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  1. #1
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    Mendip's Avatar
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    Petrified Wood Museum, Korat

    They say that there are only three things to do in Korat, but that's bollocks.

    Once you've been married for a few years there are only two things to do... visit Korat Zoo or go to the Petrified Wood Museum.

    Today we went to the Petrified Wood Museum, which also has an extensive section devoted to the evolution of elephants and a large section about dinosaurs. I have a personal interest in this as I started my working life as a geologist in tunneling before going offshore. I was a proper geologist back then, actually looking at and touching rocks, but the problem with working in tunneling is that you have to move with projects and never settle anywhere. The great thing about working offshore is that you can live just about anywhere - yet I still ended up living in Korat...

    We've been several times before and it appears that my young daughter has inherited my interest in geology as she requested another trip today.

    The Petrified Wood Museum is around 30 to 40 minutes drive south of Korat, close to the zoo (so you could theoretically do just about all that Korat has to offer in one day and save yourself the bother of living here). Maybe I'm being unfair, I don't know. Anyway, if you don't know the area, enter in 'Petrified Wood Museum, Korat' and Google will get you there, no problem.

    This is what you are looking for.



    A bit confusingly you have to buy tickets from a kiosk quite some distance from the actual museum. It cost us 110 Baht to enter, 10 Baht for my daughter and 100 Baht for me. That's life I guess, but I didn't really mind as the cashier was cute. And yes, I really am that shallow.



    After the ticket kiosk a short walk gets you to the museum, and during that walk you can see a couple of Tyrannosaurus rex's having a scrap on an island in the middle of a pond. 10 Baht gets the one on the right to start roaring and snapping his lower jaw. I've made extensive use of my daughter as a scale for the museum exhibits. She's nearly 9 foot tall so gives an idea of the impressive size of these dinosaurs.



    There are two main areas to the museum; the Petrified Wood building...



    And the Elephant Evolution/Dinosaur building....


  2. #2
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    Mendip's Avatar
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    We started at the Petrified Wood building.

    The Korat plateau is a mecca for petrified (fossilised) wood and is world renowned. This museum does the area full justice and is full of superb exhibits mostly with pretty good translations.

    Where's Wally?



    Despite the interesting (for me) exhibits a slide still wins over for kids...



    We arrived at the museum fairly early (around 10am) and this is a good idea on week days as a lot of school parties come to visit. When we left there were around 7 or 8 school coaches in the car park. It was pretty well deserted when we arrived and there were several girls dressed in university costumes to personally show us around. There are three areas for film shows (with a choice of English or Thai language) and the girls sat us down and set the first movie rolling. We had the cinema to ourselves. The first movie was about the bi bang theory - the creation of the solar system, earth, the origins of life through to present day.

    Previously when we've watched this movie, when the big bang happened the ground started shaking and vibrating, but that seemed to have stopped working now. They seemed to have run out of the 3D specs as well. But it was still a great movie and very much catered towards kids.



    As said, the museum is full of great exhibits and inside and outside there are a multitude of fossilised trees and tree trunks to look at. The majority are probably around 800,000 years old, although many are a lot older. A few examples of the petrified wood exhibits. World class in my opinion.



    I wouldn't mind a few of these in my collection...





  3. #3
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    Mendip's Avatar
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    On to the elephant section with a range of exhibits showing the full evolution of elephants. NE Thailand is also a mecca for palaeontology and a lot of the fossils were locally sourced and the models based on local finds.

    A variety of pre-elephant molars.



    The modern elephant.


    The full range of evolutionary stages of the elephant with representative fossilised teeth.


    I don't know how the sister-in-law sneaked in...


    Fossilised elephant tusks...


    A cast made from an actual ancient elephant fossilised skeleton.


    And of course, the largest and most well-known ancient elephant, the mammoth.
    Last edited by Mendip; 05-07-2019 at 03:10 PM.

  4. #4
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    At the start of the dinosaur section there's a surprise waiting, but I won't spoil it... My daughter was 'petrified' before entering... boom boom!



    Lots of great exhibits; models, recreations of fossilised finds and actual fossils...





    And last but not least, the Apatosaurus. This guy is generally known as the Brontosaurus but apparently that was due to a mix-up in classification and he is now referred to as the Apatosaurus.

    Bit of a shame they keep a cheap vending machine and post box right next to this exhibit, but impressive nonetheless...



    And that's just about it.



    I would highly recommend a visit to this place if you're in the area. I have an interest anyway, hence so many pics, but you don't have to be a geologist to enjoy a visit. It's geared towards kids and adults alike. I think the standard of the exhibits, and translations, is generally superb. A great way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy morning.

  5. #5
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    BoganInParasite's Avatar
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    Enjoyed that.

  6. #6
    . Neverna's Avatar
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    I've been there. It's definitely worth a visit if you live nearby.

  7. #7
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Nice work, Mendip


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