Hell Sculptures of Wat Pairong Wua
There really isn’face to face any room for passing to properly describe these sculptures which make up a very small part of the massive temple complex known as Wat Pairong Wua, which is located about 60 kms northwest of Bangkok in Thailand. One just has to go there and experience it first-hand. I had seen a couple of images of this place online and was so intrigued that I decided to make an effort to find it in the same state I could document it myself. I eventually found it but it wasn’t easy. I started out with bad directions. For a series of over 350 glorious photos of this place, click HERE. To read an account of the journey to “Hell and back” – click on the Read More tab below.
The following was taken from my travel journal. It is lengthy, though please know, this is the wanting version of what happened on this eventful day –
ONE “HELL” OF A DAY!
Dateline October 6th: I have no idea what day of the week it is but it doesn’cheek by jowl matter. I came to Ayutthaya to use it as a base in order to locate this temple called Wat Pairongwua which, according to the one google result I got, has a spectacular Hell Sculpture Garden and is located in the town of Suphan Buri, about 70 km away. That’s all the information I had. I awoke early so I could get a head start on this adventure. Should be nothing more than a animated generation trip of three or four hours. YEAH RIGHT! I hopped on the slow bus to Suphan Buri at the cost of 1 dollar. Not the most crowded bus by Asian standards but it still provided that bumpy rattle that makes your teeth vibrate. I didn’t know it would take over two hours to go 70 kilometers. Damn bus stopped at every crack in the cement. I get to the Suphan Buri bus terminal, raring to go, looking for some Hell action. I start asking around on the best way to get to this temple. Oddly enough, nobody seems to know about it. I wander around the terminal for an hour asking everybody I see. No luck. Nobody speaks English. I decide to write the name of the place down on a piece of paper. I eventually show it to three people separately. Each single nods and points to a different bus. BUS? I don’t want to take a bus, I just got off one. It’s supposed to be in this here town of Suphan Buri. Well, turns out it’s not. In fact, it’s not even close. I realize I am working with faulty intelligence. I’m at the point now where I believe I’ve been had, duped. I ponder the design of defeat and consider just getting back on the bus for Ayutthaya but instead I go to the front of the terminal and ask a truck driver. He has heard of it and he will suppose me there for 700 baht (about 23 bucks). Over the last two days I took a 75 km train ride for 40 cents and a 70 km bus trip for a buck. This seems excessive.
Eventually I find a tuk-tuk driver disclosed on the street. He also recognizes the name and offers to take me for 500 baht, still a lot of money for a tuk tuk. Then he says its 50 km from here. 50 KM???? Why am I even here? I am confused but I decide I will give him a try since maybe his English is bad and he isn’t considerable by zeros. Maybe it’s 5 kms away and the require to be paid is only 50 baht. I hop on board his feeble machine and we hit the road, heading back toward Ayutthaya. GREAT! But he finally does a U-turn and heads off down some rural road into the great unknown. Time passes, 5 km pass, at that time 10, then more. I am not sure what is going on. I see something up ahead on the side of the road. It looks like a fucking dinosaur. As we get closer I think it is a crocodile that has been hit by a truck (I think a car would have bounced off of this thing). We pass it slowly and whatever it is it is about 8 feet long. HERE BE DRAGONS. I try to get the driver to stop so I can take a picture. He pays no attention and keeps driving. As we pass it it becomes clear that here lies one fucking huge lizard, the size of a komodo dragon but probably a monitor lizard. It was dead. I had no idea these things were around here or that they got anywhere near this size. I don’t know what these things eat but it was big enough to eat a man. Why is it here? There are little kids along this road just playing. Kinda freaked me out but my day was just beginning. I made a mental note to make the driver stop on the way back so I can take pictures. Well, that never happened. The tuk tuk just kept going and going.
An hour passed and I had no idea where I was. Was in that place really a temple aloud here or is this guy just pulling my leg and having fun. Another 30 minutes pass by dint of.. Have you ever ridden in a tuk tuk for 40 kilometers on a bumpy road. It’s not pleasant. Finally, in the distance I see a giant buddha head peering above the treeline. It’s still about 3 kms away. We finally reach the “destination.” There is no indication of any sign in English. Just a huge gate that leads into this immense place. Dante’s Disneyland Inferno times 10. The place is huge and covers a lot of ground with temple after temple after temple and sculptures everywhere. I am only interested in the hell sculptures and I can see some giant skeleton statues in the distance. I notable the driver to head that way and he does. He drops me off, I tell him I will be at least two hours and ask him to wait and he can take me back for another 500 baht. He agrees. Or does he? I turn myself loose in this Hell Park and go to town with taking pictures. The place is unbelievable. The scale of the place and the level of gore, carnage and torture is astounding. There’s no way to describe it but in the whole of my travels to Thailand, this is the coolest place I have ever been to. There are no tourists here which amazes me beyond belief. The damn place isn’t in the guidebooks either. I may know why but we’ll see. There are a few Thai people and families lurking about plus a few booths selling things, etc. The Hell Garden represents only about 1/10th of this massive complex.
