Today I'm taking a private tour, as I couldn't find a group going to the monastery with the fruit bat colony, which I really want to see. First, we're visiting a completely unnecessary temple that only takes up time away from the fruit bats…
Well, okay, the temples in Chachoengsao are beautiful. And they're considered some of the most beautiful temples in Thailand. But they don't actually house a colony of fruit bats, and there's nothing I can do about that!
And of course, there are the obligatory portraits of the royal family.
Next, we went to Wat Saman Rattanaram, which is also fruit bat free. And here I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It's like a colorful fairground, but instead of carousels, there are temples, statues, and then also life-size... Spiderman and Batman figures??? And loads and loads of donation boxes.
Later I read that the place caters to a diverse mix of regionally represented religions, including those originating from Thai Buddhist, Chinese, and Hindu traditions. Batman and Spiderman serve, on the one hand, to attract families with children, and on the other hand, the boundary between "sacred," "lucky," and "pop-culturally cool" is considerably more fluid in Thailand than in Western thinking.
But now the temples are finally behind us and we're off to Wat Pho Bang Khla, a temple known for providing shelter and a home to a colony of fruit bats.
Since they face no danger there (unlike in other places in Thailand, unfortunately), it's quite easy to observe them relaxing in the afternoon. There's also a small "kindergarten" with two orphaned babies being cared for. I wonder (and keep wondering, due to language barriers) how safe they are in that basket on the ground, whether they are at risk from, for example, stray cats or dogs.
Fortunately, I can even take better pictures here than in Cairns, Australia. The reason is simple: they like to be as high up in the trees as possible, and the trees here are simply smaller 😊
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