Stanislaw Warwas

Poland - 28-Mar-23 -

Visited February 2023.

Many things already said here about the site, so I am just sharing some practical info.

How to get there using public transportation? The best place to start is Udon Thani. Renting a car or a car with a driver is one of the solution, but if you do not want to spend a lot of money, go to Rangsina Market (there’s no transport to here from any of two bus stations in Ubon Thani!!!) in the morning, the first sorng-taa-ou (50 THB) leaves at 6:30, and the second at 8:30; it takes around one hour and a half to get to Ban Tew (depending of how many stops would be on the road). Show the driver the picture of the site or the name written in Thai and he’ll drop you in the village at the small junction (close to the small police station) where the road west leads to the Phu Phrabat Historical Park. It is still circa 5 km to the entrance to the park or 4 km to Buddhist Wat Phra Bua Bok, temple that was also mentioned in the nomination from 2016. You can walk, you can hitch-hike or you can ask at the small shop at the corner to take you there for a small money. I started walking to the park and after 3 minutes some man stopped and gave me a lift for free (he did not want any money).

At the site. There’s a small visitors’ center where you buy your ticket (100 THB) and get a leaflet with a plan and some basic information about the park. As there was no guide, the girl at the counter told me about the possible roads to follow, marking the most important features on the plan, and informing that the most remote northern parts of the park (like Dinpiang Cave) are not open for tourists at that moment. I decided to see all the accessible points starting from the southern rock formations (little stable, lord’s stable, southern rock shelters with sema stones that seem to be the most important value in the new nomination dossier) and Tham Wua/Tham Khon with prehistoric rock paintings (my favourite part of the visit). Then I followed east to the view point – impressive view on the valley and forest; then – to then main part of the park, passing by hunter’s barn and very interesting partridge rock shelter. The main feature of the park is grouped around the famous U Sa Tower; here we have half a dozen other rock formations (they are similar, look like big stone mushrooms), many more sema stones (indicating 8 cardinal points from Buddhist belief), some surfaces with rock painting (hardly seen in here), the only superficial man-made structure – a well or cistern for storing water, Buddhist shrines with bas-reliefs and few sculpture; and at the end of the tour – the so-called temple of the son-in-law (Wat Louk Koei) with a Buddhist altar. Each of the important element of the park has an information board in Thai and English. I spent there almost three hours and met only one Canadian couple and five or six local tourists.

Leaving the site. 2 km from the entrance to the historical park there’s a Buddhist temple Wat Phra Bua Bok. You can walk there on the paved road and look two your left – you will pass 2 more rock formation and 2 more rock shelters with hardly visible rock paintings (but there are boards indicating where to look). The Buddhist complex consists of many buildings and rock features. The most important wat looks like a mini-sister of Phra That Phanom in That Phanom at the border with Laos. You can walk freely around. It won’t take longer than 30 minutes. No Buddha footprints here… If you wanna see them, you should go to another Buddhist site which is located 15 km from Bua Bok. Without a car I could not make it.

Back to the village. I was lucky that day, cos a monk offered ma a ride to Ban Tew and ask a lady at the junction to bring me to a bigger village of Ban Phue from where I could catch a bus/minibus back to Udon Thani (the last one from Ban Tew leaves at 2 pm). There’s no bus station in Ban Phue, you should find Ban Phue Pet Clinic on Thanon Chonnabot Bamrung, because on the opposite site of the street there is a stop for minibuses going to UT (80 THB).

