Dinosaurs are everywhere in Isan. I earlier wrote about the
very good, but extremely remotely located, dinosaur museum in Kalasin.
A very interesting fossils museum is located in Nakhon
Ratchasima and in Nongkhai, a dinosaur (wearing a hat) is found outside the
aquarium. What a dinosaur has to do with aquatic life is a mystery to me, but
equally baffling is that at its feet are statuettes of pigs and sheep, which
also don’t have much to do with marine life.
Nong Bua Lamphu also has a dinosaur museum. The impressively
named “150 Million Years Stone Shell Museum” is located on the main road (route
216) between Nong Bua and Udon. There isn’t much advance notice or signage
about the existence until an initially puzzling warning sign alerts
motorists to the fact they are only a few hundred meters from the entrance to
the museum.
The museum is worth a visit but only if you anyway are in that neck
of the woods.
Another point of interest nearby is a temple – off highway
east of Nong Bua Lamphu town – which is built entirely out of tree trunks and
planks collected from nearby forests. The construction is still on-going (as it
has been for a decade) as monks and local villagers chip in whenever
construction materials become available.
