Tham Malai

Address: Phaya Khan, Muang Phatthalung District, Phatthalung , Thailand., Phatthalung, Phatthalung

Opening hours: Unknown

Admission: Free

Day 2 (Part 4) : Late Lunch at Khao Mae (again)

We finished Tham Malai at around 4pm and we decided to end our temple tour for the day. We therefore made an arrangement with the songthaew driver to drop us in town for lunch, and to pick us up at 7pm.

We paid him the agreed 740 Baht for the day trip from our resort to all the temples which ended at our lunch place. And we will further pay him the standard fare of 360 Baht for our later ride home from Phatthalung town. Besides that, we discussed among ourselves and decided to treat him for lunch that day as well.

We asked to be dropped at a good restaurant in town, and not surprisingly, he brought us back to Khao Mae where we had our lunch the day before. Although we would love to try some other places, we caved in since it wasn’t easy to communicate with him due to language barrier. After all, the food was tasty and priced reasonably and we were all starving by the time.

Rice with fried pork

Pad thai

Tomyum seafood soup

The lunch costs us only 770 Baht, including the driver’s meal. And that’s about only 86 Baht per person (SGD 3.52 / RM 11.12).

Day 2 (Part 5) : The Hunt for Thai Massage

Parting ways

After lunch, we parted ways with the driver either returning home to get some rest or went around town for more business. As for us, some (MJ, Arthur and I) decided to go for Thai massage while others wanted to explore the night market.

From Khao Mae, we walked further north until we surprisingly reached the backdoor of Wat Khuha Sawan. Finally, after failing to locate the buddha statue under the bodhi tree earlier, we accidentally came across it while searching for a massage parlour. After taking some quick photos, we left the temple in search for massage.

Buddhisatva statue under a tree

Accidentally found what we couldn't earlier on

Turning right from Wat Khuha Sawan, we walked further ahead and came across a row of shoplots. And there it was, a massage parlour right in the middle of the shops. Massage was priced cheaply at only 140 Baht per hour but we were told that they were closed for the day. What?! But it was only 5pm! We tried to plead with the owners to take us in before they close, but to no avail. Feeling defeated, we walked away from the shop in search of another place.

Lost in Phatthalung

Luck however, weren’t on our side that day, as we did not come across any more massage place as we walked further and further away from the train station, where we promised to meet at 7. Finally, after about 40 minutes of walking, we were close to giving up since we wouldn’t have enough time to walk back to the train station from where we were even if we found a massage place right there right then and get a 1 hour massage.

We were far away from the train station and all three of us were too tired to walk back. Fortunately, we saw a hotel nearby and managed to ask for Wi-Fi password. After sending our location to Richard who has data coverage, we sat at the lobby, waiting for them to pick us up.

Stranded in a hotel

At 7.15pm, our songthaew arrived at the hotel to pick us up, and we made our way back to Sai Klong Song Lae. The rest of the gang had brought some mango sticky rice and other local snacks from the night market and even dropped by convenience store for mineral water and beers while on the way to pick us up.

Day 2 (Part 6) : Planned vs Unplanned Dinner

Sri Pak Pra Resort

MJ originally wanted to book our accommodation at the more popular Sri Pak Pra Resort since it costs the same with Sai Klong Song Lae but it was fully booked. Hence, we decide to have our dinner there while taking the opportunity to tour around the resort. Unfortunately, there was an event there that night and we were not allowed to dine in. The management was however kind enough to let me stroll around a section of the resort which was not used for the event.

Yok Yor Kitchen Again

Disappointed, we made our way back to our resort for dinner. This time around, Lloyd was in-charge of ordering dinner and this time around our dinner only costs 830 Baht (92 Baht per person or approximately SGD3.80 / RM11.99). It was equally as good as what we had the night before, but almost half the price. Either way, the food was delicious and affordable.

Shrimp with lotus root

Stir-fry squid

Mushroom fritters

Stir-fry kailan with roasted pork

Deep fried pork cutlet

We ended the night with snacks bought from the night market, beers and more board games. The total costs of the snacks were only 139 Baht (15 Baht per person /SGD0.64 /RM2.01)

… and our footprints in Phatthalung continues [Day 3 and 4 - Khao Chai Son, Hatyai and journey home]

Epilogue

One thing that stood out about the temples and caves in Phatthalung is definitely the admission fee. Having travelled to several South East Asia countries, it came as a surprise that the places we visited for the day are all free. I guess this is the beauty of “off the beaten path” since this town is off the tourist radar and yet to become commercialised.

Hopefully, this beautiful place continues to be untouched for more years to come, and by the time it is finally known to the rest of the world, the world would spare it from turning into a tourist trap.