Wat Nong Wang Temple and Bueng Kaen Nakon Lake in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

Sunday my day started very early I was up at 5am morning to be at Bangkok Airport for a 7.30am flight to Khon Kaen City, it's only a one hour flight to this beautiful city of Khon Kaen which is in the northeastern part of Thailand in Issan, this charming young city is the fourth largest city in Thailand. We were only going to be here for the one day was work related and would be flying back on the 9pm evening flight. Once my work colleague and myself had completed what we came here for, it was almost lunch time so over lunch we were discussing what we could go and see before our flight back to Bangkok and he come up with the idea of visiting this temple and the lake beside the temple he was telling me it's the most beautiful and unusual temple in Khon Kaen city and that I would not be disappointed of course I said sure let's do it, I love seeing different and unusual temples.

After a nice lunch we were ready to visit this amazing temple called the Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon also known as the Wat Nong Wang Temple which was like only 15 minute ride from where we were after negotiating with a Tuk-Tuk driver we were there in a matter of time driving along the main road I could see the temple's golden Stupa protruding into the blue sky, I was already getting excited just seeing that golden Stupa from a distance.

This beautiful Nine Story Stupa Temple began construction in 1990 and was completed in 1996 the base is 50 meter square and the Stupa reaches 80 meters into the blue sky the inspiration and design came from a Abbot, Luang Paw Koon Kantigo after seeing the Eiffel Tower on his travels he wanted to build this looking similar to the Eiffel Tower.

The actual temple was built for two reasons in celebration of the latest King's 50th birthday His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej's and in celebration of 200th anniversary of Khon Kaen province been established. In the temple itself you will see all the history of how the city of Khon Kaen came to be and that is also illustrated by many murals, painting and carving around and within the temple.

Many Thai people come to this temple to worship and pray to there Gods asking for forgiveness, good luck, wealth and health it's a temple filled with many powerful Gods and what I learnt about this temple is when Thai people are cremated they wish for there ashes to be placed in this temple you will find at this temple that there are ashes place in the Stupa and around the temple all within the walls of the outer part of the temple this would be a beautiful resting ground amongst all these powerful Gods.

All the mosaics designs around the outside walkways of the temple were done in shapes of animals and zodiacs assembled from all these small pieces of colored glass, stone and other materials looked like many man hours had gone into this part of building this temple.

I got to say this is one of the most fascinating temples I have seen so far, there is so much history in this one temple you could spend days observing and studying all this northeastern Thai culture displayed with murals on the walls, carving on the many doors and the display of all the Buddha images and Buddhist sculptures each floor has it's story.

From the 9th floor of this temple you will get to see a 360 degree view of Khon Kaen city and Bueng Kaen Nakhon lake where we will be heading to next to catch the sunset. All the building with the red roofs you see down below are the monk quarters and there are also three schools on the temple grounds for the poorer family students which are support by monies collected from the temple itself.

I could have spent a lot more time admiring this astonishing temple but we were on limited time we had a flight to catch and I also wanted to see the amazing Bueng Kaen Nakon Lake so my friend negotiate with another Tuk-Tuk driver to take us across to the lake which was about 10 minutes from the temple, so this is the Bueng Kaen Nakon Lake we could see from the 9th floor of the temple.

When we arrived at the Bueng Kaen Nakon Lake, I couldn't believe how much area this lake took up was at least around about 100 hectares with beautiful calm water, lines of trees all around the lake, parks, nicely paved walkways, bridges over the lake, cycling track around the lake and a wide rang of exercise equipment free to use for all the town people to come and exercise or relax in the parks on a family picnic.

This was just the best way to spend the last few hours in town amongst all this beautiful nature and the best, I liked about this lake was the sunset and reflections of the Wat Nong Wang Temple over Bueng Kaen Nakon Lake it was so peaceful and spiritual was one unforgettable memory to take home with me.