My weekend was spend traveling from Pattaya city to Nakhon Ratchasima province also known as Korat city, it is a four and a half hour drive a distance of 380km from Pattaya city following Route 7 and Route 2 Highways the reason for our journey to Korat city was for business and a look around on our way to Korat city, I when on to google to search what were the most popular places to see in Korat city, because we were going to be spending 3 days and 2 nights in Korat city and what lit up my face was this Wat Ban Rai Temple also known as the Elephant Temple, I thought this is a must.
Korat City (Nakhon Ratchasima Province) is actually the sixth largest city in Thailand in the north-east of Isaan and although been a big city there is not much tourist infrastructure but a beautiful city to see, it's mainly a port for it's endless stretches of rice fields that can been seen as far as the borders of Laos and Cambodia.
We left Pattaya city on the Friday morning early reaching Korat city just on mid-day booked into a hotel in the city center costing us 500 baht ($15 US) per/night-per/room then we attended to business first the next morning we decided to visit Wat Ban Rai Temple which was about one drive from the city center, if you don't have your own transport you鈥檒l need to hire a driver, which could cost you as much as 1,000 baht ($30 US) round trip, we had our own transport, while driving towards this temple, I could see this huge Elephant head of this temple from a distance soaring into the blue sky as we were motoring down along the highway and even from a distance, I could feel this was going to be one impressive temple.
My friend was telling me along the way that this temple was going to blow my mind out and he wasn't wrong on arrival to the temple just looking as I was walking along this colorful ceramic pathway to the entrance of this temple, I just couldn't grasp the beauty of this temple my eyes were opened wide and my jaw was dragging along the pathway, I couldn't believe what, I was seeing, I had to stand still in amazement to adjust my brain saying to my friends is this for real.
I mean how does one describe, the beauty of this temple, I have never been lost for words, I couldn't talk, I was still trying to lift my jaw up from the pavement, I was in total awe just trying to take in what, I was witnessing around me my eyes were glued to every single tiny piece of this temple, I moved my eyes around slowly not wanting to miss out seeing any tiny bit of this temple the colors were prominent and exhilarating.
This Temple is the a newish attraction in Korat City, it opened it's doors in late 2013 and has the largest display or mosaic art in Thailand, with not less than 20 million mosaic pieces, millions of dollars and countless man hours when into this project the mastermind behind this project was Luang Phor Khun, a very highly respected Monk in Nakhon Ratchasima province, sadly he passed away in 2015 not long after he had completed this masterpiece.
We decided to walk around the outside of this amazing structure first, I wanted to observe and take in every bit of detail of this masterpiece looking at them huge Naga Serpents at the entrance they were massive much bigger than, I have ever seen at any other Thai temple and when looking closely at them you could see they were entirely covered with thousands of small bits of colorful mosaics like every other exterior structure of the temple all teeming with color and detail. The statues, figures on the walls the pillars everything you looked at stood out with glittering colors all, I can say is Luang Phor Khun certainly had a vivid imagination this was really something from beyond, like been in Disney World.
Every pillar around this temple was covered in painted tiles with religious figures from all parts of the world and many well, I had no idea what or who they were but certainly all very impressive.
One of the most impressive temples, I have seen so far in Thailand and honestly there is to much to show you here all in one post what, I have shown you is just my walk around the outside of the temple which took me a few hours only because, I was enjoying looking at every beautiful detail of this temple there is still the inside lower level and top floor which, I will cover in another post but for now, I will leave your imagining what is to follow on the inside.
If I ever get the opportunity to visit this temple again, I will make sure to try and hang around this temple for the evening sunset how beautiful is this temple with the sunset falling behind it, just a stunning couple of photos from a source it really does the temple even more justice seeing it this way very spiritual looking.
This post is for #SublimeSunday is inspired by 