Bernard Joseph Esposo Guerrero

4.00 The Philippines - 26-Mar-22 -

Phu Phra Bat (PPB) is an exemplary multi-layered cultural landscape set on a plateau rising up to 150 meters above the floor plain, and would make a great addition to the World Heritage list. What looks like well-formed dolmens at first sight are in fact magnificent works of nature through weathering. While it is in Udon Thani ---and together with Ban Chiang they form a good argument for the claim that the province sheltered the earliest civilization in Thailand--- we figured that it was easier to visit PPB from Nong Khai. Our accommodation, the Rim Riverside Guesthouse, offered to take us there for 1,000Bt, which was a very good deal. The owner, an avid cyclist, even said it is possible to get to PPB on a bike and that he had already done it a couple of times. What surprised me was the extent of the site and the number of interesting rock formations in place. I recall wanting to go here in 2013 and when I searched the internet, one practically only sees images of the iconic rock tower Hor Nang U-Sa and very little of everything else. Even the latest editions of some guidebooks do not even "highlight" it, perhaps due to its remoteness. So, my friend and I felt we saw more than what we expected. 

Despite the instruction of the ticket man not to visit Wat Louk Koei (largest chambered rock temple in the park with well-preserved statues), we still took the 500m trek to the temple, only to find out that there was an excavation project taking place. We did not feel so bad about our 'intrusion' as those who were digging did not seem bothered by our presence.    

Around Wat Louk Koei are sema stones (stone markers from the Dvaravati to Khmer periods demarcating Buddhist sacred grounds), which are also present around Hor Nang U-Sa, Kou Nang U-Sa (the "Thai Stonehenge" and one of my favorites due to its association to supposed legendary weaver -- I collect textiles), and the Kork Mah Noi (the last rock site if you follow the 2-hour circuit, and probably the most impressive for its almost impossible balancing feat).

Six rock shelters house pre-historic rock paintings of varying conditions. Tham Chang, Wat Pota, Heep Sob Porta, and the unlabeled rock formation beside Bor Num Nang U-Sa (an ancient stone well) have traces of red paintings. The most impressive of which are in Tham Wua and Tham Khon which sport human and bovine images, respectively, in relatively good condition. The last two are also close to Kork Mah Noi, making that section of the park the most memorable for us. If you are not a fan of trekking, there is a short cut to this section by taking the left turn before the ticket inspector's station early on.

There were a few local visitors who came in after us (we were the first ones to get in at 9:30am), but as soon as they have seen and taken photos of the central cluster were the main rock tower is, they turn around and leave. Hence, my friend and I had the pleasure of having some of the more interesting rock formations lying deeper in the park to ourselves. Despite the notorious Thailand heat (worse than the Philippines, btw), we still enjoyed the trek and even went up to Pha Sadet View Point. I equally find it charming that the rock formations have been named after characters of a certain folklore as this only fortifies the significance that the local people still attach to the site. Offerings can still be seen, so it is still an active religious space.

I must admit that there are not so many SE Asian cultural sites currently sitting in the T-list that excite me as much as Phu Phra Bat does, and I hope that it will get inscribed soon after sitting in the T-list for a long time now. 

Joel on the Road

3.00 Australia - 21-Jul-19 -

We visited Phuphrabat on a day trip from Udon Thani using a driver sourced via our hotel. It can comfortably be visited in a single day trip along with nearby Ban Chiang (though they are in opposite directions from UT). 

Frederick Dawson below has given a good description of the site, where you climb slowly through a forest onto a sandstone plateau to find a group of tall rocks balanced in improbable locations. Geologically, they aren't glacial as one might expect - instead sandstone of varying densities that has eroded at varying rates.

The rock overhangs and shelters created were home to various different tribes and groups over the centuries, and there's still traces of ancient occupation including rock art. Although nowhere near as impressive as other rock art we've seen in semi-nearby places like Bhimbetka (India) and Kakadu (Australia), it's still quite well preserved in places and you can see human and animal figures quite clearly.

The Buddha statues are mostly broken, and I think generally date to a later period of occupation so perhaps a little less signficant.

Overall it's not the greatest site we've seen (and not the greatest in Thailand), but I still think it's worth adding as there are precious few sites of this kind in South-East Asia.

