Sampaothai Phatthalung 27 Dec 2019

After 20 minutes of driving, we reached Sampaothai. "Sampaothai" is viewpoint and home stay in more than 10 acres of rice field and organic vegetables farm.

Prior enter to Sampaothai, there are some stalls both side on the way to the entrance selling various of things from handicrafts, fruits, and foods.

We need to pay certain fees to enter into Sampaothai. There are a lot of places that worth for taking photos.

Sampaothai is actually a homestay but the owner of the place took it one more step further to make it become a tourist attraction.

There are colourful Thailand map which indicate where Phatthalung is, made by lots of colourful Legos shorts of bricks.

There is a fish pond just beside the cafeteria area which is surrounded by greenery and trees.

An Orang Utan sculpture sitting at a bench, waiting people to sit together with it and have a free kiss!

There are a lot of fun and things which one can do here.

“Sampao” is ancient Thai word which means “cargo vessel”. It is very huge and had beautiful design.

“Sampaothai” is the ancient cargo vessel of Thailand that was normally used for the delivery of various shipments from one place to another.

Giant King Kong is one of popular characters that most people (including me) love. Especially children, they would enjoy this giant King Kong, for sure.

It is very creative idea that the owner of this place created both huge “Sampao” and the popular giant King Kong standing among the green rice field.

The giant King Kong is trying to drag the huge Sampao. This Sampao was made of woods and the King Kong was made of straws.

Alvin, Issac and Annabelle climbed up the giant King Kong to see beautiful view of the green rice field from high and the wonderful mountains at the background.

Apart from enjoying the two amazing things, we walked along the wooden bridge and surrounding the rice green field and nature closely.

It is certainly relaxing and peaceful moment…but the weather is really hot and we were tanning under the hot sun!

There are wooden houses with Thai style, I believe the homestay here can be rent for a stay and to experience the life and culture of Phatthalung province.

We spend roughly nearly 45 minutes here, after which it is time for us to check in to our hotel.

Wat Wang Phatthalung 27 Dec 2019

After around 10 minutes, we arrived at Wat Wang. Located in Lam Pam Sub-District, Wat Wang is an important historical site of Phatthalung.

The temple is currently undergoing restoration since 1969. All the things in the temple were placed properly for the restoration work.

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.

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.

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.

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

We left Wat Wang after wondering about 20 minutes and headed to our destination – Sampaothai.

We saw a Bodhi tree just out of the temple and this is the first time children saw the Bodhi leaf.

Saen Suk Lampam Beach Phatthalung 27 Dec 2019

We were actually headed to the famous Wat Wang but after that Alvin decided to detour to the Saen Suk Lampam since it is just about 2 kilometres past Wat Wang.

The beach is situated the bank of Songkhla Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Thailand.

A water pavilion named Sala Lampam Thi Rak, located in the lake, is the ideal locale for viewing the expansive lake.

A bridge spans the beach and an islet created by sediment from the river.

In Lam Pam Lake are dolphins, which are frequently spotted.

If you are lucky, you can see dolphin in the lake which is much attractive for visitors.

It seems like there is a floating market at the Lampam beach as we can see there is signage “Welcome to Lampam Floating Market”.

There are some stalls which selling the local food and a small platform was built for the small boats to park a long side for the tourists to buy the food or items from.

By the time we were there, there are not operating at all. I think either the floating market suppose to open during weekend or evening time.

There are some stalls near the small river too, selling food and drinks.

And some photo booths for the tourists to snap photos. Alvin and I had a selfie here and the nature beauty of mountain and rice fields behind as our background.

“The craft of boat” – long tailed boat.

“Yor”, traditional fishing equipment in Thailand.

These things are human-made and are very interesting! You can see some parts of important cultures of the South of Thailand through these things.

Saen Suk Lampam Beach is one of the most favorite places for local people where they can spend their leisure times with their warm family.

Children can play happily and parents go for jogging among nice nature, lovely lake, green trees, etc. We left after we had our ice cream here and go to Wat Wang.

Malai Cave Temple Phatthalung 27 Dec 2019

After Wat Khuha Sawan, we left for Malai Cave Temple. It was about an hour journey to reach here. After we parked the car at the parking lots, we were seeking the way to the cave temple.

There is a paved-cement stairway going to the top of the mountain. We were walking up by the staircase.

At the middle of the ways, we saw some stupas and that is the tombstone of the dead. To our surprise it is a Chinese. There is a Chinese temple which had been locked.

We continued our way up and finally we saw a temple on top of the hill. There is a temple here. From this place, we can see the panoramic view of the province of Phathalung.

The temple is very quiet and there are lots of dogs here. We noticed that there are monks who lives here.

There are only a few people who come here. In fact, when we visited this place, we are the only one who roams around.

At the top of the hill, we saw a map that shows pointers that would lead us to 3 places. All is written in Thais which we do not understand at all.

By looking at the stairways which were covered with dried leaves and the green algae then we decided to only go one place. Partly is because we were tired too.

We followed the shortest route then we came to a lower part of the hill and we saw a cave. We tried to go near the cave but we were not able to go inside.

It is quite scary for us to go down in the cave. Although we really wanted to see what is inside the cave.

When we look around, we found no one so we skip the cave. Maybe next time we visit this temple, we will come with my friends and will surely enter the sacred cave.

We saw a statue of Fat Laughing Buddha in the cave. We just took a photograph of it then we walked back to the point where we came from.

Malai Cave is very near to the Khao Ok Thalu. After we drove down to the foot of the hill, we can see the mountain just at the side of the paddy field.

We headed to Saen Suk Lampam Beach next destination.