Post 314: Leaving Bangkok ... bite sized Thailand

I’m a lucky guy. Three months in Thailand and I’ve be fortunate enough to visit many of it’s amazing sites. The list was long and even with three months of travelling, the time to see everything was all too short. There are many more things to see and do, but my time is running out.

Muang Boran? Even regular visitors to Thailand have possibly never heard of it. Located just outside of Bangkok, Muang Boran is a 200 acre site containing scaled replicas of many of Thailand’s attractions. The original concept was to create an 18-hole golf course but as with many things here, everything changed.

The brainchild of Thai philanthropist Lek Viriyaphant, Muang Boran is now one of the worlds largest outdoor museums. The site is in the shape of Thailand and located in their correct geographical positions, the historical structures have been reconstructed by craftsmen using traditional building methods. The concept ran the risk of being quite ’Disney’, but thankfully it hasn’t turned out that way at all.

The site is too extensive to walk, but golf buggies and bicycles are available at the entrance. It feels a little weird revisiting some of the places that I’ve already seen, but in some amazing way, the builders have managed to capture much of the atmosphere and beauty of the full sized originals.

For anybody with only a few days to spend in Thailand, this is a great sample menu for everything that Thailand has to offer. Why then is it deserted? Perhaps at an hours drive from the centre of Bangkok it’s a little too far for your average tourist, or perhaps people simply haven’t heard about it ..... mai pen rai

I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy Muang Boran quite as much as I did. It’s just like the real thing. Same same but different ….. mai pen rai

www.justgiving.com/geoffgthomas