Wat Khao Tham Thiam

Last Saturday my wife suddenly suggested that we should visit her sister and husband's new house in Kamphaeng Saen. A few hours later we were all together on a road trip to U Thong, these things happen just spontaneously!

We ended up at a place I'd never been before; Wat Khao Tham Thiam.

Apparently, the place dates back to the Dvaravati Period and has some historical artifacts, but we just wandered around the giant Buddha.

Donations are always welcome, it's perceived as just another way of making merit...

Ringing the bells...

The appearance of cute, kitschy statues continues to surprise me, although by now I should have been used to it...

Some serious landscaping on what probably used to be a limestone quarry previously?

Behind the giant statue is a huge tunnel with lots of Buddha statues and plenty of religious oddities (IMHO)...

A fake merit tree with plastic leaves...

Note the 2 cute deer(?) statues...

This I had never seen before, lottery-related?

Huge Buddha footprints are found in many places.

A bit of astrology...

Floating candles.

Another big fake tree...

Dogs don't bother with religion!

Receiving a monk's blessing.

This gives a good impression of the tunnel's size.

Feeding fish is a form of merit.

Although those fish are virtually invisible!

More plastic landscaping...

All those flowers are plastic...

Despite all the plastic stuff, it was kind of an intriguing visit!

This was not my first family trip, here's another one:

https://artkoen.wixsite.com/artkoen/post/kanchanaburi-pilgrimage