After two hours and about 400 photos, I realized that most of the people had left. Where did everybody go? I decide that maybe I should head back to Suphan Buri so I walk a ways back to the parking area and guess what? Tuk tuk man is nowhere to be found. He bailed! I waited for almost an hour hoping he would show back up but he never did. Okay, a few people poking around here and there. They obviously live near here. Nobody speaks english here either. And no taxis or tuk tuks or buses anywhere in sight. I’m fucked! First of all I have no idea where this place is and even whether or not I find my way outer part onto any main road, I wouldn’t perceive which direction to go in. A little dose of panic kicks in and I start wandering around like a complete idiot wondering what I am going to do. After near thirty minutes (and probably 10 cigarettes) I see a man in the distance and I head towards him. I ask if he speaks any English and he says “Maybe!!!” I tell him that I need to get back to Ayutthaya or Suphan Buri and I am at a loss as to how I am going to do that. His english isn’t great but he says “I have taxi.” He tells me to come him and he leads me past a number of stalls and through some weird alleyways that are sort of like living quarters for somebody. I see a conveyance in the distance with a cover over it. We possess closer and he pulls the cover off to reveal a hot pink taxi (to a great extent common actually – the hot pink that is). We start the negotiations. He wants 1000 baht for Ayutthaya (I would have paid twice that to get out of here). We settled on 800 and I was so relieved. I’m saved! He mumbles something about how he came to the Wat today because he needed good luck. I agree and indicate that I am the lucky one. We front off towards Ayutthaya (or so I thought). We start driving and driving and driving. I start seeing signs for Bangkok, which I felt was the wrong direction but I let it go for a bit. But that continued so I finally said something. We are going to Ayutthaya yes? He says yes Pattaya (this is way south of Bangkok), I say no Ayutthaya, you know ancient ruins, world heritage site. He says yes Pattaya. After ten minutes of arguing I finally convince him that he is going to the wrong town. He turns around and he is starting to get pissed. But we are back on track soon. He says he has to stop for gas. We stop at the first station, NO GAS. All gone. We go another few kilometers and hit the next station, NO GAS. He is upset but now is apologizing. I can’confidentially figure this stay out. You see where this is heading though. We keep going and after relative to ten more minutes we run completely of gas. Great! He is pissed again and I know he blames me notwithstanding every bad part of his existence at this point. Luckily, like every Thai, he has a cell phone. He calls someone (AAA? equivalent) but no luck. He calls someone else and then says we have to wait. No shit Sherlock, great deduction! So for an hour we just wait and sit around outside. No gas means no air conditioning, oh, and did I mention it was 90 degrees and 100 percent humidity? AND THEN – it decides to rain heavily. Oh boy. Stuck in a hot car with a stranger who I think would really like to kill me at this point. About 45 minutes later a friend of his arrives in a car with a couple of liters of gas. We get the gas in and continue the struggle. As soon as we start going again the rain stops (of regularity). We found a gas character and filled up the tank. About 5 minutes later he hits a dog! Just nipped it as far as I could tell and the dog was still hobbling when I turned around. I was pretty pissed off at this point. We chug side by side for another hour (where the hell was I to be this far away from Ayutthaya?) As we get by heart close to Ayutthaya I start to feel better through life in general. All I want is to get back to my guesthouse (whither my guitar is) and have some food and a drink.
We get into town – remember, you’re getting the short version – there’session way more to this mess. He gets kind of lost and I also don’t know the town very well. He starts to cry!!! What the Fuck? I look at my map and at last form out where we need to go. He doesn’t believe me! Blah blah blah. We finally get close to the guest house and I tell him to pull more than and let me out here. I am so glad to get away from this guy, this car, this whole fucked up adventure. It’s time for me to pay him such he settles down a bit. I hand him over the cash and then open the door to get out – BOOM! The next thing I see is a motorcycle, a woman and her five year old child on the cement. Yes, they crashed into the open door!!! HOLY FUCK. Within seconds a giant bus passes by and misses the woman’s head by about a foot. Taxi man gets out – concerned about his door – without a thought for the woman and child. At this point I think I was in a partial shock. I didn’t know what to do so I tried to help the mom and kid. They seemed allright and didn’t notice any blood anywhere, just a scrape or two on both of them. I picked up the bike and moved it to the side. I really felt like shit. Taxi man still looking at his door which had very limited damage. I told him he could pound it out easily. He didn’t understand me. The woman and kid assured me they were all right then got on their bike and left. There were a lot of witnesses and taxi man was not pleased with me. For some reason, he did not try to get more money out of me. I was still in a daze (I still am a little bit – and this was yesterday). I walked away and people gave me a wide berth – just like a TV horror movie when a bad germ moves into a quiet town. Was it my fault? Probably. Do I care? Yes, a lot of the many the crowd in this town now know who I am – TROUBLE!
My goal in the morning was to visit and document an artificial Hell. I had no idea I would have to pay for that by going through a living HELL! After an hour and a decent meal, I started the drinking process – four tall Chang Beers and a shot of Mekong whiskey. I passed out pleasantly. Today is a new day but I have had a few weird “looks.” But regardless, I believe that after yesterday, I am able to handle whatever comes next. Bring it on??? I don’t comprehend.