People do go temple hopping in Phattalung, I read; and that's not surprising for there are a number of temples there; Wat Wang, Wat Tham Malai, Wat Ok Thalu; to name a few. To the uninitiated, that would be interesting for Siamese temples or wat, as they are called; are work of art; exquisite and beautiful to look at as well as unique to this part of the world. My friends and I however, merely visited the temple in town, Wat Khuha Sawan. Our van driver had trouble locating the temple initially and after making some enquiries, took us to the heart of the quaint town. Then, they made a turn or two through narrow roads and we came to a little granite hill on which grew a big banyan tree. The place we stopped didn't look very impressive, unkempt even. In the hot afternoon sun, we explored the temple ground. There was no one in sight; not even a monk. The main temple wasn't very big; beautiful, yes; and looked new too. That, I was sure was the new temple but I read there was an ancient one from the Ayutthaya period; Buddha statues in a cave; things like that. I couldn't see any caves and some friends having enough of exploring, suggested we leave. We went back to where our van was waiting. At an old banyan tree I saw little broken Buddha statues and an old Buddha bust which I was sure had seen better times. Now, I wonder about the reason Buddha statues are discarded thus. Is it a case of disrespect or is it just that Buddha statues are just statues, nothing more?
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