Wat Huay Mongkol

Wat Huay Mongkol is one of the tourist attractions in the vicinity of Hua Hin. It is a rather large temple complex built along the banks of a river and features a large statue of Luang Phor Thuad who is a very famous monk in Thailand.
I approached and parked with rain threatening to fall. I began a walk around the temple complex.
There are a number of temples and pavilions and it had a very quiet atmosphere, at least on the day that I visited.
As I write this large parts of Thailand are under water and flooded. The river next to the Temple was in flood and obviously well above its normal height. Some areas were under water and what I assume were flow control barriers or mini dams were all totally inundated and overflowing.

Flooded Pavillion

Overflowing dam

At one stage I walked across a floating bridge and had to leap across a gap at the far end to make it to the temple at the end.

Floating bridge

The prayer area once safely across

This was a nice quiet spot and I spent some time there sheltering from the rain. While there I was attended to by a friendly dog who seemed to like licking the salty sweat from my arms and legs. Did I mention it was a hot humid day?
After the rain eased I made my way via a pathway back to the main temple complex and so to the Statue itself.

Luang Phor Thuad - statue

I am suffering from "yet another Wat" complex, but I have to admit that this statue was pretty awesome. The large carved Elephants at the bottom were hollow and you could poke your head inside the belly, carefully avoiding its anatomically correct carved "woody", and leave a small donation. Trojan Elephants maybe?

Taksin at the charge

I then wandered around the remaining area, checked out another temple, saw the statue of King Taksin the Great on horseback and basically called it a day.

Guardhouse

The Bludger was hot sweaty and has pretty much had enough of Temples.