Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Thailand Days 22 - 23: Phetchabun / Wat Phra That Pha Sorn Kaew & travel to Khao Yai

Greetings from Khao Yai! Hard to believe we return to the US in 5 days--I feel like this trip has blown by. Without further ado...

6/9 Sukhothai --> Phetchabun

Happy birthday, Papa G!

We left Sukhothai for a 1-night stopover in Phetchabun. I realized that I don't think I ever put a visual of our travel itinerary up, so here it is:


We got stuck in a major deluge on our way to lunch at Pino Latte, so props to our *legendary drivers* for driving up ridiculously steep roads that were sheeting water to get us safely to lunch. Those fellas are unshakeable. 

This photo does not to the rain or the grade of the road justice
Photo credit: Cory

Mr. Bird, our driver, absolutely crushing.
Photo credit: Cory

View of the wat in the storm
Photo credit: Cory

View from lunch at Pino Latte as the storm cleared

Our dessert was served first, so we rolled with it

The group enjoying the views 

After we finished lunch, we went to my favorite wat and one of my favorite sites on this trip--Wat Pha Sorn Kaew, which translates to "Temple on a Glass Cliff," in English. It was founded in 2004 as a Dharmma practice center and formally recognized as a temple in 2010. If you're a Gaudí fan, you'd love this temple. I love it more now that I've seen some of Gaudí's architecture in person. There's no clear affiliation between this Wat and Gaudí, but it's hard not to make comparisons.

I've covered Wat Pha Sorn Kaew in previous posts, so I'm going to hold off on the slinging-of-facts in this post, but it's worth doing a deeper dive on this wat because it's one of the few truly modern wats we visit on this program. My previous posts speak to the significance of the 5 stacking buddhas, etc., so I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew
Photo credit: Cory

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew
Photo credit: Cory

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew
Photo credit: Cory

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew

From the wat, we went to the Imperial Phukaew Hill Resort for the evening. This resort is very "Shire-esque." The grounds are incredible. And it's on a very, very steep hill. 

Entrance to the resort
Photo credit: Cory


View from our room
Photo credit: Cory

View of the grounds
Photo credit: Cory

One of my favorite parts of this resort is the walk to a *weird little park* (Phukaew Peak) that's nestled on the top of an adjacent hill. Optimal photo taking opportunities:


Westminster Wings!

Annual bird's nest photo


Han looks thrilled to be in the nest

 I look like a gecko but not in a cute-gecko-way

6/10 Phetchabun --> Khao Yai

We are now at the Raintree Resort on the border of Khao Yai National Park. The Rain Tree is another crowd favorite of this trip, and it's nice that it's happening at the end of the program because it feels like a celebration of sorts. I've covered Raintree in this post previously, but here's a quick summary:

The Raintree Resort was founded by two book publishers who live in Bangkok, so each room is individually themed to an international writer/thinker of some sort of significance. It's a very kid-friendly resort (although we have yet to see a kid), with a beautiful library, dinosaur room (yep, it's got its own room dedicated to dinosaurs), a variety of science stations, and incredible grounds for neature-walking. 

Speaking of neature walks, we went for a good one today and students re-enacted the fellowship while landing the much-sought-after-but-rarely-actualized triple clip of Cory. 

Frolicking on neature walk

The fellowship heads south

The fellowship heads south

Students, if anyone has evidence of the triple clip, please send me a picture so I can post it here :)

To be fair (Chris, cue the song!), Cory pulled off an epic prank against me this afternoon. I am both deeply impressed and deeply shamed.

The prank was cold as ice and hidden inside of an elephant made of towels.

I just did a search of my blog and realized I never really covered clipping. I reference it in this post on the Camino. Here's how it works.
  1. Buy clothespins. Like, a lot of them. We brought 50.
  2. Distribute clothespins to consenting participants.
  3. Clip them on people without them noticing. But don't be mean about it (e.g. don't bully or target folks).
  4. Body parts, including hair, are off limits. Use your judgement and be respectful.
  5. Backpacks and hoodies are cheap. They're not off limits, but you have to go to sleep at night knowing that you made a cheap shot if you clip a backpack or a hoodie.
  6. Shoe slips and front clips are legendary.
We're here for another day so I'll cover Raintree/Khao Yai tomorrow.

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