Chaiyaphum & Phetchabun Thailand Guide

Khao Kho: Phetchabun's Cool Highlands of Mist, Campfires and Mountain Roads Thais call Khao Kho the "Switzerland of Thailand", and on a cool-season morning the nickname earns its keep: pine ridges rolling away into mist, cabbage fields on the slopes, and air that can drop below 10°C while the Isan plain bakes below. This highland district in Phetchabun, a couple of hours from Chaiyaphum's parks, is the region's favourite cool escape — a place of viewpoints, campsites, strawberry farms and slow mountain coffee. The Viewpoints Khao Kho is a district of lookouts. Curved wooden decks and grassy knolls along the ridge roads face east over a sea of hills, and the morning ritual is fixed: arrive before dawn, wrap up warm, and watch mist pour through the valleys as the sun lifts. The national park viewpoints add forest trails and quieter platforms away from the main road crowds. Even in the hot season the altitude — around 800–1,100 metres — buys you evenings cool enou...

This blog rotates to Phetchabun this time, and to the temple that stops traffic on Highway 12. Wat Pha Sorn Kaew — "the temple on a glass cliff" — sits on an 830-metre peak near Khaem Son in Khao Kho district, and it is two wonders in one: a pagoda cloaked in more than five million colourful mosaic tiles and pottery shards, and, across the road, five giant white Buddhas seated one inside the silhouette of the next, visible from kilometres away. A Young Temple With an Old Soul's Ambition Unlike most sights on this blog, Wat Pha Sorn Kaew is new — founded in 2004 as a meditation retreat, chosen for the beauty and quiet of the Khao Kho mountains. The builders decorated the main pagoda and surrounding buildings with mosaic upon mosaic: broken pottery, tiles, beads and glass worked into swirling patterns that reward a very slow walk. Look closely and whole teapots and bowls appear inside the designs. The exterior, gardens and adjoining buildings are open to visitors; parts o...