Beyond the petrified wood, dinosaurs and ancient elephants also await you inside.
Also called the Korat Fossil Museum in a couple of places, this place ended up being a bit more confusing than expected. Get your tickets at a desk near the parking lot, and be ready to pay three times the Thai price if you’re a tourist. The first room is a video with English subtitles — one we quickly skipped out on after deciding we wanted to see the museum and not simply hear about it.
Although it took a long time to get formed, petrified wood first became known in Thailand in 1921, when King Rama VI was presented with a piece of it that was found at the bottom of the Mun river. The king suggested it be conserved, and a lot more was discovered from 1956 to 1958. The master plan for the museum was proposed in 1995, though it took over 10 years for the museum to open. It officially opened to the public on 29 October 2008. According to one estimate, some 95 million baht went into this building and the exhibits, so expectations are pretty high.
Some of the ‘gem-quality petrified wood’ that’s at least 800,000 years old. We passed on the second video as well, which looked to be pretty long (a field trip managed to quiet down long enough for us to get a head start on them!)
Some elephant chompers, anyone? A couple dozen sets of them are on display.
Plenty of dinos are around as well — take in some of the fun scenes. Not pictured is the three-meter-tall statue of the elephas maximus. Also around is a small room of petrified tusks.
Sometimes the lights cooperate, sometimes they don’t. Presenting a juvenile allosaurus from North America silhouette-style.
Near the very end of the museum is a photo op for both adults and kids — go on, compare your height to the dinosaur leg bone. Take in the souvenir shop or move on to take in the outside areas:
Plenty more photo ops, although I didn’t see much identifying the dinosaurs on the outside.
A petrified wood garden, laid out in an oval with wood from several districts around Isaan. It’s not the biggest area, but there are some wonderful variations here.
There’s also a Panda Exhibition, though the only pandas we saw were a couple of concrete examples. Not sure what happened to the real-life pandas, but it’s a separate building set off by itself. You’d probably miss it and the unremarkable rock garden if you weren’t looking for them. In short, don’t miss it if you like the dinos, the elephants, and of course the petrified wood.
Name: Nakhon Ratchasima Petrified Wood Museum, also called the Korat Fossil Museum and the Northeastern Museum of Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources (พิพิธภัณฑ์ไม้กลายเป็นหิน)
Address: 184 Moo 7, Suranaree Subdistrict, Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province (GPS: 14.858354, 102.027140)
Directions: From Nakhon Ratchasima (the city), take route 304 heading south out of town. From the intersection with route 2 it’s about 12 kilometers worth of driving. Turn right onto the road — you may see signs leading you towards the Suranaree Institute of Technology. Go 2 kilometers, then bear left at the fork. Go another 2.5 kilometers and look for the museum on your right.
Hours: 9am-4pm Tuesday — Sunday (Closed Mondays)
Admission: 100 baht for foreigners, 30 baht for locals or if you can produce a work permit and Thai driver’s license)
Phone: 044–370–739
Website: khoratfossil.org
