Wat Dharmikarama (The Bat Temple)

Wat Dharmikarama, on the west bank of the Bang Kham River in Ban Mi district, Lop Buri province, is locally nicknamed “the Bat Temple” — but the bats that gave it the name are gone. Older residents recall large flying-fox colonies roosting in riverside trees here decades ago; Thai-language sources on the temple’s history describe the population as no longer present. The name has stuck regardless, which means visitors arriving expecting a dusk bat exodus will be disappointed — there isn’t one to see.

What the temple does hold is its ordination hall (ubosot), painted floor-to-ceiling on all four interior walls with Buddhist narrative murals in a style showing Western artistic influence, dated to the Rama IV period of the Rattanakosin era. It’s a modest, working monastery rather than a major tourist stop — quiet grounds, a handful of stupas, and monks going about ordinary temple life. If active wildlife is what you’re after, Wat Khao Wongkot, elsewhere in Lop Buri province, has a genuinely active bat cave on the hillside above its own ordination hall and is reported to hold one of the province’s largest bat colonies.

Watch out: Don’t plan a trip here around seeing bats — that premise is outdated. Come for the murals and the quiet riverside setting instead, or head to Wat Khao Wongkot if bats are the point of the visit.

Entry is free, as with any working temple. It’s reachable by tuk-tuk or taxi from central Lop Buri town. Pair it with Wat Lai, another Ban Mi-district temple, or head into town for San Phra Kan and the province’s better-known monkey-and-ruins circuit.