As a side-note, the bathrooms here are absolutely outstanding! For whatever reason, this tiny little unvisited spot in the middle of nowhere in Thailand has two freestanding toilet blocks, fitted out on par for what you'd expect at a 5-star hotel or Michelin-starred restaurant, complete with air conditioners and piped classical music! Bizarre.

Read more from Joel on the Road here.

Frederik Dawson

3.00 Netherlands - 13-Jan-16 -

Thailand is planning to propose Phu Phrabat as a World Heritage Site in 2016, the news really made me want to write the review of this strange historical park in the Northeastern part of this country near the city of Udonthani. My trip to Phu Phrabat, the place actually sounds like Poo – Pa – Baht, had happened because I saw its picture when I visited Ban Chiang. The hotel arranged a car with driver for me to visit the place in the next morning. When I arrived in Phu Phrabat Historical Park, I was surprised that the place was really quiet and no tourist at all. My driver and I walked into the forest, which is a typical sight in this region, after 15 minutes, I started to see the strange, shaped rock formation behind the trees.

The biggest and most stunning rock called U-Sa Tower. The rock shape looks like a big unfinished Winged Victory of Samothrace in my opinion, but for my driver a big mushroom. Ancient people also made a small room attached to the rock which made the rock more unique, similar to US’s Mesa Verde. In front of U-Sa Tower also have ancient standing stones, sima, which historians believed to be the symbol of sacred precinct for ancient ceremony. Then I continued my sightseeing to see more bizarre rocks that named as coffins of ancient royalties. I also saw ancient Buddhist rock cravings and rock arts which actually in my opinion not really interesting. Luckily, I met a group of university history class students, and their professor was willingly to explain the significance of the site. Later I found out that that professor is a very famous historian in Thailand. According to my guide, most of these bizarre rocks have unique purple color oxidization that really different from other rock in this region that ancient people linked the strange color with lotus petal, the symbolic flower of Buddhism, and that strengthened their belief that this area is a sacred precinct for not only in Thailand but including Laos. He also showed me many impressive ancient standing rocks, most of them are taller than me. The guide pointed out that Phu Phrabat has been used for religious practice since ancient time even before this region adopted Buddhism as their faith. He even mentioned that even today locals still come to practice Buddhist ceremony in Phu Phrabat since I saw remains of candles on the ground.

Phu Phrabat in my opinion is very unique place of Thailand or even in this region. The 3,000 years old human evidence with bizarre, shaped rocks is very exotic and so African more than Asian sites. The site is not beautiful but very interesting to see, if you have a good guide. I am not sure for this place’s World Heritage Site worthiness, but pre-historical cultural site is much underrepresented in Southeast Asia mainland, apart from the Plain of Jars in Laos; Phu Phrabat is a very good place to fill this gap.

AC

4.00 28-Dec-15 -

I understand that there are two parts to this nomination. I however only visited the main part where all the strange rock formations are located.

This is an interesting site and it is still possible to find evidence of how the unusual rock formations with huge boulders balancing on often smaller ones were used for religious purposes. These rocks take their shapes apparently because of under-sea erosion that happened millions of years ago. Traces of prehistoric rock art can also be found on some of the rocks and a number of these paintings were hardly visible. It is almost necessary (unless one has done quite a bit of research and has a very sharp eye) to have a guide to point them out for the ordinary visitor. Someone had to actually point one such painting out with a long stick to me before I could see it. The kind man who pointed it out to me told me that it was an elephant but I had to stare at it for quite some time before I could even see that it sort of resembled an elephant.

The historical park is located entirely within a forest park although being in the "drier" (dryness in this case being a relative concept) part of Thailand it is not quite wild tropical Asia. It was nevertheless still a rather wild place and a snake basking on one of the rocks scared the living daylights out of my guide. I found the place rather enjoyable to visit and take a walk in (notwithstanding the presence of snakes basking so openly on rocks) even if the novelty of the weird rock formations wore off for me after a while. The park is also still somewhat off the beaten track for most travellers, as with northeastern Thailand in general, so they do not seem to get many international visitors there.