Wednesday, Nov 9 - Kao Yai - Petchabun

We saw a giant Buddha and temple on our long drive to Petchabun. 

We also saw quite of number of corn fields...seems odd to see them in Asia.

The main (only) sight today was Wat Phra Thart Pha Kaew temple (Temple on a Glass Cliff) and monastery.  We were able to see the temple and Buddha from several miles away across a valley.  This temple is very new, having just been completed in 2004.  It sits high on a mountain overlooking the neighboring valleys.

The Buddha's were particularly dramatic as there were five of them seated one in front of the other in increasing size.  

The buildings surrounding the Buddha's were magical and mystical.

The buildings and plazas are covered with over 5 million mosaic tiles and pottery shards.  It was really beautiful.  

There were a lot of interesting flowers around the grounds.

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More photos of Wat Phra Thart Pha Kaew temple
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We didn’t get rain but it was pretty cloudy all day.  Thailand, especially in the north, has been pretty wet for us. 

Our hotel sits on a hillside and is a series of small bungalows and houses.  The grounds are beautiful. 

Again it looks like we are the only ones staying here.  We called for a ride down to the main building so we could have dinner.  The menu was in Thai with postage stamp size pictures.  Since we don't read Thai and the pictures were too small to figure out what the dish actually was and since no one spoke more than the smallest amount of English we settled on Fried Rice.  Seemed pretty safe.