The Un-flooded Temple

This is the unusual Wat Nong Bua Yai Buddhist Temple in Lopburi province. It had been submerged in a lake for 20 years due to the construction of the Pa Sak Cholasit Dam, but It's remains have returned to the surface due to central Thailand's intense, decade-long drought. I'd read about this location in Reuters earlier in the week, so my wife & I made a 3 hour drive to Lopburi Province to have a look. The temple has gained a lot of local attention & was packed with visitors, though I was the only foreigner we saw, which is always nice. Thai people know that the ongoing drought is serious & it's affecting the livelihoods of many across the country. The news has reported that the lake is down to 4% of it's normal water levels since the dam was built 20 years ago...still, the risen temple is seen as a place of good fortune, lottery tickets are sold at the entrance, fish/birds can be purchased for merit-release, and entrepreneurs have opened shops to sell the usual snacks & drinks (with no rubbish bins, so there is plastic strewn everywhere, no surprise). The irony isn't lost on everyone, especially local fishermen & farmers who have watched their means of earning a living recede with the water. Climate change is real, it's undeniable, and its horrific effects can be seen everywhere.

Drone footage: https://youtu.be/CbB61FIJIrA

According to Reuters, this area 'normally irrigates more than 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares)of farmland in four provinces, but drought has cut that to just 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in the single province of Lopburi.' In other words, it is as dry as a bone