Wat Tham Pha Daen

Temples Near Udon Thani - Wat Tham Pha Daen

Wat Tham Pha Daen is a little south of Sakon Nakhon, some 170km west of Udon Thani and is possibly one of the least religious temple grounds that I have visited to date. It really is more of a large-scale, semi-artificial woodland where there is an opportunity to buy some good luck or long life at nearly every turn for 20 baht. That may seem to be a bit of a harsh criticism but it is how I saw it on the day. Disregarding the blatant attempts to extract cash from the visitors, it is actually a lovely place to idle around for a few hours.

The original temple is very small and pretty insignificant on its own, and it stayed that way for many years, isolated and miles away from anywhere until one day, someone decided to build a small selection of "sights" that would hopefully draw in some local tourists. It was a plan that has blossomed in to a fairly significant place today, attracting hundreds of people every day.

As you enter the grounds you approach a purpose built car park where there is a shuttle-bus in operation to take you the 2 km uphill to the temple grounds. The bus costs 20 baht (surprisingly enough) and that will cover the cost of the return journey too. Without this service I suspect the temple would remain void of visitors and the uphill walk on a hot day would be too much effort.

Wat Tham Pha Daen - Sakon Nakhon

Once you arrive at the temple grounds you continue to go uphill, though the road is a gentle gradient here but you will soon arrive at a set of green, metal steps that take you around all of the present displays. While the flights of steps are not severe in numbers, they are quite steep and require a little leg-work. Thankfully there are plenty of places where you can sit and wind down a little, catching your breath in preparation for the assault on the next set of steps.

You will also come across two coffee shops which take advantage of the lack of competition in the area, asking for 40 baht for an iced-coffee - a bit extreme to be honest but what can you expect when you are part of a captive audience?

There are a few waterfalls that are hidden behind the extensive foliage but there are a few places where you can get a reasonable view of them. Personally I could listen to them for hours but it is unlikely that I would travel this far again just to do that.

All in all, Wat Tham Pha Daen is well worth a visit, especially if you are in the Sakon Nakhon area to begin with. You can easily pass 3-4 hours and as the grounds are developed further (there are signs of this happening in several locations), even more time could be enjoyed here. It did not seem to be particularly busy but that may have been due to the scare of the Covid-19 virus at the time of my visit (March 2020).

If you want to get a basic understanding of the statues you will see in the temples, visit our Buddha Statue Meanings page.

How to get to Wat Tham Pha Daen

From Udon Thani, take route 22 east all the way to Sakon Nakhon. As you approach the city, just before the airport, you turn right onto route 241 (southbound) and after a few kilometers you turn right again onto route 2339. From this point onward, as is the case with many rural locations, you become reliant on GPS to get you to your final destination.

The journey should take 2 hours, 50 minutes

GPS Co-ordinates 17.031165, 104.072982